Traditional dan dan noodles are a true classic of Chinese cuisine. The star of the dish is a spicy sauce served with the noodles. Made with chili oil, preserved vegetables, Sichuan peppercorn, and sometimes sesame or peanut paste, the sauce bursts with heat and complex flavors.

Twice cooked pork is a Sichuan specialty prepared by cooking fatty pork leg or belly (with the skin intact) in two different ways. Pork is first simmered in a pot and cooled in the refrigerator in order for the meat and fat to firm up. After that, the meat is sliced and stir-fried with vegetables such as cabbage, bell peppers, leeks, and mushrooms until it develops a brown color and the skin gets crispy on the edges.

Sichuan hotpot is a numbingly hot and spicy dish made by poaching raw ingredients in a pot of boiling broth. The ingredients might include sliced meat, offal, seafood, vegetables, noodles, and most importantly, Sichuan peppercorns. Consuming hotpot is a communal affair, so people usually gather around the pot while socializing and adding the ingredients into it.

Sichuan in origin, mapo doufu consists of tofu cubes settled in a spicy sauce containing minced meat, traditionally beef or pork, and fermented black beans known as douchi. The dish is said to have been invented in a small restaurant called Chen Xingsheng in Chengdu back in 1862, while the name of the dish comes from the lady cook who created it.

A staple of westernized Chinese cuisine and one of the favorite dishes of foreigners in China, kung pao chicken is a spicy stir-fry dish made with diced chicken, vegetables, peanuts, and Sichuan peppercorns. It was invented in the Sichuan province and has a unique, interesting origin story.

The unusually named Sichuan dish known as ants climbing a tree consists of glass noodles in a flavorful sauce with ground pork. The name is derived from the visual appearance of the dish, where the glass noodles represent tree branches, the chopped green onions represent leaves, and bits of ground pork represent the ants.

Originating from either Sichuan or Beijing in China, hot and sour soup is a classic meal that is suitable for every occasion and most weather conditions. It typically contains ingredients such as day lily buds, bamboo shots, tofu, wood ear fungus, and soy sauce-flavored broth.

Yacai bao is a type of steamed Chinese bun (baozi) which is traditionally associated with Sichuan. The buns are made with leavened dough, and the filling consists of yacai—preserved vegetables typical for the area. Optionally, the filling can include meat or other vegetables.

Sichuan pepper prawns is a traditional dish originating from Sichuan. The dish is usually made with a combination of prawns in their shells, Sichuan pepper, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, peanut oil, salt, and sugar. Sichuan pepper is toasted in a dry pan and ground into powder.