Chinese Five Spice Powder

A good ground star anise substitute for such meat dishes with a gravy base is Chinese five spice powder. Chinese five spice powder is made by mixing five spices; and they are szechuan peppercorn powder cinnamon powder ground star anise ground cloves and ground fennel seeds in a definite proportion. As the Chinese five spice powder already contains ground star anise as one of its ingredients it makes a very good substitute for star anise.