To promote the development, automation, and standardization of Chinese cuisine, it is necessary to carry out a systematic and in-depth study so as to obtain the inherent principles of heat transfer and the corresponding quality changes during the cooking process. Chinese stir-frying is one of the most distinctive and widely used cooking method, and numerical simulation is the only way to study the heat transfer process of food particles during the Chinese stir-frying. In order to study the mechanism of heat and mass transfer and the changes of maturity and quality of food particles during the Chinese cuisine process, a heat and mass transfer model including multiphase coupling phase transition and shrinkage was developed to simulate the Chinese stir-frying process of food hygroscopic porous medium based on the porous media theory, Fourier's law, Newton's cooling law, and Darcy's law. The non-equilibrium evaporation formulation, shrinkage formulation, energy, momentum and mass conservations of water, and gas governing equations were considered in this model and it was finally solved using finite element method. The temperature history, moisture content, and volumetric shrinkage rate of the Chinese stir-fried pork loin were used as comparations to validate the model accuracy. The results indicated that the accuracy and robust properties of this model was greatly increased after considering the shrinking process. To reveal the mechanisms of heat and mass transfer inside food particle, water evaporation rate of particle surface, volumetric shrinkage rate, pressure variations, moisture content and temperature distributions were all simulated for Chinese stir-frying process. The simulation results showed that the water loss, which was induced by strong convection heat transfer, was the main reason for shrinkage. The moisture loss rate and volumetric shrinkage rate were increased by the surface evaporation rate, and the particle internal pressure was affected by volumetric shrinkage.Since the volumetric shrinkage rate was similar to water loss rate, the moisture content and shrinkage were associated as an important indicator for evaluating cooking quality of food particles. Additionally, the heat transfer efficiency of particles was greatly enhanced by shrinkage because of the increasing surface area to volume ratio. The shrinkage could be used to improve the overall moisture content of food particles if evaluated from the perspective of cooking quality optimization. Combined with the maturity value theory, the effect of controlling methods of “Huohou” on the maturity and quality of food particle were further explored in this study. The simulation results indicated that the increase of the efficiency of heat and mass transfer and internal heating rate, and the decrease of average moisture content were mainly affected by the finer cutting technique of food particles, the higher preheat oil temperature, and the more vigorous stirring operations. The food particles could reach its maturity values before the average moisture content rapidly decreased under the appropriate “Huohou” controlling. Thus, the average time of food particles reaching cooking maturity termination was significantly decreased. “Huohou” controlling exhibited a significant (P <0.01） effect on the cooking quality and could bring significant advantages for obtaining food particles with better cooking quality.