Beef Stir Fry
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It’s easy to make THE BEST Beef Stir fry with just a few simple steps, including my secret technique for making incredibly tender beef every time! Combine a delicious 5-ingredient stir fry sauce, with the most tender beef, noodles and veggies for a flavorful meal, made in under an hour!
When it comes to dinner time around our house, stir fry is a regular occurrence during the week. We take whatever meat and veggies we have available in the fridge, toss them with my homemade stir fry sauce and noodles, then we’ve got dinner!
If Kurt had his way, this beef stir fry recipe would be on the menu every week! In 2019, I set out to make Chinese food at home even better than I could find at local restaurants. The key to this for me, was figuring out how they got their meat to be just so dang tender!
Luckily, I quickly figured out that all you needed to do was use a simple technique called velveting the meat. I first used this method to create THE BEST Kung Pao Beef! After that, I was hooked!
Velveting meat simply involves marinating strips of meat in a combination of cornstarch, baking soda, soy sauce and mirin for 30 minutes. After that, you can remove the beef from the marinade and add it straight to your stir-fry.
I promise, this will be the easiest game-changer ever when it comes to making Chinese food at home! Whether you use this technique for Beef Stir Fry, Kung Pao Beef, Mongolian Beef or Beef and Broccoli, Chinese food at home will never be the same!
Ditch the takeout menus for good and let’s make super tender beef at home, with a really delicious (and easy!) stir fry sauce!
Table of contents
What You’ll Need
- Mirin – this is a Japanese cooking rice wine and is found in the Asian section of most major grocery stores. It adds a slight sweetness, tang and umami flavor to the stir fry sauce and is used in the meat tenderizing marinade. If you can’t find mirin, rice vinegar, sake or white wine can be used in it’s place.
- Soy sauce – adds saltiness and flavor to both the stir fry sauce and the beef marinade.
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda
- Flank steak – this is my preferred cut of steak for this recipe, but skirt steak or top sirloin steak can also be used in its place.
- Hoisin sauce – is thick, sweet, salty and adds a ton of flavor to this stir fry sauce!
- Sesame oil – adds a wonderful depth of flavor to the sauce.
- Sriracha – this is the spice in the stir fry sauce. If you want a spicier stir fry, double the sriracha!
- Lo mein noodles – rice noodles can be used instead to make this recipe gluten free. If you can’t find lo mein noodles, spaghetti noodles can be used in their place.
- Canola oil – this is my preferred oil for stir-fry’s because it has a high smoke point, meaning you can heat it up using a high temperature, and it has a neutral flavor. You could also use peanut oil or vegetable oil, both also have high smoke points and are commonly used in Chinese cooking.
- Veggies – for this stir fry, I combined onions, red bell peppers and asparagus. In the end, you want about 4 cups of veggies, so feel free to sub in any of these that you like!
- Sugar snap peas or snow peas
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Carrots
- Mushrooms
- Japanese eggplant
- Zucchini
- Garlic cloves
- Sesame seeds
- Green onions
Step by step instructions
- Marinate the beef. Now you could skip this step, but I would highly recommend not doing that! This is what makes the beef so deliciously tender. Even if you only have 15 minutes to marinate, it’s definitely better than not marinating at all!
- Add baking soda, cornstarch, soy sauce and mirin to a large zipper bag.
- Add strips of flank steak to the bag and toss until the beef is coated in the marinade.
- Place in the refrigerator and marinade for 30-60 minutes.
- Prepare the stir fry sauce. I always make a double batch of the sauce and put half of it in the refrigerator, so it’s ready for my next stir fry. This sauce is so versatile, it will go with any stir fry, chicken, shrimp, beef or veggie!
- In a small bowl, whisk hoisin sauce, soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil and sriracha together. Set aside.
- Boil the noodles.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove.
- Add the lo mein noodles and cook for 4 minutes.
- Drain, then set aside.
- Prepare the stir fry.
- While the noodles are cooking, add canola oil to a large skillet or wok on the stove over high heat.
- Remove the steak from the marinade.
- Note: You’ll want to shake off any excess marinade, but you do not want to rinse the marinade off the steak.
- Add the steak to the hot oil in the skillet and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the steak from the skillet and set aside.
- Add the veggies to the hot skillet and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the beef back to the skillet, along with the cooked lo mein noodles and the prepared stir fry sauce.
- Toss to combine everything, then remove the pan from the heat and top the stir fry with sesame seeds and diced green onions.
Whit’s tips and tricks
- Double (or triple!) the stir fry sauce. It’s easy to make a double batch of the stir fry sauce and keep it in the refrigerator. That way, it’s ready for your next stir fry! The sauce will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks.
- Don’t skip the marinade! I know I’ve mentioned that three times already, but really it’s the wonderful, glorious secret behind creating the best beef stir fry, so pretty pretty please, don’t skip this simple step!
- Always slice the steak against the grain. This is the other key to perfectly tender beef! Look at the piece of steak to see which way the grains (white lines in the meat) run, then slice the beef in the opposite direction. I recommend approximately 1/4 inch thin slices of beef for the ultimate in tender meat!
- You can serve the stir fry with rice instead of noodles. Prepare the vegetables, beef and stir fry sauce as instructed. Instead of adding noodles to the stir fry, prepare white rice or brown rice ahead of time and serve the stir fry over the rice in a bowl, or on a plate. For a low carb option, serve the stir fry with cauliflower rice.
More Chinese recipes to try
Try all of my Chinese restaurant copycat recipes at home! This easy beef stir fry isn’t the only Chinese recipe I’ve perfected at home! Check out these other recipes that are getting rave reviews on Pinterest!
- Gluten Free General Tso’s Chicken – one of the most popular recipes on the blog!
- Dan Dan Noodles – you’re going to LOVE this easy vegetarian dish!
- Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry – with my chicken tenderizing technique!
- Gluten Free Orange Chicken – with THE BEST orange sauce!
- Black Pepper Beef & Broccoli – one of my favorite easy slow cooker recipes!
- Chicken Potsticker Stir Fry – such a fun way to turn a popular appetizer into a meal!
Beef Stir Fry
Ingredients
Beef Tenderizer Marinade
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pound flank steak, sliced against the grain into 1 inch strips
Stir Fry Sauce
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sriracha
Stir Fry
- 10 ounces lo mein noodles
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 cup onion, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- 1 pound asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons green onions, diced
Instructions
Beef Tenderizer Marinade
- Add baking soda, cornstarch, soy sauce and mirin to a large ziplock bag.
- Add strips of flank steak to the bag.
- Toss well to coat the beef, then place in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
Stir Fry Sauce
- Prepare the sauce by whisking all of the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Stir Fry
- Once the steak has tenderized for 30-60 minutes in the refrigerator, remove it from the fridge.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove.
- Add the lo mein noodles to the boiling water and cook for 4 minutes.
- Drain and set aside.
- While the noodles are cooking, add the canola oil to a large skillet or wok on the stove over high heat.
- Remove the steak from the marinade, shake off any additional marinade, then add the steak to the skillet.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the steak from the skillet and set aside.
- Add the onion, bell pepper, asparagus and garlic, stir fry for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the beef back to the skillet, along with the cooked lo mein noodles and sauce.
- Toss to combine everything, remove from the heat and top with the sesame seeds and diced green onions.
Notes
- Gluten Free Option: Use gluten free soy sauce and gluten free hoisin sauce in the marinade and stir fry sauce. Substitute the lo mein noodles with rice noodles or gluten free spaghetti noodles.
- Slicing The Steak: slice the steak against the grain, meaning, in the opposite direction of the white lines running through the steak. Slice into 1/4 inch thick slices.
Nutrition Facts
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3 Comments on “Beef Stir Fry”
That looks awesome 🙂
Thanks Sean 🙂