Beef Stir Fry Recipe

Beef Stir Fry is always a surefire success at the dining table. Simple but delicious, stir fry’s combination of soy sauce and oyster sauce is fragrant and can easily make your mouth water. Stir fry is the perfect go to dish for those who don’t have a lot of time to spare in the kitchen. In record time, you can still prepare yourself a dish that feels like home.

Stir frying refers to a Chinese method of cooking that involves cooking several ingredients in a pan with high heat and little oil. Because of its popularity in China, the method of stir frying has spread to other cuisines around the world. With its versatility as a cooking method, there are several ingredients you can toss into a stir fry, all tasting equally delicious.

• You can use any meat of your choice in a stir fry. Take, for example, my recipe for 15 Minute Pork Stir Fry. This utilizes pork tenderloin loom instead of beef, but is also perfect for those who are after a quick but hearty meal.
• The vegetables in stir fry are adaptable, too. For this beef stir fry I’m only using bell peppers. But if you’re a fan of baby corn and snap peas, you can try my other recipe for Beef and Baby Corn Stir Fry. In that recipe I used a sirloin cut instead of tenderloin, but both are tender and would work once thinly sliced.
• Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry is another popular stir fry dish you can find in Chinese restaurants worldwide. The sweet, crunchy broccoli always goes well with the tender beef and the umami flavor of soy and oyster sauce. In my recipe I used the flank steak portion of the beef, and also included cooking wine to the initial marinade.
• And if you don’t want meat at all? My Chopsuey Stir Fry might be more to your liking. Delicious and nutritious, this dish is packed with vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower and carrots. This includes tiny pieces of shrimp, but you can also choose to use tofu.

You can enjoy stir fried meat and veggies with a steaming plate of rice or noodles. Either way, its complex flavor will make it a winner at any household. Follow this recipe to make it a winner at yours!

How to cook beef stir fry

Before we begin the cooking process, it’s important to assemble all your ingredients beforehand. Luckily, for beef stir fry, there aren’t many ingredients that require preparation. Cut your 1 lb. of beef tenderloin into thin slices. This recipe calls for two bell peppers –– one red and one green. These should be chopped too, but the slices can be much thicker.

Put your thinly sliced tenderloin into a bowl. For your marinade, add in 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, and ½ teaspoon of ground black pepper. Mix it well, then let it sit for 5 minutes. By then, the beef should be soaking up the delicious flavors of the sauce.

Once the five minutes are up, add 1 ½ tablespoons of cornstarch to the bowl, too. Continue mixing them together and distributing them well. Then, set it aside.

Heat ½ cup of cooking oil up in a pan –– when making beef stir fry, it’s important to keep the heat on high. Fry your thickly sliced bell peppers for 1 minute, and stir it every once in a while in the oil. Afterwards, remove your bell peppers from the pan and set them aside.

With the remaining oil in the pan, stir fry your marinated beef until it becomes a beautiful brownish color. Again, it’s important to keep your heat on high. Not only is beef stir fry meant to be cooked that way, but it also helps ensure that the meat soaks up all the juices. You might be wondering how the meat will manage to stay tender even under high heat. Several Asian cuisines have incorporated a process called “velveting.” This is when they toss the meat of stir fry (be it beef or chicken) in a combination of cornstarch, rice vinegar or soy sauce, and egg whites. It’s then cooked in oil or water while still maintaining its velvety taste.

Since there’s isn’t a lot of time to do the whole process of velveting, tossing  the beef in cornstarch should do the trick. This even helps thicken the sauce in your pan, and gives the outside a texture both velvety and crunchy! And by now, that beef stir fry smell is even harder to resist.

Add the fried bell peppers back in the pan and stir all the ingredients together. Keep tossing until they’ve all been distributed well. Once that’s done, your beef stir fry is ready to serve! Transfer your hot dish to a serving plate and straight to your dining table.

And there you have it –– a delightfully scrumptious beef stir fry to share with your loved ones! Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

Watch How to Cook Beef Stir Fry

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