As far as history goes, Crispy Beijing Beef seems to be pioneered by Panda Express. Although I’ve had it at multiple Chinese/Asian restaurants so far, the dish itself seems to originate from Panda express. It involves cornstarch coated beef, fried until crispy, mixed with bell peppers, and coated in a sauce to serve. It has a pre-dominantly garlicky, spicy sourish taste. Like other classic Chinese dishes on the blog, namely, the dragon chicken, chicken chow mein or Asian meatballs, this is also a crowd pleaser and if you are planning an Asian Menu for your next party, Crispy Beef should definitely be on your list!
Lets dig right into the basic steps of the recipe.
STEP 1 – PREPPING THE BEEF STRIPS
The first step is going to be to cut the beef steak into thin strips and marinate it into a mixture of salt, pepper, lemon juice, cornflour, all purpose flour and ice cold water. Ideally, any stir fried beef recipe calls for beef flank steak cuts which are either used for steaks or are also known as undercut beef cut.
Keep the marinated beef for half an hour or so and fry at high flame until they turn golden brown. Remove the beef from the oil and set aside.
STEP 2 – STIR FRYING BELL PEPPERS
Next up are the bell peppers. Some versions of this recipe also add sliced onions in their recipe, but I prefer just the colorful bell-peppers for my version. Simply stir fry the bell peppers at high flame in a little oil. I love using assorted colorful bell peppers, but by all means, use whichever ones you have at hand. Set the veggies aside with the beef and proceed with the last step.
STEP 3 – PREPARING THE SAUCE AND ASSEMBLING
In a cup or a bowl, add all the sauces (listed in the recipe card below) and mix them well so that they form a nice homogeneous mixture. Set this sauce aside and get back to the wok.
Add a little oil in the wok (I am not using a cast iron pan). I personally like using Chili Oil for this step and for stir frying bell peppers as well. Alternatively, you can use regular oil too, if you don’t have any chili oil at hand.
The garlic needs to be sauteed and turned golden brown. Once the garlic turns golden brown, add the sauce mixture and let it cook for a good 4 to 5 minutes. This is a good time to taste the sauce and check if you want to adjust the salt levels.
The beef needs to stay a little crispy so make sure your wok and sauce are bubbling hot when you add the veggies and beef in it. Once you add the beef, don’t cook for a longer duration. Just give it a good saute for 2 to 3 minutes and dish it out.
RECIPE ALTERATIONS AND SUBSTITUTIONS
If you don’t have beef steak in the house, we can also tweak the recipe to use any boneless beef you have at hand. Remove the bone from the beef, cut the beef into strips. And boil the beef strips in water for 30 to 40 minutes along with a little bit of salt, pepper and garlic ginger paste. Proceed with the all the steps as listed above in the same way.
Crispy Beijing Beef Recipe
Ingredients
BEEF MARINADE
- 1/2 kg flank beef steak or skirt steak or undercut beef cut into thin strips
- 1 tbsp garlic ginger paste or powder
- 1 large egg
- 3 tbsp cornflour
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp lemon juice or juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup ice cold water
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 tsp black pepper
SAUCE & VEGGIE
- 4 tbsp oil
- 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp Hot sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp Vinegar
- 4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tsp cornflour
Other ingredients
- Oil for frying
- 2 cup sliced bell peppers assorted
- handful of chopped green onions
Instructions
MARINADE AND FRYING
- Mix all the ingredients for the beef marinade and add the beef strips to it. Marinate the beef for about half an hour in the fridge.
- In a wok or frying pan, deep fry the beef strips at high flame until they turn golden brown. Set the fried beef aside
- In a wok or frying pan, add 2 tbsp of oil and stir fry all the sliced bell peppers at high flame for 2 to 3 mins.
- Remove the bell pepper from wok and set aside.
SAUCE AND ASSEMBLY
- In a bowl, add all the ingredients for the sauce (except oil and garlic) and form a homogeneous mixture
- Add another 2 tbsp of oil in the wok and saute chopped garlic at medium flame until they turn golden brown.
- Add the sauce mixture in the wok and cook for 4 to 5 minutes at medium to high flame.
- Add the fried beef and bell peppers in the sauce and saute for another minute or 2.
- Serve the dish hot, garnished with chopped green onions.
- Eaten best with noodles or rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Heidi says
Hi I want to try this recipe, but can’t find garlic ginger paste? What kind do you buy? Also what type of hot sauce?
Wajiha says
Hi Heidi, so i usually make my own garlic ginger paste. You can make 1 at home too. Just put 1 whole garlic, peeled and cleaned along with a 1 inch cube of ginger in a food processor with a little water. It should give you roughly about 1/3 cup of paste. You can use it in all kinds of cooking where gravy is made, or something needs to be marinated. If you don’t want to make your own, use shredded garlic and ginger instead, that should work just fine too!
The hot sauce the I personally really like to use is called REd hot by Franks. But Tabasco hot sauce is also pretty amazing! Let me know if you need anything else. Im right here!
Elisha Walker says
Yes
Elisha Walker says
That’s exactly what happened.
Wajiha says
ok so basically these dishes from Asia are supposed to be eaten pretty much as soon as they are prepared. Once you’ve fried your beef let it cool down in open air and keep it open until you are ready to serve. When you are serving, you want to make sure your sauce is on the stove and boiling hot. That’s when you add your beef and cook it for about 2 to 3 mins to just get the beef warmed up. It shouldn’t lose the coating that way. But if you are going to consume the left overs, lets say the next day, you might lose a little bit of coating, but again not that much. Let me know if you’ve done something similar or different so that I can help you out more. Hope this helps
ELISHA WALKER says
I tried this recipe and totally screwed up the marinade because it didn’t stick! So now iI is all this batter in my sauce 🙁 BUT my sauce is awesome!!
What did I do wrong?
Wajiha says
Hey Elisha. Hope you are well. I am not sure I follow. Are you saying that after you coat the fried beef with sauce, the coating of the beef comes off?