Mongolian Beef Stir Fry with Bell Peppers

Have you ever ordered takeout just to be disappointed? It happens to me all the time. It makes me want to eat out less, especially when you realize you can cook up this PF Chang copycat Mongolian beef in less than 20 minutes.

What is Mongolian Beef?

Mongolian beef, despite its name, is a Taiwanese/Chinese dish consisting of thinly sliced pieces of steak, stir fried in a garlicky, gingery, soy-sauce-based dark brown sauce. It is a popular Chinese restaurant dish that’s second to broccoli beef.

It’s typically not spicy, but you can add chili peppers to heat things up. The brown sauce caramelizes and reduces to a thick sauce that coats the beef. In its basic form, beef is stir fried with large wedges of yellow onions, garnished with green onions/scallions and served over steamed rice.

What You Will Need

• Steak — For stir fry dishes, the best type of steak cuts you can use are flank steak, skirt steak, New York strip steak, sirloin steak and even rump steak which is the cheapest cut. In this recipe I’m using top sirloin steak from Costco.
• Light soy sauce — This will be used in the brown sauce. It will also be used to marinate the beef briefly. FYI, if you have soy sauce that’s labeled all-purpose or isn’t labeled neither light nor dark, it’s light soy sauce that you have.
• Dark Soy Sauce — Mainly used for coloring the sauce dark brown.
• Oyster sauce — A salty umami flavor that will be also be be used in the sauce.
• Sugar — To balance out the saltiness of the two soy and oyster sauces.
• Vinegar — To balance out the sweetness of the sugar. You can use whatever you have on hand: white vinegar, rice vinegar or black vinegar.
• Baking soda and water — This is optional but highy recommended. These ingredients will be used in a restaurant method called velveting. Velveting meat makes it tender with a smooth and silky texture that we all come to love in Chinese cuisine. The science behind it involves the alkalinity of baking soda. This raises the pH of the meat, causing the meat proteins to move apart, making the meat tender.
• Beaten egg and corn starch — To provide a thin crispy crust on the beef when deep-fried.
• Neutral oil — For frying and sautéing. I’m using vegetable oil.
• Sesame oil — For that amazing nutty aroma.
• Yellow onion, ginger, garlic, green onions/scallions — These are your aromatics that will provide that lovely Asian perfume. The leafy green part of the green onions will be used as garnish.
• Vegetables (optional) — Pick your favorite vegetables. For this recipe, I’m making it more well rounded by adding bell peppers. It also adds a beautiful pop of color. My green color will be coming from green onions/scallions so I’m using bell peppers of other colors.

Szechuan Beef vs Mongolian Beef

If you are like me, you probably asked yourself what’s the difference between Szechuan Beef vs Mongolian Beef because these two dishes look very similar. The main difference is in flavor and the use of peppercorns.

Szechuan Beef has a sweet and spicy flavor with added chili peppers and Szechuan peppercorns. The Szechuan peppercorns has a distinctive tingly numbing sensation when eaten.

Mongolian beef has a mild and much simpler taste, making it a kids’ favorite, outside of broccoli beef.

Cooking Tips to Help you Succeed

• Make sure you cut the beef against the grain.
• Deep fry the beef first on high heat to create a crispy crust that will lock in the moisture.
• Don’t overcrowd the skillet. I’m using a large 12” skillet and I still have to cook the beef in two batches. Crowding the beef will lower the cooking temperature. The beef will stay in the oil longer than it needs to be. This overcooks and dries it out. Overcrowding will also steam the beef which will not result in a crispy crust.

Make it a Meal

Serve this amazingly delicious tender and crispy Mongolian beef with:

• Steamed rice
• Fried rice
• Chow mien

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