And guess what? This family-friendly crispy beef is also freezer-friendly!
While researching for Starters & Sides Made Easy, we asked lots of people what types of appetizers they love. We had lots of requests for crispy beef, which is thin strips of beef tossed with a sauce and is popular in American Chinese restaurants. Letting the beef sit in a cornstarch mixture is part of the “velveting” process that Chinese restaurants use to tenderize meat.
We tested and tweaked, and with some tips from a Chinese takeout owner, here it is. And though it’s an “appetizer” in our cookbook, it’s a great main dish too!
Crispy Beef
Ingredients
- 1¼ lbs shoulder steak, London broil, or skirt steak, cut into thin slices
- ¼ cup plus 1-2 tablespoons cornstarch, divided
- 1 tsp salt
- pinch coarse black pepper
- 2 onion, cut into thin strips
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- ½ red pepper, diced
Sauce:
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1½ tbsp honey
- 4 tbsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp chili powder (or up to 1 teaspoon if you like spicer)
- 1½ tsp cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup water
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine meat, ¼ cup cornstarch, salt, and pepper. Let sit 30 minutes.
- Heat oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Right before frying, toss meat with an additional 1-2 tablespoons cornstarch. Add meat and fry until cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Remove meat from pan and set aside.
- Prepare the sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, brown sugar, chili powder, and dissolved cornstarch. Set aside.
- Pour out most of the oil from the sauté pan, leaving only 1 tablespoon. Heat pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and red pepper to pan and sauté until onion is beginning to soften but still crunchy, about 5 minutes. Add in sauce and beef and cook an additional 2 minutes, until warmed through.
How to Make Ahead:
To make earlier in the day: If you fry the beef early in the day, toss and heat with the sauce when ready to serve.
To make really ahead: You can freeze this completely! Just double your sauce so there’s plenty of liquid to rewarm the entire dish in a covered baking pan. NOTE: The meat will be tender, not crispy.
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Started making it when it came in the cookbook. I can’t tell you what a hit it became. It’s being requested all the time!!!thanks for great recipes!
What do you serve on the side?
Made it but didnt come out so crispy any reason why?
Served it over a bed of rice twas scrumptious!!
Thank you
Can I use leftover London broil?
This recipe is amazing! I make it all the time for my very fussy family.
Sorry meant to hit 5 stars
This is amazing! Freezes so well!
First time making it, and it was superb!!!!
Really delicious.
I used shoulder London broil and it’s soft like anything. Delicious application
Is it easy to slice raw meat into thin slices? Any way I can purchase it already sliced?
You can slice raw meat easily when it is completely frozen
Can I use pepper steak for this?
I wouldn’t recommend it. Pepper steak is best with a slow braise, like in this recipe: https://betweencarpools.com/pepper-steak-like-the-caterer/
You can use any meat that is good when cooked quickly. There are lots of options listed above.
I actually just made it with pepper steak (chose a package with good marbling) and it is delicious!
This is delicious. I don’t like a strong vinegar flavor so I put in 1/2 the rice vinegar. It was excellent.
This is delicious. I don’t like a strong vinegar flavor so I put in 1/2 the rice vinegar. It was excellent.