Mongolian Beef Recipe
Mongolian beef is another dish that can occasionally be found at the Chinese buffets. Despite its name, Mongolian beef doesn’t come from Mongolian cuisine at all but is rather another Chinese-American dish. Mongolian beef consists of sliced fried strips of steak coated with a sweet and spicy sauce. I actually deep fried the steak strips and then added them to the wok, but this recipe calls for frying the steak in a wok first. I found this dish to have very good flavor and just the right amount of sweetness and spice for my liking. Mongolian beef is one of the more popular Chinese-American beef dishes in the United States. Serve with white rice and broccoli florets. Enjoy.
Ingredients:
1 lb flank steak
¼ cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon ginger (minced)
1 tablespoon garlic (minced)
½ cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 green onions (sliced)
1 medium onion (sliced)
Oil (for frying)
Cooking Instructions:
Step 1: To make the sauce- in a sauce pan heat 2 teaspoons of oil. Add garlic and ginger, stir fry 10 seconds. Add soy sauce, wine and water. Add brown sugar and dissolve into the sauce. Add red pepper flakes. Bring the sauce to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.
Step 2: Slice the flank steak against the grain into ¼” thick slices. Tilt the knife blade at a 45 degree angle to the top of the steak to get wider cuts. Toss the steak slices with cornstarch and let the beef sit for 10 minutes (this is very important, do not skip).
Step 3: Heat up about a cup of oil in your wok to about medium heat. Add the beef slices to the wok and cook for 3 minutes (or use a deep fryer).
Step 4: Remove the meat from the wok with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Drain all of the oil from the wok expect about a tablespoon. Add onions to the wok and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the steak back to the wok and pour in the sauce. Cook while stirring until the sauce began to bubble.
(Makes 2 Servings)
I’m definetly trying this, my hunnby will love the spicy beef! Thanks!
Although I am not very fond of beef it does look delicious.
We like it. Like it a lot.
Yum! Another great looking beef dish for me to try for Grumpy!
This beef sounds tasty!
as usual, you make good food. that’s all i can say!!
I’ve made a couple of your Asian recipes, with great results. I try not to deep fry…but I’ve been wanting to learn how to make Mongolian beef.
I’ll have to do extra exercise, because I think I’ll try making this very soon.
Thanks for sharing!
PF Changs has an unusual twist to this its got a bit of a spicy flavor anyone know what to add to get it closer to the PF Changs version?
Flickr’d here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cutsie/3377965078/
simply delicious!
I just made this and it is utterly fantastic.
hey this looks soo good! i would like to try it but i dont eat beef so could i do this with chicken or lamb??
sahrish – it would be great with chicken.
I am a Mongolian Steak fanatic, this recipe along with the photograph convinces me to give it a go. Proof will be in the eating, will report back after the event. If it tastes as good as it looks my diets down the tube again.
I made this and the sweet and sour pork recipe last night. Freaking awesome! I had chinese/pizza party and everyone raved over this recipe. Better than any chinese restaurant where I live. Try it.
Word
I tried this recipe with some elk steaks I had and it turned out awsome.I think using venison would also be real tasty
OMFG this looks so fabulous i can not wait to sink my teath into this gorgeous dish grr. will check back
I made Mongolian beef tonight using your recipe but I did it in a different order, it came out exactly like the picture and tastes as good as it looks. I added a bit of corn starch/water to the sauce to get that restaurant finish.
I love Mongolian beef and I’m always trying to find the perfect recepie. This looks delicious. I’m going to the store now to get the ingrediants.
Thanks for sharing.
I AM TRYING THIS FOR SURE MY FRIEND JAMES AND HIS HUSBAND ANDREW WILL LOVE THIS.
Looks fantastic, I’m trying it for dinner tonight!
What can anyone suggest I use to replace ginger?
Sorry, I hate ginger (don’t gasp).
Anamaria – Just leave it out. You can try using more garlic instead.
It’s not bad. The more I ate, the better it got.
Bobby, I pretty much just say that everything you make is good within my comments. But, I’ll have to say on this recipe that I was surprised how good it was. I thought I’d like it, but it had a very different flavor, very easy to make too, I loved this. I used a bit more than 2 green onions, but thats just because I LOVE green onions.
Kent – I am glad you enjoyed this recipe so much. I want to make it again right now!!
I have been searching for YEARS for a good Mongolian beef recipe. We used to frequent a little place called The Mongolian Beef House in Uptown Chicago for about 20 years it was a holiday tradition or a treat. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT – I know most places that serve this – state it’s SPICY – the Mongolian Beef I’ve eaten since child hood was never spicy – just DELICIOUS!!! I am trying this recipe this afternoon and we’ll see how close it comes to my memories – I can’t wait!!!!!
The recipe was near perfect! I tweeked it a little – I didnt’ have rice wine (was actually wondering if that is suppose to be rice wine vinegar?) so I substituted Sherry – I didn’t have fresh ginger to mince so I ground up about 1-1/2 tspn ginger root
I doubled the sauce recipe to my 1 pound of meat because we like extra sauce for the rice.
It was delicious!!!! I need to find a way to cut down the salt from the soy sauce a bit more though and then it would be PERFECT!!!
Thank you for posting this recipe – it’s a HUGE hit in my household now!
I don’t eat meat, but I have made this with extra firm tofu (sliced per the recipe) and also with vegetarian “chicken” strips and both worked out great. I used much less oil for the meat stage and was happy with the results (I couldn’t say whether this would work with real meat). The sauce is really excellent. Thanks!
I tried this recipe last night and it was amazing!! Better than any i’ve had at restaurants. I loved the crispy beef and the flavor of the sauce was wonderful. I added some extra pepper flakes and some chili oil to give it more spice. I will definitely make this again. Thanks for the great recipe
!!
To those who want a PF type spice, try adding a teaspoon of chili paste/sauce(preferably Sriracha)
Little late to comment, but this was fracking wonderful. Thanks for all your great work
It turned out really good everyone loved it. I am going to make this often
OMG..I just made this and it was absolutely FANTASTIC! It tasted so much better than a restaurant or chinese take-away shop…I will definitely be making this recipe for a looooonnnnggggggg time to come! (Y)!
I made this about a week ago and it was the best mongolian beef i’ve had. Most places dont bother coating the beef and straight fry, this was great.
This is a very good recipe! I love it. I like to add just a bit of mongolian fire oil, and also someone else made it for me and it had these little crispy noodles in it. Maybe mung bean noodle?
My husband made this & it was awesome! Just like the real deal! =)
I will let you know if its realy good,this is my first time to try it.thanks for the website.
Just made this tonight per my boyfriends request… Tasty, but I will surely be deep frying the beef next time! Frying it in the wok was a mess, it left a crust on the bottom of the pan that I had to scrap off before I could do the onions.
I made this into more of a Beef and Broccoli clone and it still came out terrific! Thanks for the great recipe.
I made this last night – didn’t have ginger so used a lot of garlic. My hubby and I both loved it. We’re adding it to the favorites. I think broccoli in it would be great too. I didn’t have a mess in the pan after frying the meat. I let the meat sit with the corn starch on it for about 1/2 hour.
Made this tonight. Hubby and I LOVED it! This recipe is definitely a keeper
This recipe turned out amazing. I normally don’t leave reviews on most recipes that I try. I had to this time though. This recipe is very simple and the ingredients and direction are all in order which makes it easy to follow. The results are Fantasic. I’m adding this to my recipe file which I never do. Thanks for such a great recipe.
I made this for dinner last night with some rice and sauteed veggies. This beef was delicious! So saucy which I love! Instead of using Rice Wine since my local supermarket didn’t have it, I used balsamic vinegar. All in all very good recipe. Thank you!
This was a huge hit and the family wants me to make chicken and pork with the sauce! I added broccoli with the onions and even the picky eater loved it. Thanks for an easy, but fabulous, recipe!
Love this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing! have made it several times for very picky spouse, and even he likes it.
I like to marinate the beef in brown sugar, sherry, and soy sauce for about 1/2 an hour.
It was delicious
hi bobby- i need to bring a chicken dish to a potluck meal, but this looks so awesome- do you think it would still taste great with substituting bonesless chicken thighs?
andy- yes it would work fine. or if you want to give this recipe a try: http://blogchef.net/mongolian-chicken-recipe/
this is perfect..made it today
Delicious. My husband is a very tough critic; most good dinners make a 4/5 on his list, and only the most exceptional ones get a 5/5. Even he gave this dinner a 5/5! Thanks for the recipe!
This recipe is delicious! I’ve made it twice with beef. So, today I decided to use 3 chicken breast I had and it turned out great! I added two table spoons of hoisin sauce and it’s yummy!
I agree with this recipe. It seems to best match my understanding of what I get at Chinese places. Only comment would be that to be really authentic you need WHOLE hot chiles, right?
this was excellent, I tried it after xmas last week and we loved it, thank you for sharing!
This is the best recipe.I’ve been making this for the past 2 years and everybody loves it…Thanks for sharing this recipe…
I changed the recipe a bit but in the top five recipes I ever used. The family loved it, so no left overs for me. Must double next time. Thanks
I’ve had this with pork, too….yummy!
Could you use rice wine vinegar instead of rice wine? I have it on hand and I want to make this?
Sherayln- rice vinegar and rice wine are not really substitutes. Of course, you could but the dish would have a different flavor.
What can I substitue for rice wine?
Sasha- any white wine will work or if you don’t want to use alcohol, someone in the comments above made this using balsamic vinegar instead and had good results.
Made this yesterday night and my family LOVED. My mom & dad thought the sauce would be great for marinating steak an chicken also! Thank you so much for the recipe(:
I made this and it was awesome!!!!
We are trying this tomorrow! It looks scrumptious!!
This recipe is delicious! Making it again for the second time.
I have tried several Mongolian Beef recipes. None of them have been very good. This was my last attempt. It was AWESOME! Thanks for the great recipe!
This looks amazing it looks like REAL Mongolian Beef. I have only had it once at ONE restaurant in WA here in Hawaii its SOO hard to find REAL Chinese or any real food other then Hawaiian. I can’t wait to make this, this week! Thanks for sharing!
Tried this out for the first time the other day, and it was DELICIOUS!!! I’m a novice cook and your instructions were clear, concise, and easy to follow. The only thing I did differently was throw in more pepper flakes (I like spicy). I did however forget to let the beef sit for 10 minutes haha, despite that it still turned out well… Making it again tonight and I cannot wait! Thanks for the recipe!
I love mongolian beef so I was eager to try this out. I don’t normally use flank steak so I’m not sure what the consistency is supposed to be like, but mine was rather chewy and nasty. Maybe I just got a bad piece? Anyway, I ended up just eating the sauce over rice and it was fabulous! I like spicy so I added more red pepper flakes, chili oil, hot bean paste and sirachi (sp?). I didn’t have any ginger though and it was still delicious. Thank you for sharing. I found this recipe via Pinterest.
I made this for dinner it very good,the sauce could be used for all kinds of stir fry’s I will be making it again. YUMMY
I’m in the process of making right now. One of my favorite dishes to make! I love love loooove this recipe, it’s exactly what I was looking for! Much appreciated and I’m sure my boyfriend appreciates too (he keeps stealing meat)! Just a suggestion for the people who are having meat problems.. I use the flank steak with the flames on it, not the regular kind. I also cook the meat for longer to give it less of the chewy taste.
The restaraunt by my house that made the closest thing to mongolian beef closed and i was left with nasty imitation recipes. This recipe surprised me. It was excellent i definently recommened this recipe. thankyou
I am going to make this tomorrow evening, and I am getting hungry now, lol. I will let you know how it turned out.
Thank You
Chuck
I have made this MANY times now. It is a family favorite.. i’ve added a bit of orange peel to it. gives it a little something extra.. yum!
This has become a staple in our house and passed the recipe onto others since it’s been such a success. I use powdered ginger instead of fresh and also add a red and green pepper when I sautee the onion to make it a complete meal. Also I suggest putting the beef in the fridge or freezer during the 10 minute sit time to get a better sear.
I’m gonna try this tonite. Is the rice wine sposed to b rice wine VINEGAR or actual wine?!?
Mai Ahn – It is actual wine. I hope you enjoy the recipe.
I made this for dinner last night. It was sooo delicious! I will be adding this recipe to my favorites. Thank you for sharing!
This recipe is a real keeper. Too funny how some of the comments say it tastes like REAL Mongolian Beef. LOL. Maybe because it IS real Mongolian Beef. I add broccoli with the onion and it’s YUMMY! Thanks for sharing
Omg this was so delicious.
I added more pepper because my palate is on the spicy side and slow-cooked the meat in the sauce before moving it to the stovetop because of the cut of beef I used, but it was so tasty.
My house smelled so good while I was making it too!
Definitely, this is going into regular rotation.
WOW!!This was a huge hit in our house.
I just cooked this and it was delicious. It´s been the best meal in a while now, thanks a lot for that recipe!
Can we make this with tofu/cottage cheese? What can I substitute rice wine with? I am a vegetarian and I don’t drink alcohol.