Beef Stir-Fry

Homemade Beef Stir Fry, made with thinly sliced steak, loaded with tons of fresh vegetables, and smothered in the most tasty sauce, is a quick and easy dinner. This recipes is best cooked in a wok but you can easily use a skillet. One this is for sure - your family will love this recipe!

Why this recipe works:

Steak Stir Fry is one of my family's favorite wok recipes. It has everything you want in a dinner - protein, loads of veggies, and great flavor!

• The steak is cut thin and seared. This makes every bite fork tender.
• This stir fry recipe uses tons of fresh, flavorful, vibrant vegetables.
• The sauce only uses two ingredients and couldn't be more simple and flavorful!
• Because this stir fry is cooked over high heat, it is a quick and easy dinner.

Equipment needed to make stir fry:

• Wok pan - Traditional wok pans work best on a gas stove over a flame. I have an induction cook top so I had to buy an electric wok. I love it. I have since purchased a non-stick Scanpan wok that works fantastic with induction heat. The beauty of a wok is that the heat goes all the way up the side walls. This is what creates that super fast and quick cooking.
• Sauté pan - Wok cooking is perfect for stir fry recipes because you want your meat and vegetables to be just cooked enough but also to get a really nice sear on them. If you don't have a wok, you can use a basic sauté pan instead. Just be sure to not overcrowd the pan at an time.
• Utensils to toss the food in the wok. I prefer wooden or bamboo spoons that are strong and can handle the high heat without transferring any taste or flavor to the food.
• High quality knife and cutting board - lots of chopping and slicing!

Here's how to make it:

Ensure meat and all vegetables are cut prior to cooking.

1. Heat vegetable oil in a large wok or skillet over high heat. When oil is near it's smoking point, cook and stir beef until browned, 3 to 4 minutes. It will continue cooking later, so it doesn't need to be fully cooked at this point. You just want a nice sear on it. Transfer the meat to a separate plate.
2. Add broccoli, bell pepper, carrots, zucchini, and green onion to the center of the wok. Cook and stir vegetables for 2 minutes.
3. Add garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes and stir well.
4. Add beef into vegetables and season with soy sauce, fish sauce, and sesame seeds. Continue to cook and stir until vegetables are tender, about 2 more minutes.

Cooking tips for best results:

• Throughout entire recipe, do not overcrowd your wok. You're better off cooking in small batches, setting aside, and combining everything at the end. You want everything to have a nice sear on it but not be soggy and overly cooked.
• Ensure meat and all vegetables are cut prior to cooking.
• Slice the meat and vegetables thin and bite sized.

Best steak for stir fry:

The best cut of steak for stir fry is something that is lean but still marbled with fat to make it tender. I prefer to use a sirloin steak because it is less expensive than a premium steak, but when sliced thin and cooked fast, produces flavorful and tender bites.

Other great options include ribeye, ranch steak, top round steak, or flank steak.

The trick to tender meat:

There are many ways you can make meat tender. One method is to pound it flat with a meat tenderizer. You can also marinate it so that the tissue breaks down a bit during the cooking process.

In order to make this recipe quick and easy, the only thing I did to ensure really tender meat was to slice it very thin against the grain.

Pro tip: A simple trick to make your slicing easier is to have your meat partially frozen. It needs to be thawed enough to easily get the knife through, but cold enough to hold up against the knife, thus making it easy to slice.

Stir fry sauce:

The secret ingredient: Fish sauce.

I know some people have been cooking with fish sauce their entire lives, but it's newly adapted in our family. It truly does enhance the flavor of Asian dishes. Give it a try!

The only other ingredient in my stir fry sauce is soy sauce.

Best vegetables for stir fry:

Always use fresh vegetables when cooking stir fry. Frozen vegetables never work as well. For my recipe, I used:

• Broccoli - If buying broccoli crowns, look for tight bright green crowns and chop into bite sized pieces. If buying pre-cut bagged broccoli, trim the bottoms.
• Red Bell Pepper - Stem and seeds removed and sliced thin.
• Carrots - Peeled and sliced into thin sticks. These are easiest to grab with a fork or chopsticks.
• Zucchini - Leave the peel on and slice into small sticks.
• Green Onions - I sliced these thin but you can also chop into 1-inch pieces
• Garlic and Ginger - These need to be minced. You can use fresh or buy frozen cubes (my preference)

Other vegetables used in stir fry could include: Sugar snap peas, other varieties of bell pepper, mushrooms, or baby corn. Water chestnuts and chopped peanuts can also be added for additional flavor and crunch.

Other Asian dinner recipes:

My entire family loves all of these tasty and easy dinner recipes, and I'm confident you will too!

• Chicken: Teriyaki Chicken, Cashew Chicken, Chicken Pad Thai, Hunan Chicken, Moo Goo Gai Pan, General Tso's Chicken
• Beef: Beef Stir-Fry, Teriyaki Meatballs
• Seafood: Baked Teriyaki Salmon, Teriyaki Shrimp Skewers, Shrimp Stir Fry, Shrimp Vermicelli Salad, Summer Rolls with homemade Peanut Sauce, or from my friend Shinee, Salmon Stir Fry
• Sides: Asian Ramen Noodles, Spicy Peanut Cole Slaw, Asian Roasted Broccoli
• And everyone's favorite, Pork Fried Rice

If you’ve made this or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out. I love hearing from my readers!

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Beef stir fry recipe video below!

This recipe was originally published in June 2014 and has been updated with helpful information, ingredient and process photos, as well as recipe tips. Don't worry - the recipe hasn't changed!