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Hunan Beef sprinkled with green onions and red chili flakes in a white bowl
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Hunan Beef

This Hunan Beef Recipe beats any take-out and will be ready before you can say “fortune cookie.” A spicy beef stir fry, flavored with garlic and cumin.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Chinese
Keyword asian recipes, Hunan Beef, stir fried beef recipes, stir fried recipes
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 4 people
Calories 1020kcal
Author Kathleen

Ingredients

Marinade and Beef:

  • 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon potato starch or all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 12 ounces boneless short ribs sliced very thinly across the grain

Stir Fry:

  • 1 3/4 cups peanut oil
  • 2 teaspoons fresh ginger peeled and grated
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 jalapeño pepper seeded and finely chopped
  • 2 teaspoons dried red chili flakes
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1/4 cup green onions thinly sliced on the diagonal, green part only
  • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Instructions

  • In a mixing bowl, whisk together the Chinese wine (1 tablespoon), salt (1/2 teaspoon), soy sauce (2 teaspoons), potato starch (1 tablespoon), and 1 tablespoon water. Add the sliced beef (12 ounces) to the marinade and toss, using your hands, to evenly coat the beef slices. Allow to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.
  • Heat the peanut oil (1 3/4 cups) in a wok until it reaches about 275°F (135°C). Add the sliced beef, stirring gently to keep from sticking together, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove to a plate, lined heavily with a paper towel, turning slices over as needed to remove any excess oil.
  • Pour out all but 3 tablespoons of oil from the wok. Turn the heat to high until the oil just begins to smoke. Add the ginger (2 teaspoons), garlic (4 cloves) jalapeño (1), chili flakes (2 teaspoons), and cumin (2 teaspoons) and stir-fry stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 20-30 seconds. Return the beef back to the wok, adjusting salt and pepper, and stir well to combine and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Drizzle top with sesame oil (1 teaspoon). Garnish with sliced green onion (1/4 cup) and a few red chili flakes and serve.

Notes

  1. Marinade - The marinade is a scant amount, really, because this is a dry dish, not something saucy to pour over steamed rice. There are just enough soy sauce and rice wine to help tenderize and flavorize, with a touch of potato starch. You’ll be grateful for the minimal marinade when it’s time to start deep frying since we all know how well water and hot oil mix!
  2. Protein Alternatives – If you want to change this recipe up a bit, you can make it with pork instead of beef. It works great with very thinly sliced pork shoulder (or “butt”) or even pork tenderloin.
    • You can also substitute pressed, cubed tofu, though I’d recommend using just a few tablespoons of oil for the first frying step, rather than the whole 1 ¾ cup since even pressed tofu contains a lot of water.
  3. Ginger – Unless you do a lot of cooking with fresh ginger, you may find yourself with leftover root (the kind I find in my crisper drawer once it’s changed from brown to green). Don’t wait until it’s past the point of no return. Freeze it!
    • You can either cut the ginger into chunks (I like 1-inch pieces) and put them in a freezer bag or go ahead and grate it. To grate it, use either a food processor or hand-held grater, then put the grated ginger into a zip-top storage bag, flatten it out to form a thin sheet (~ 1/8”), then pop it in the freezer where it can harden flat. Whenever you need some, just pull out the bag, break off a chunk, and then pop it back in the freezer. It’ll keep for about six months.
  4. Frying - Keep in mind we’re frying at a lower temperature than typical deep-frying, so this step is really designed to seal all the flavor into the meat and create a little bit of a crust. Be sure you drain the beef really well after the initial frying or it will absorb too much oil, ultimately marring the flavor and giving the dish an overall greasy texture.
  5. Wok – I love using a wok for this dish since it’s designed specifically for this type of cooking (plus it’s a pretty cool piece of kitchen equipment!).
    • Every bit of its large surface area gets nice and hot, and that ensures ingredients cook quickly and efficiently (no steaming happening here!). If you don’t have a wok, just use the biggest, high-sided pan you can to keep all the ingredients, especially the hot oil, safely inside.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 1020kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 105g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 31g | Monounsaturated Fat: 48g | Cholesterol: 50mg | Sodium: 535mg | Potassium: 410mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 410IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 3mg