Crispy Chili Beef
Crispy chili beef is made with strips of beef that are crusty and crunchy on the outside but tender and juicy on the inside and coated in a perfectly balanced spicy, tangy, and sweet sauce.
Ingredients
Beef and Marinade
- 400 grams rump steak or tenderloin, medallion, sirloin, ribeye, flank or skirt
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp white or black pepper
- 1 egg
- 1 cup cornflour
Sauce
- 1 tsp ginger finely chopped
- 1 tsp garlic finely chopped
- 1 bird's eye chili or 2 mild chili peppers, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 4 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine optional
Vegetables (Optional)
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 bell pepper sliced
- 1 carrot julienned or cut into matchsticks
- green onions
Instructions
Start with the Sauce
- Roughly chop the ginger, garlic, chili peppers into small pieces and set aside.
- Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, ketchup, and Shaoxing wine (if you have it) to a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.
Prep the Beef
- Cut beef into thin slices or strips. Add the beef strips to a bowl with soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, salt, and white pepper. Toss to coat.
- Add an egg to the bowl and mix it in until all the beef slices are coated.
- Pour a cup of cornstarch into a large bowl or plate and add about a teaspoon of salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Set aside.
- Note: This is a good time to step away from the beef and the cornflour to get the oil ready for frying.Add cooking oil to a large pan (around a centimeter deep). Heat the oil over medium heat for around 5 minutes. This will be the perfect amount of time to get the beef ready to fry…
- While the oil is heating, add the beef slices to the big bowl of cornflour and start massaging the cornflour onto the beef. At first, it’s going to be a clumpy, gloopy mess but keep going, continuing to incorporate more cornflour into the beef.In a couple minutes, the beef strips will start to separate. Place these coated beef strips onto a clean plate.
Fry the Beef
- Add the strips of beef to the hot oil in the pan in a single layer. Let it sizzle like that for around 3 to 4 minutes before you flip them over and repeat on the other side. Do this in batches if you need to. Note: Because we’re going to be shallow frying, you want to leave the pieces for longer than you would with deep frying. Give them time to get dark brown and crusty-crispy before you flip them over.When finished frying, set aside on a clean plate.
Simmer the Sauce
- Add a tablespoon of oil and the chopped ginger, garlic, and peppers to a pan. Sauté for a minute and then pour in the sauce.
- Let it simmer on low heat for around 10 minutes to reduce and thicken.
Sauté the Vegetables
- In the same pan that you fried the beef, add the vegetables and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.
Mix and Serve
- Add both the crispy fried beef and the sautéed vegetables to the sauce. Toss to coat everything in the sauce.Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Notes
What beef is best? The best cuts for this dish are the tender ones like tenderloin, medallion steak (which is typically cut from tenderloin), or rump steak. Ribeye and sirloin are great as well. Flank and skirt are slightly tougher but when cut into strips (and against the grain!) work well too.
Which veggies to use? You're the boss here. You can skip vegetables altogether or go with onions, bell peppers, green onions, carrots, broccoli, snap peas, baby bok choy - these all go very nicely in this dish.
What chili peppers to use? It is called crispy chili beef but the kind of chilis you use comes down to your personal preference. For a spicy dish, go with Szechuan peppers or bird’s eye chilis. I use milder chilis so our kid can eat with us.
Is there a substitute for dark soy sauce? You can substitute dark soy sauce with double black soy sauce or kecap manis (add a pinch of salt to it). Or you can use regular soy sauce but add a teaspoon of brown sugar and a pinch of salt.
Is there a substitute for rice vinegar? You can substitute rice vinegar with white or apple cider vinegar. If you have Chinkiang (Zhenjiang) black rice vinegar, you can use that instead.
How long to heat the oil before frying? Before we add our beef, we want to oil to be sizzling hot and ready to go. Around 5 minutes over medium heat should be perfect.
How long to fry the beef for? Because we’re going to be shallow frying, you want to leave the pieces for longer than you would with deep frying. Give them time to get dark brown and crusty-crispy before you flip them over - around 3 to 5 minutes is perfect.
Brown in batches! If you need to, do the browning in batches. It’s important you don’t overcrowd the pan so that each strip can get full exposure to the oil and heat.
Wear gloves when frying! The hot oil will definitely splatter and it feels like hundreds of tiny pin pricks. Protect your hands with rubber gloves.
Multi-tasking for the win. This dish has a couple parts to it but you can definitely multi-task fairly easily. Heat the oil while you coat the beef. Start simmering the sauce while the beef and the vegetables cook. You'll be done so much quicker.