Shortcut Mongolian Floor Beef – The Woks of Life

This shortcut Mongolian Floor Beef has all of the scrumptious taste and heartiness of our basic Mongolian Beef recipe, but it surely’s made with floor beef as an alternative of flank steak. It’s our new favourite hack for one in all our most-loved dishes! 

Try our recipe and VIDEO to see how we make it! (Leap to the recipe card to play the Youtube video)

A Cheaper, Extra Handy Path to Mongolian Beef

For a lot of Chinese language beef stir-fries, flank steak is the go-to. It’s not too costly, and while you slice it thinly in opposition to the grain and velvet it (a marinating step that makes proteins remarkably extra tender and silky), it’s tender, juicy, and actually beefy. 

It’s no shock that flank steak has gotten fairly in style. Which means costs are up, and I don’t find out about the place you reside, however generally after I go to my native grocery retailer, it’s bought out! Reliably although, there are nearly all the time packages of floor beef out there, and even already stashed in my fridge. 

Enter this little hack of a Mongolian Beef recipe! There’s no slicing and no sedulous cornstarch dredging. You do toss the bottom beef in cornstarch, but it surely’s loopy quick.

Recipe Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine the bottom beef with the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and baking soda. Put aside to marinate for 20 minutes when you prep the opposite substances, or if making forward, cowl and refrigerate in a single day. 

Subsequent, make the sauce. To a measuring cup, add the new water and soy sauce. Then stir at midnight soy sauce and brown sugar. Finest to make use of a dry measuring cup for the brown sugar (alternatively, 4 tablespoons make a ¼ cup). Put aside. In a small bowl, combine up the cornstarch slurry. 

When you’re able to cook dinner, add ⅓ cup cornstarch to a shallow dish. Break up the bottom beef into items on prime of the cornstarch, then use your fingers to interrupt up the bottom beef into nuggets and toss them within the cornstarch. You don’t need to mush or mix something. You need nuggets of floor beef in a layer of cornstarch. 

Warmth your wok or skillet over excessive warmth. Add the oil and floor beef (you’ll be able to take a look at one nugget to ensure it has a robust and satisfying sizzle while you add it to the new pan). Prepare the meat nuggets in a single layer and fry till golden. Don’t transfer the meat an excessive amount of! This can enable it to kind a pleasant crust. As soon as that golden crust has shaped, use a wok spatula to flip the meat and let it brown as soon as extra undisturbed. Repeat this a pair extra instances till the meat is uniformly brown and well-seared. 

Switch the meat again to the dish you dredged it in (it should get cooked once more), forsaking the cooking oil. 

With the warmth on medium-high, add the purple chili peppers and cook dinner for 1 minute or so. Add the ginger, and fry for 30 seconds. Add the white elements of the scallions and the garlic, and cook dinner for one more 30 seconds to a minute.

Are your dried chilies contemporary?

Like most mortals, we’re generally responsible of getting less-than-fresh spices hanging round our pantry. A typical perpetrator is dried purple chili peppers. I made this at my condominium with my outdated chili peppers and it hardly added the warmth and taste I used to be in search of. On the opposite finish of the spectrum, we not too long ago purchased some contemporary ones, and boy had been they spicier than I used to be anticipating! You’ll see in our Youtube video, we use 8, however 3-5 is a extra measured quantity. 

Fire up your sauce and add it to the pan. Carry to a simmer, then fire up your cornstarch slurry once more to make sure it’s well-incorporated. Add it to the sauce combination. Stir till the sauce has thickened sufficient to coat the again of your spatula. 

A observe about sauce thickening

For those who’ve watched our Youtube movies earlier than, you’ve in all probability heard Invoice give the recommendation to not add the cornstarch slurry . Residence heating components range, as do wok and pan setups, so chances are you’ll want rather less or extra thickening energy. In case your sauce seems slightly too thick, add a splash of water. If it seems too skinny, let it bubble and cook dinner down or add one other drizzle of cornstarch slurry. 

Add the meat again to the wok together with the inexperienced elements of the scallions. Toss to coat the whole lot within the sauce. It needs to be effervescent and shiny.

Serve with steamed rice! 

Watch us make Shortcut Mongolian Floor beef: