This recipe for mongolian beef is going to hit all those takeout cravings. The mongolian sauce is both spicy and sweet. You can serve it with white rice and green onions, it's sure to be a hit with your family!
Do you like making takeout style dinner at home? Mongolian Beef is a serious favorite at our house. My husband asks for this dinner at least once a week.
Mongolian beef is an asian cuisine meal, made with thin cuts of beef (from flank steak) and a sweet but spicy, dark sauce. You can serve it with steamed white rice (or brown rice), noodles, vegetables, really whatever you want.
The Mongolian Beef sauce is sweet from the brown sugar and spicy from the sriracha and red pepper flakes.
My favorite way to serve it is with steamed rice, broccoli and green onions. The sauce for mongolian beef is much thicker than beef and broccoli, which has a thinner sauce.
If we eat out, PF Changs mongolian beef is one that we typically get. So this recipe is loosely based off of that. Another one we get is the spicy korean chicken.
Ingredients in Mongolian Beef
The ingredients for mongolian beef are actually pretty simple. The majority of what you need is all to make the mongolian sauce.
- flank steak - if you can't get flank steak you could sub skirt steak, flat iron steak or a petite sirloin steak
- soy sauce - opt for the low sodium soy sauce
- water
- hoisin - a sweet and salty, thick sauce
- rice wine vinegar
- garlic powder - can use fresh if you would like
- ginger powder - can also use fresh ginger
- brown sugar
- sriracha
- corn starch
- green onions
Don't forget to grab a container of sesame seeds, not only is it pretty but it's tasty too!
A few other favorites is this skinny orange chicken and baked cream cheese wontons.
What To Serve With Mongolian Beef
So let's talk about sides for a second.
My top choice is aromatic jasmine rice. Fluffy, not mushy. If you salt the rice lightly while it cooks and after, it brings out all the natural flavors.
You could sub out rice for ramen noodles or a rice noodle.
Green onions are a must have for mongolian beef, that is the traditional way to serve it.
Also, you can sauté whatever vegetables you prefer, but broccoli, carrots, and sugar snap peas are all great options! You can pick just one or make a stir fry of all three.
Sugar snap peas only need a minute, so if making them add these last, you don't want them to be too soft.
You can sauté your vegetables with a flavorless high heat oil and a tiny bit of toasted sesame oil (tiny bit, it's a strong flavor).
And we always make a batch of these baked cream cheese wontons any time we make Asian takeout at home.
Mongolian Beef Helpful Tips
If you are serving this to kids, it's probably best to add the red pepper flakes to your individual serving instead of the entire dish. Just in case your kids don't like spicy stuff.
Flank steak is used in this dish (it's a very long cut of meat usually folded in half at the store), it's tender and sort of melts in your mouth when prepared correctly. See the FAQ section below for substitutions.
Cook this in a pan you can get really hot, I like to use a nonstick pan. You want the meat to cook quick, at a hot temperature.
Cooking the meat in batches is so important, it's tempting to throw it all in to the pan at once but you wont get the same results. Cooking it in batches allows the meat to sear quickly, giving you a tender middle and crisp edges.
FAQ
This mongolian beef is good with steamed rice, noodles, broccoli and snow peas. Just to name a few ideas.
Soy sauce, water, hoisin, rice wine vinegar, garlic powder, ginger powder, brown sugar, sriracha, corn starch and red pepper flakes.
Petite sirloin will work really well, also flat iron steak and skirt steak could work as a substitute. Flat iron and skirt could be a little more chewier, it can just depend on the cut sometimes and how much fat is marbled through.
It is a bit spicy, being made with red pepper flakes and sriracha gives you that spicy flavor. If you like it less spicy, just cut back on the amount.
Asian Inspired Recipes To Try
- Easy and Healthy Asian Chicken Salad
- Spicy Korean Chicken and Rice Bowls
- The Best Skinny Orange Chicken
- Mongolian Beef That’s Better Than Takeout
- Spicy Oven Kale Chips
- Honey Sesame Chicken
- Skinny Beef and Broccoli Noodles
- Baked Cream Cheese Wontons
- Grilled Honey Garlic Chicken
Mongolian Beef Recipe Better Than Takeout
This recipe for mongolian beef is going to hit all those takeout cravings. The mongolian sauce is both spicy and sweet. You can serve it with white rice and green onions, it's sure to be a hit with your family!
Ingredients
- 1 lb flank steak
- ¼ c soy sauce
- ½ c water
- ¼ c hoisin
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- ¼ c brown sugar
- 1 ½ tsp sriracha
- 3 tbsp corn starch, 1 tbsp for sauce, 2 tbsp for the meat
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- green onions, sliced
- 1 c jasmine rice
- 2 c water
Instructions
- Cut the flank steak thinly, against the grain, into bite size pieces
- Toss the flank steak with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
- Whisk together all the remaining ingredients in a bowl to make the sauce
- Heat a skillet to med/high heat with 1 tablespoon of high heat oil in it
- Add the Mongolian beef in three batches, so it can get a little crispy around the edges (see notes)
- Set each batch aside on a plate after it's cooked
- While cooking the mongolian beef, bring 1 cup of jasmine rice and 2 cups of water to a boil, cover, turn heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove lid once it's done until you are ready to serve
- It doesn't take long to cook, roughly 3-4 minutes
- Return pan to high heat after each batch is done
- Add an extra splash of oil if it's looking dry
- After all the meat is cooked return it to the pan, along with the sauce
- Bring the sauce to a boil, stirring constantly and then down to low for 5 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened up and coats the beef
- Spoon some rice and mongolian beef in to a bowl
- Top with green onions and extra red pepper flakes for added heat
Notes
- It is important to cook the meat in batches, meaning do not put all the beef in the pan at once. The edges of the meat should not be touching when you cook it. This allows the meat to sear quickly, making the middle tender and the edges crisp. If you put all the meat in the pan at once then you'll see a lot of moisture release, the pan will fill up with water being released from the meat. It will not get crispy at that point and will make it more chewy than tender. But if you cook it in batches, any moisture put out from the meat will evaporate since there is space between the pieces.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 396Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 94mgSodium: 1282mgCarbohydrates: 37gFiber: 1gSugar: 16gProtein: 36g
This information comes from online calculators. Although moderncrumb.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
This recipe was originally published on September 13, 2017.
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