Tender strips of beef sauteed with crisp bell peppers, onions, celery, and garlic, all coated in a flavorful honey sauce… This honey beef stir fry is so good I guarantee your guests will ask for seconds!
A super-simple stir-fry recipe
Have you ever tried making stir fries at home? If not, this recipe is a perfect place to start, along with my popular recipe for Beef with Onions !
When we home cooks decide to make a stir fry, we usually fall into one of two camps : either we assume it is ultra easy – just toss everything in a pan and stir like mad – or we think it is too hard and should be left to the pros.
The truth is that stir frying is simple – you just need the right ingredients and a few key techniques. That is exactly what this recipe delivers: tender beef, crunchy vegetables, and a sauce packed with flavor.
The ingredients for honey beef
- Light soy sauce: This is the standard salty soy sauce you find in stores. Do not confuse it with dark soy sauce
- Oyster sauce: No, it does not taste like oysters; yes, it is essential; and yes, I have a full article about it
How to prepare the beef for honey beef?
The golden rule for slicing steak for Chinese stir fries is to cut against the “grain.” But how do you do that? First, find the direction of the long muscle fibers, then slice across them, as if you were cutting a bundle of strings into shorter pieces.
If the grain is not obvious, hold the steak in both hands and gently bend it into a convex shape. As the top surface stretches, the grain will become clearer. Small parallel lines will appear – that is the grain.
Ingredients
- 400 g sliced beef
- 0.5 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 0.5 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 handful of bean sprouts
- 1 celery stalk, sliced
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 2 slices of ginger
- 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 4 tsp water
MARINADE
- 4 tsp honey
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 sliced green onion
- 2 tsp cornstarch
SAUCE
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 50 g chicken broth
- 1 tsp sugar
Procédé
- Marinate the beef for 15 minutes and mix the sauce in a bowl
- In a thin layer of oil over medium-high heat, stir-fry the beef for 2–3 min until almost cooked. Set aside.
- Add a little more oil and stir-fry the garlic and ginger for 30 sec
- Add the green bell pepper and celery, stir-fry briefly, then add the red bell pepper
- Push the vegetables to one side of the pan and pour in the sauce with the cornstarch mixture. Stir to thicken.
- Return the beef and bean sprouts, toss well
