{"id":204854,"title":"Authentic Mongolian Beef","modified":"2026-11-06T16:57:45+01:00","plain":"Crispy fried strips of beef glazed in a brown sugar, garlic and ginger soy sauce, to serve over white rice.\n\n\n\nOn a Friday night, when the craving for Chinese takeout hits, this is often the dish you order. The strips of beef are still sizzling, and their golden edges crunch at first bite, then give way under a glossy glaze of soy sauce and brown sugar, lifted with garlic and ginger. \n\n\n\nThe green onions add freshness, and the sauce trickles down into the steaming rice. When you make it at home, you eat it straight from the wok, while the beef is still crispy under the sauce.\n\n\n\nFor the noodles, beef lo mein rounds out a Chinese takeout-style meal\n\n\n\nWhat Is Mongolian Beef?\n\n\n\nMongolian beef is a classic at Chinese restaurants in the United States. Thinly sliced strips of beef are coated in dry cornstarch, fried for a few minutes, then tossed in a sauce made of soy sauce, water, brown sugar, garlic and ginger. The cornstarch coating the meat thickens the sauce in seconds and makes it glossy. It\u2019s a cousin of beef and broccoli, Chinese beef with onions and stir-fried beef with ginger and scallions, with a sweeter sauce and crispier beef.\n\n\n\nThe name is misleading: Mongolian cuisine is built on meat from herd animals, boiled or cooked with hot stones, a far cry from the wok, soy sauce and sugar. The word \u201cMongolian\u201d comes from a 1950s restaurant in Taipei.\n\n\n\nSame crunch, different sauce: crispy sesame beef\n\n\n\nBorn in Taipei, Adopted by American Restaurants\n\n\n\nIn 1951 in Taipei, Wu Zhaonan, a restaurateur and comedian born in Beijing who had taken refuge in Taiwan after the civil war, opened a stall serving meat grilled on a large round griddle. He reportedly wanted to call it \u201cBeijing barbecue,\u201d but the name of Communist China\u2019s capital was a problem in Taiwan. He chose \u201cMongolian barbecue,\u201d an exotic name that offended no one. Customers picked their meat, vegetables and sauces, which were seared right in front of them.\n\n\n\nWith Chinese and Taiwanese immigration, the concept made its way to the United States. In Chinese American restaurants, one of the most requested combinations, sliced beef with soy sauce, garlic, ginger and sugar, became a dish in its own right. Big Chinese American restaurant chains spread it in the 1990s and 2000s, and it\u2019s this version that goes by the name almost everywhere today. It belongs to Chinese cuisine as it adapted to American tastes.\n\n\n\nTo start, Chinese egg drop soup, just like at the restaurant\n\n\n\nThe Main Ingredients in Mongolian Beef\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe beef is a quick-cooking cut, sliced thin and against the grain so it stays tender; in the United States, it\u2019s almost always flank steak. The cornstarch is used dry: it forms a thin crust when fried, then thickens the sauce. Very hot neutral oil, with enough of it to fry in, gives the edges their crunch.\n\n\n\nThe sauce brings together reduced-sodium soy sauce, water and a generous amount of brown sugar, whose molasses notes give it its lacquered finish. Fresh garlic and ginger, saut\u00e9ed in a little oil, flavor it, and the soy sauce adds umami and color. The restaurant version skips hoisin sauce, which keeps the sauce simple.\n\n\n\nThe green onions, added at the end, stay crunchy and cut through the richness of the glaze. The dish is served over white rice; jasmine rice works very well and soaks up the sauce.\n\n\n\nTechnique Tips for Good Mongolian Beef\n\n\n\nIt all comes down to the crunch. Slice the meat thin, on the bias and against the grain, using the same cutting technique as for other Asian dishes. Then fry it in shimmering oil without crowding the strips: packed too tightly, the meat releases its water and steams. A wok or a wide saut\u00e9 pan gives it room.\n\n\n\nAnother star of Chinese American restaurants: General Tso\u2019s chicken\n\n\n\nThe sauce stays runny until the very last moment: it\u2019s the cornstarch on the beef that thickens it in a few seconds. So serve it right away, while the beef is still crispy. With Cantonese fried rice on the side, the meal has all the makings of a takeout order, only crispier.\n\n\n\n\n\n\tAuthentic Mongolian Beef\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tSauce2 teaspoons oil2 cloves garlic, (minced)1 teaspoon ginger (fresh, minced)120 ml soy sauce (reduced-sodium)120 ml water165 g sugar (brown, cane sugar style)Beef450 g beef, (a quick-cooking cut (flank steak, strip steak, rib eye, sirloin...))30 g cornstarch250 ml oil (for frying in a wok, or 350 ml in a saut\u00e9 pan, more if needed)To Serve2 green onions, (thinly sliced)White rice (cooked, for serving)\t\n\t\n\t\tSauceIn a small saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat.Add the garlic and ginger and whisk as they sizzle.Add the soy sauce, water, and brown sugar.Bring to a boil and let it boil for about 5 minutes.Remove from the heat: the sauce is still thin at this point, and it will thicken once it meets the cornstarch-coated beef.BeefSlice the beef into 6 mm thick strips, on a 45-degree bias, against the grain.Place the beef in a mixing bowl and coat it with the cornstarch.Let it sit for about 10 minutes so the cornstarch sticks well to the meat.Heat the frying oil in a wok or large saut\u00e9 pan over medium-high heat until its surface shimmers.Add the beef to the hot oil.Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until the edges are golden and crispy.Lift the beef out with a skimmer and transfer it to paper towels.Discard the cooking oil.To ServeReturn the empty wok or saut\u00e9 pan to medium heat.Add the beef back for about 1 minute, tossing it to warm it through.Add the sauce and green onions.Stir to coat the beef well: the sauce thickens almost immediately.Remove from the heat and serve right away over the rice, while the beef is still crispy.\t\n\t\n\t\tFor a thicker sauce, stir 1 teaspoon of cornstarch into 1 tablespoon of cold water and add it to the sauce before heating it.\nThe oil should be shimmering before you add the beef: in oil that isn't hot enough, the meat steams instead of frying. Use a wide (30 cm) stainless steel or carbon steel saut\u00e9 pan so the beef isn't crowded and stays crispy. Lighter version: sear the cornstarch-coated beef over high heat in a large nonstick frying pan with very little oil, until the edges are golden and crispy. It will be less crispy.\nServe over jasmine rice, long-grain white rice, or brown rice, or in lettuce leaves. The sauce can be made 2 to 3 days ahead and kept in the fridge. Leftovers keep for 3 days in an airtight container; reheat them in a frying pan over medium heat with a little water.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tPlat principalChinoise","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}