The Black Pepper Beef Stir Fry My Dad's Made 100,000 Times
Why this recipe
Most black pepper beef stir fry recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 481.9K views, 10.6K likes on YouTube.
Black pepper beef was a favorite at my parents' old restaurant! You'll usually find this stir-fry in some shape or form on a bunch of Chinese restaurant menus around the world.
Luckily, it's really easy to make at home!
Pairs well with
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Ingredients
Best cuts of beef
In terms of beef cuts, the New York Strip comes from the top part of the short loin behind the ribs. It's extremely tender, not as fatty as a ribeye, and not as lean as a filet mignon.
Understanding food labels for beef
When shopping for beef, if available and affordable, you might consider these two labels: Certified Organic, and Grass Fed, Grass Finished.
The USDA Certified Organic label applies to a lot of different foods and drinks, but for beef, it refers to cattle that eat entirely organic feed, have access to a pasture, and are never administered antibiotics or hormones.
Grass Fed, Grass Finished, also known as 100% Grass Fed, means that the cattle ate grass for the entire duration of its life. The Grass Fed label by itself can refer to cows that started on a grass fed diet, but were fed grain in the last few months of their lives in order to help them quickly gain weight.
Finding Asian Ingredients
Some of these ingredients are hard to find in a typical grocery store.
If you don't live near an Asian market, most or all of what my dad uses in this recipe can be found on Amazon:
- Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce
- Kadoya Sesame Oil - https://amzn.to/3c7EOTu
- Pearl River Bridge Superior Light Soy Sauce
- Pearl River Bridge Superior Dark Soy Sauce
- Shaoxing Cooking Wine
I've also included some other Chinese kitchen essentials, used in many of my dad's other recipes.
- Michiu Rice Cooking Wine
- Lao Gan Ma Chili Oil
- Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce
- Bullhead Shacha (BBQ Sauce)
- Dried Orange Peels
- Koon Chun Ground Bean Sauce
- Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (soak for 15-20 minutes in warm water before slicing)
- Dried Wood Ear Fungus (a few options, depending on what's in stock):
These links are affiliate links, which means that if you use our links to purchase these ingredients, Amazon pays my family a small amount for the sale - at no extra cost to you. If you use these links, we really appreciate the support!
Alternatives to Oyster Sauce
If you're vegetarian or need to stay away from gluten, we have three alternatives for you!
Vegetarian Oyster Sauce
Since oyster sauce is made out of oyster extract, here are some alternatives that have a similar taste without using the actual oyster:
- Wan Ja Shan Vegetarian Mushroom Oyster Sauce
- Lee Kum Kee Vegetarian Stir Fry Sauce
- Lee Kum Kee also sells a bigger container of this
Gluten Free Oyster Sauce
Wok Mei has a gluten-free oyster sauce, but it still contains oyster extract, so it's not vegetarian friendly.
Vegetarian + Gluten Free Oyster Sauce
Unfortunately, we don't know of a vendor that sells an oyster sauce that caters to both dietary restrictions, so you'll need to DIY the sauce.
Mix equal parts gluten free soy sauce and gluten free hoisin sauce. This isn't exactly the same as oyster sauce, but it's pretty close.
Instructions
Prepare beef
We'll start by trimming the fat off the edges of our beef fillet.
Then, we'll start cutting the beef into strips, about 1 cm thick and about 5 cm long. We'll want to cut against the grain of the meat, which results in more tender bites.
Then, we'll place our beef slices in a bowl of cold water and gently massage the meat. This helps remove some of the myoglobin and the more "meaty" taste/smell from the beef. After 1-2 minutes, drain the beef with a colander.
You might notice my dad referring to this as ngàuh láuh. ngàuh means beef, and láuh is a reference to a Chinese style of cutting meat into long and thin pieces. In Cantonese, láuh is another name for willow tree, in which the leaves are similarly long and thin. The English name for this dish is usually just Black Pepper Beef, but the Chinese name, haahk jiu ngàuh láuh, makes it a point to distinguish exactly how the meat is cut.
This isn't always true, but there's a tendency in Chinese cuisine to slice the meat before serving, versus Western cuisine, where we typically slice the meat after it's cooked.
Create beef marinade
In a bowl, we'll mix black pepper (1 tsp), cornstarch (1 tbsp), water (1 tbsp), oyster sauce (1 tbsp), light soy sauce (1 tsp), Shaoxing cooking wine (1 tbsp), and red wine (1 tbsp).
Mix together until the marinade is even.
For some flair, my dad likes to use red wine to add a hint of grape & sourness. He also likes to add lemon peels to his Shaoxing wine for more zest.
Mix and massage beef
Before we mix the beef with the marinade, we'll want to squeeze as much fluid out as we can. One of the main goals of this dish is to avoid having excess fluid or sauce pooling when we're done cooking it.
With our hands, we'll press and squeeze the beef against a colander to force any excess moisture out of the beef.
Then, we'll add the beef to the marinade and massage the meat for about 30-60 seconds. This helps the beef absorb the marinade and become more tender.
Cut vegetables
For our vegetables, we'll be mincing garlic (2 clove), and slicing up a variety of bell peppers and red onion for color. For each bell pepper, we'll only be using about 1/4 to 1/3 of each, so if you'd rather just stick to one color and use up a whole entire bell pepper, that's fine too.
If you're freestyling with the amounts and veering off the recipe, just make sure to be more conservative on the veggies and avoid using ones with high water content (like bok choy). Bell peppers have lower water content, but if you cook an excess of them, your sauce will be too watery.
Create sauce
Next, we'll create the sauce for our black pepper beef. We'll be mixing cornstarch (1 tbsp), water (1 tbsp), sugar (1 tsp), light soy sauce (1 tsp), dark soy sauce (1 tsp), red wine (1 tbsp), salt (0.50 tsp), oyster sauce (1 tsp), and Shaoxing cooking wine (1 tbsp) in a separate bowl.
Add oil to meat, heat wok
We'll set our stove to high heat and let our wok heat up for about 2-3 minutes. Once our wok is hot enough, we'll add corn oil (2 tbsp).
While we wait, my dad has another trick to keep the beef juicier: add oil (2 tbsp) to the beef. The oil helps seal the juices and trap them inside the beef.
Mix the beef around for about 20-30 seconds to evenly coat the oil.
Cook everything in stages
Restaurants are able to get away with tossing everything all at once, since they have much more powerful stoves and larger woks.
For us at home, we'll need to cook in stages.
- Add the beef, and cook for about 1 minute. Once the beef starts to change color, transfer out of the wok. We're only looking to partially cook the beef here.
- Add the minced garlic, and let it cook for about 20-30 seconds.
- Add the veggies, and cook for about 90 seconds
- Add the beef back in, and cook for about 45-60 seconds
- Add the slurry sauce, and cook everything for another minute.
- My dad doesn't always use the entire sauce, which is a judgment call that he makes since this recipe isn't supposed to have too much sauce pooling at the bottom of the dish.
- Add sesame oil (1 tsp). Pour some black pepper (1 tsp) into your hand, and slowly pour it around the wok. Mix and cook for 45-60 seconds
- Cook and mix everything together for another minute.
Try a taste, plate
My dad always tries a taste to see if it needs any adjustments.
If it's good, we'll plate our dish and call our loved ones over to eat!
Made with love ❤️
We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.
