A Chinese-American dish of tender beef, tossed in a rich and robust sauce, with stir fried carrots, sweet bell peppers and green onion. Serve over steamed rice or cooked Asian noodles with a side of steamed broccoli.
Mongolian Beef
Okay. I have to admit. I have been seeing copycat recipes for this thing called Mongolian Beef all over the place for years.
Although an American creation and not authentic Chinese cuisine, it seems it's a favorite from P.F. Chang's restaurant, a place I have been to exactly once in my life. That visit was in Texas of all places, when we were there visiting family. I actually don't even remember what I ordered there to be honest, except that while it was good, it wasn't the Mongolian Beef.
So... I've never even eaten Mongolian Beef, much less made it. Until now.
I have no idea where it hails from, and, in fact, it might even be P.F. Chang's who invented it to be honest, but what I can say is that I loved it and because it's relatively easy, it will definitely become a part of a routine rotation!
What led to me finally caving to the food peer pressure was a short Mr. Food television segment that comes on during one of the local morning show's programming that I watch regularly. The host, Howard Rosenthal, was preparing Mongolian Beef and it looked easy enough, though I thought the final presentation was a little pale when I compared it against the P.F. Chang's website image.
Seeing him make it told me it wasn't at all difficult as I'd thought, though I knew I wanted something a little richer and more robust.
I remembered another recipe I'd seen in Eat What You Love Restaurant Favorites cookbook that included carrots and bell pepper, and though they don't seem to be a part of P.F. Chang's version, I loved the inclusion of those vegetables with this dish.
Some recipes also include broccoli, but I just served mine with some steamed broccoli on the side.
It seems a wide variety of meats are often used for this dish, including flank steak, strip steak, round steak, tenderloin and sirloin. Both of these versions used sirloin and that is a beef cut I happen to have on hand in the freezer most of the time, so it's what I went with for my recipe.
Here's how to make my Mongolian Beef and as always, full recipe text with measurements and instructions, as well as a printable document, are a little bit further down the page. Just swipe or scroll past the step-by-step pictures below.
I know at first glance, this seems a lot of ingredients sitting on the counter, but it's really pantry basics and other ingredients you should have on hand if you do any Asian cooking at all, especially stir fry. If you don't, there are commercial Mongolian sauces available, though you may need to go to a specialty store to get the best price.
I'm using chicken broth made from Better than Bouillon base, cornstarch, molasses, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sriracha sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, garlic powder, ground ginger and dried red pepper flakes.
Whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
Combine all of the wet ingredients in a saucepan, whisk in the dry ingredients.
Heat over medium until thickened and reduced, stirring occasionally; set aside.
If your steak is frozen, slice it before its completely thawed. If already fully thawed, place meat in freezer for about 30 minutes, or longer, to allow for easier slicing.
Slice meat across the grain into very thin strips.
Place into bowl.
Add the remaining cornstarch.
Toss.
Heat oil in a nonstick skillet, add beef and stir fry.
Turning over, until no longer pink, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Remove beef and set aside.
Cut carrots and bell pepper into thin matchstick strips. I'm using an orange bell pepper because I had one in the fridge I needed to use up. I would suggest using a red, green or yellow bell pepper, just for the color contrast instead. Unless you have an orange bell pepper to use up, of course!
Add carrots to the skillet and stir fry for 2 minutes.
Add bell pepper to the carrots and cook another minute. Remove and set aside.
Add sauce to the skillet.
Return meat to skillet.
Toss to coat.
Set aside one of the green onions for garnish and add remaining green onions and 2 teaspoons sesame oil to the skillet. Add the vegetables and toss until well coated and everything is heated through.
Spoon over hot steamed rice or cooked noodles and garnish with remaining green onion and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, if desired and serve immediately.
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