Scrambled Eggs, Cheese, and Avocado Tortilla Bowl Recipe
September 16, 2025
Crispy Sticky Mongolian Beef Recipe
Tremendous crispy items of beef coated in a candy salty sauce = heaven within the type of a stir fry. PF Chang’s copycat – carried out proper! Marinating the meat is essential for packing in nice flavour into each single chunk.
This recipe is just like Honey Pepper Beef Stir Fry – with the addition of the crispy beef!
Mongolian Beef
I can not get sufficient of this Mongolian Beef. I’m obsessed!
PF Chang’s is an Asian themed restaurant chain within the US. They appear to be in every single place – and it’s wildly standard. Due to its sheer reputation, I needed to attempt it after I was within the US. I really didn’t thoughts the Chow Mein that my good friend received, however personally I discovered the Mongolian Beef too candy and too oily.
I didn’t get it. I couldn’t perceive what all of the fuss was about, and why America is so obsessive about Mongolian Beef! Each single different meals on my “should attempt” listing that I had on my US foodie street journey was a house run. However Mongolian Beef? Disappointing.
However understanding how standard it’s, I attempted it once more at a Chinese language restaurant in LA. I had too, I used to be curious. This time, I scored! I understood! Made correctly, it’s completely addictive. Dangerously so.
What’s Mongolian Beef – and what does it style like?
For the Australians studying this, Mongolian Beef is just like what we all know as Szechuan Type Beef and Peking Beef. Skinny slices of beef that’s shallow fried so it’s tremendous crispy then tossed in a sticky sauce.
It’s completely different to what we all know as Mongolian Lamb which isn’t fried or crispy, and the sauce isn’t as candy.
It’s the mix of crispy and sticky that makes Mongolian Beef SO good. See how thick and caramel-like the sauce is? The picture on the suitable is when the sauce is effervescent away, thickening and coating the meat. Heaven in a pan, that’s what that is. 🙂
Did you discover that I made it in a skillet as a substitute of a wok? To let you know the reality, usually I make it in a wok however I needed to attempt it in a skillet too so I may present instructions for that.
It’s simpler made in a wok as a result of you possibly can shallow fry the meat within the wok. However in case you don’t have a wok, I like to recommend frying the meat in a small saucepan as a substitute as a result of the meat is cooked with just one/4 cup of oil. In the event you use a skillet, then the oil spreads too thinly and also you gained’t get the identical crispiness. After the meat is cooked, end the remainder of the recipe in a skillet. Straightforward!
Within the crispy / sticky stakes, I’ve to say that that is proper up there with Buffalo Wings. That’s to say, if somebody put a plate of this and a plate of Buffalo Wings in entrance of me, I’m not fully certain which one I might go for.
Truly, I do know. In all probability each on the similar time. 🙂
– Johnsat x
PS I received aspect tracked and forgot to say that I attempted a couple of recipes I discovered on a mission to get the closest match to the Mongolian Beef I had at a Chinese language restaurant in LA, not PF Chang’s which I didn’t take pleasure in very a lot. A couple of have been shut, however didn’t nail it. This recipe is from a weblog known as Woks of Life which is run by a Chinese language household who used to run a Chinese language restaurant in America. It’s my “go to” supply for American Chinese language recipes. Each single recipe I’ve tried has been an absolute ripper. Actually!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ingredients
- 8 oz / 250g beef steak (rump, scotch or flank), sliced into 1/5″ / 3mm slices (Note 1)
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp cornstarch/cornflour
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (light or all purpose, NOT dark)
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1 1/2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry, or more chicken broth (Note 2)
- 3 tbsp / 1/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1/4 – 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (Note 1)
- 1/4 cup cornstarch/cornflour
- 1/2 tsp ginger, finely minced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 scallions/shallots, cut into 1 1/2″ / 4cm pieces on the diagonal
Instructions
- Combine the Beef and Marinade ingredients in a bowl and marinate for 10 minutes (though you could even leave it overnight).
- Mix the cornstarch with a splash of the water. Then add the remaining Sauce ingredients, including remaining water.
- Add 1/4 cup cornstarch and use your fingers to lightly coat the beef.
- Heat 1/4 cup oil in a wok (Note 2) over medium high heat. Add 1/2 the beef and cook the first side for around 45 seconds or until golden and crisp. Then flip (I use an egg flip) and cook the other side for 30 – 45 seconds until golden and crisp. Remove onto a paper towel lined plate. Repeat with remaining beef.
- Discard the oil, leaving behind about 1 tablespoon in the wok.
- Add the ginger and garlic and sauté for about 15 seconds. Don’t let it burn!
- Add the Sauce into the wok. Bring it to a simmer and let it cook for about 1 1/2 minutes or until it thickens into a glossy sticky sauce.
- Add the beef and scallions, toss to coat and cook for a further 30 seconds.
- Serve immediately with rice – or for a low carb, low cal option, try Cauliflower Rice!
Notes
1. I have fried this in just 1/4 cup of oil which works well, it requires more tossing to get the beef to brown evenly all over and become crispy, but you do end up with uneven browning which doesn’t matter because it’s tossed in sauce. The other way is to shallow fry in about 3/4 cm / 1/3″ of oil in the skillet – about 1 to 1 1/2 cups.
2. You could also substitute with Mirin or Cooking Sake. If you use Mirin, reduce the sugar by 1 tbsp.
3. Beef – As with all stir fries, this cooks very quickly so you need to use a decent cut of beef for it. Rump, flank, sirloin, t-bone and scotch fillet are excellent for this recipe.
Slice the beef against the grain. When you look at the beef, you will notice that the fibres are mostly going in one direction. Place the beef in front of you so the fibres are going left to right. Then cut through the fibres i.e. cut perpendicular to the direction of the fibres (see here for illustrative image). Cutting it this way makes the beef more tender!
Slow cooking cuts, like chuck, are not suitable unless you tenderise it (see How to tenderise beef the Chinese restaurant way)
4. If you don’t have a wok, do this part in a small saucepan. It won’t work in a skillet because the surface area is too large so the oil spreads too thinly. After cooking the beef, transfer 2 tbsp of oil from the saucepan into a skillet to cook the sauce and beef.
For the purpose of sharing this recipe on my blog, I made it in a frypan (to make sure it worked cooking the beef in a saucepan). But usually I make this in my wok!
5. This recipe is adapted from The Woks of Life. This blog is my “go to” trusted source for American Chinese recipes. It is run by a Chinese American family who used to own a restaurant – doesn’t get anymore reliable than that!!
6. Nutrition assuming this serves 3. I measured the amount of oil discarded to calculate the nutrition.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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