Black Pepper Beef

Black Pepper Beef features tender cuts of beef stir-fried in a rich, peppery sauce with crisp onions and bell peppers. It’s the perfect weeknight meal that tastes just as good as the Chinese restaurants!

Recipes like these are always popular on the website, and for a good reason. It’s flavorful, ready in just under an hour, and equally as delicious as your local Chinese takeaway spot!

Instructions

Cut your beef into thin slices against the grain. Marinate this with soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, cornstarch, oil, baking soda, and white pepper. Mix gently to coat the beef. Let marinate for at least 15 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Prepare the sauce by combining all the ingredients together until smooth. You may also prepare the bell peppers, onions, garlic, and ginger at this stage.

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wok or large pan over medium-high heat. Briefly fry the marinated beef on all sides until browned all over (you may need to do this in batches to avoid overcrowding). Once seared, set the beef aside.

In the same pan, fry the onions and bell peppers for 2-3 minutes until lightly softened. Add in the garlic and ginger, and continue to stir-fry for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Pour in the prepared sauce. Let simmer and reduce for about 1 minute until thickened slightly. Add back in the beef and pour in the sesame oil. Stir-fry for an additional 1-2 minutes, or until the sauce coats and clings to the beef and vegetables.

Serve warm with rice and veggies. Enjoy!

Ingredients and Substitutions

*The Recipe Card below includes all the full measurements for these ingredients!

Beef: The most tender cuts I like to go for include rib eye or sirloin. You can also use flank, skirt, or hanger.

• Substitutes: You may also use thinly-sliced chicken or pork for this recipe.

Beef stock: Using beef stock ensures a hearty, full-bodied stir-fry sauce.

• Substitutes: You can replace this with chicken stock or vegetable stock if you prefer. Water may also work.

Soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar: A mixture of these sauces provides the perfect amount of umami for any stir fry. Dark soy sauce gives the sauce a deep, dark color; while the sugar helps to balance out the saltiness and savoriness of the dish.

• Substitutes: Oyster sauce can be omitted if you have shellfish allergies without altering the taste of the sauce too much.

Shaoxing Wine: Also known as Chinese cooking wine, this is made by fermenting glutinous rice, water, and wheat-based yeast. It adds depth to almost all Chinese and Taiwanese dishes.

• Substitutes: You can also use dry sherry, dry white wine, or cooking sake.

Cornstarch: Starch is used twice in this recipe. Once in the marinade, to aid with velveting the meat and the other which is added directly into our sauce as a thickening agent.

Ground black pepper: Since black pepper is the star of the dish, it’s highly recommended you use freshly-ground black pepper for this. Pre-ground still works, though it may not be as aromatic and sharp in flavor compared to when they’re freshly-ground.

Chicken powder: By powder, I’m referring to the instant chicken stock/broth mix. It’s PACKED with umami, which is why I add it to almost all my stir fry sauces.

• Substitutes: You can replace this with equal parts mushroom powder or beef powder.

Garlic, ginger: While very little in amount, these ingredients give our sauce depth. The fresh garlic is sharp and pungent, while the ginger is mildly peppery and sweet.

• Substitutes: Powdered garlic and ginger can work.

Bell pepper, onion: These provide a crisp texture that works perfectly with our beef. Be sure to cut these into large chunks to prevent them from being broken down in the sauce.

Sesame oil: Sesame oil is almost always added at the final moments of cooking within Asian cuisine. The reason being is that the oil retains its bold, toasty flavor and aroma better when the heat isn’t as intense!

What is Black Pepper Beef?

Black Pepper Beef consists of tender slices of marinated beef stir fried in a rich, peppery sauce. It’s one of the staples in many Chinese-American takeaway spots, perfect alongside hot steaming fried rice.

I always like to think of this recipe as divided into 3 components:

First, the marinade. You’ll need to marinate your beef in a mixture of sauces to not only give it flavor, but to tenderize it really well. You can do this while you prep the rest of the other ingredients.

Second, the sauce, where we let it simmer and reduce down into a thick sauce for stir-frying.

Finally, the mix-ins. These are all the aromatics and veggies that we’ll be including in the dish.

Once you master this recipe, most of the other takeaway recipes within this series will also follow a similar concept!

Cooking Tips

Customize your sauce: Feel free to add chili flakes for a bit of spice, add more or less sugar according to your preference, or even choose to double your sauce to pour over your rice or noodles!

Prepare the beef for success: For the most tender and juiciest beef, follow these steps for success:

• Slice against the grain: The grain refers to the direction in which the muscle fibres are aligned. You need to cut perpendicular to those fibres to make the protein easier to chew.
• Marinate with baking soda: Baking soda raises the pH of the meat, preventing the proteins from bonding excessively when cooking -this keeps the meat both moist and tender. We only add 1/2 tsp to this recipe, but if you’re a bit more sensitive to the bitter tastes of baking soda, feel free to rinse the meat and pat it dry prior to cooking.

Use freshly ground pepper when possible: Since the main flavor profile of this dish is black pepper, I’d highly recommend you use freshly-ground black pepper for this recipe. Pre-ground works, no doubt (and it would still be delicious), though the flavor and aroma won’t be as intense as fresh.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

How do I store leftovers?

Leftovers can last up for to 4 days stored in an airtight container the refrigerator. To reheat, simply heat in on stovetop over medium heat or microwave for 2-3 minutes until fully-warmed through.

What cuts of beef can I use?

Popular stir-fry meats include either flank or skirt steak. They’re economical, relatively easy to find in most supermarkets, and tasty. For more tender meats with more fat content, you could also try rib eye (my personal favorite), sirloin, or NY strip.

Can I substitute this with another protein?

For sure, you can also use slices of chicken, pork, shrimp, or even firm tofu.

What is velveting?

A popular technique used by many Chinese chefs, velveting is a process by marinating the beef in a mixture of wine, cornstarch, and baking soda; which are then briefly fried in hot oil.

In this way, the resulting meat is smooth, silky, and juicy on the inside, ready to be stir-fried. The baking soda further helps in tenderizing the meat as it marinates, which is especially helpful for more tougher cuts of meat, such as flank.

Looking for more tasty takeaway classics? Here’s a couple of our viral recipes:

• Orange Chicken
• Char Siu Chicken
• Beijing Beef
• Sweet and Sour Pork