Simple homemade stir fry beef in oyster sauce recipe you can prepare under 30 minutes. Easy one-pan beef and vegetable stir fry with delicious stir fry sauce. Serve with a bowl of plain rice and create a perfect fakeaway dinner!
Stir fry beef with oyster sauce if one of the most popular Chinese restaurant beef dishes, packed with sweet and savoury umami oyster sauce flavour. You can find it in most Chinese restaurants and takeaways across the UK.
What I love about this dish is it takes no time to prepare and is perfect for weeknight dinners, when you are craving Chinese cuisine. You just need to cook the rice ahead to complete this dish.
In this post, we'll be sharing how to create a restaurant-quality tender beef stir fry with our simple tips and tricks.
If you love Chinese beef stir fry dishes, you will also like our popular Ginger Beef Stir Fry , Beef Udon, and Beef In Black Bean Sauce recipes.
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What do we need?
Beef: I usually use ribeye, sirloin, or rump steak for this recipe as these cuts are more tender and have less marinating time. If you wish to use other cuts like flank or chuck steak, let it marinate extra 5-10 minutes.
Choy Sum: Choi Sum is a leafy green stir fry vegetable, very similar to pak choi and bok choy. You can use any green stir fry vegetables like Kailan ( Chinese broccoli ), broccoli heads, or tender stem broccoli.
Oyster Sauce: Use good quality oyster sauce like Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce or Maekura Thai Oyster Sauce which has a very rich umami taste.
How to make Beef in Oyster Sauce
- First, slice the beef steak into thin slices, against the grain. Marinade the beef with soy sauce, Shao Xing wine, sugar, corn starch, and baking soda. Mix well and let it sit aside for at least 10 minutes.
- Mix the sauce ingredients together, whisk well and put to one side. Gather and prepare the vegetables as this dish is a very fast stir fry.
- Heat the large wok/pan over medium-high heat, sear and stir fry the marinated beef slices until no longer pink, then follow with the garlic, ginger and stir for few seconds.
- Follow with the onion, stem part of choy sum and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Next, add the leaves, stir for few seconds and pour the sauce mix in, then toss everything together.
Ingredients variations
You don't need to add exactly the same ingredients used in this recipe. You can customize the meat, vegetables, stir-fry sauce and make your own-style beef with oyster sauce.
- Protein - You can swap beef with chicken, lamb, pork, or prawns. For the vegetarian options, use firm tofu or Quron meat.
- Vegetables - You don't need to use the same vegetables, you can add any of your favourite stir fry vegetables like magetout, babycorn, bell pepper, green peas, etc.
- Oyster sauce - If you have a certain allergy to shellfish products, you can use vegetarian stir fry sauce instead of the oyster sauce. ( You can find it in the Lee Kum Kee brand. )
- Shao Xing Wine - Shao Xing wine can be substitute with dry sherry or Japanese mirin. If you want to make it alcohol free, you can skip it or use halal mirin or add a splash of rice vinegar.
Cooking tips
- Velveting meat is important to acheieve the juicy tender restaurant-like beef stir fry. Adding cornstarch, baking soda and Shao Xing wine in the beef marinade keeps the meat moist and tender and this is a Chinese method of meat velveting.
- Recommend to wash the choy sum several times by swishing them around the large tub of water to remove all the sands. You can also rinse under running water. Shake the excess water and let it dry over the clean towel or paper towel.
FAQ
This dish is made with melt-in-mouth tender steak slices, crisp vegetables and umami stir fry sauce. The oyster base stir fry sauce taste is a combination of salty, sweet and savoury together.
You can use vegetarian mushroom stir fry sauce ( Lee Kum Kee ) or Hoisin sauce which is made from fermented soya bean paste and other spices.
This dish is a healthy stir fry recipe, which has only 380 calories for each serving. This is an approximate per potion without rice.
What to serve with this dish
Like other Chinese stir fry dishes, this dish is best to serve with jasmine rice, egg fried rice or plain noodles. You will be on your second bowl of rice before you even notice! Pair it with Hot and Sour Soup, Crispy Honey Shrimp or Crispy Orange Chicken and make it a wholesome banquet dinner.
Equipments
Traditional Chinese cooking for this kind of beef stir-fries is cooked with wok over high heat. Wok stir-fries have a distinct flavour that everyone loves. If you a fan of wok hei, you can use seasoned wok, like carbon steel wok. It can stick at the bottom sometimes, you need to add a bit more oil than a regular non-stick pan.
If you don't have a traditional wok, you can still create a tasty beef stir fry. Use large non-stick or regular wok and spread the beef to sear first. Then turn sides and continue the stir fry process. I used non-stick wok in this recipe and the dish turns out perfect.
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📖 Recipe
Beef In Oyster Sauce
Ingredients
- 300 g Beef Steak about 10.5 oz ( ribeye, sirloin, rump, chuck, etc. ) cut into thin slices
- 200 g Choy Sum about 8 oz , Pak choi or Kai lan ( see details in note )
- ½ Onion cut thin slices
- 1 tbsp Garlic finely chopped
- 1 tsp Ginger finely grated
- 2 tbsp Vegetable oil or neutral flavour oil
Marinade
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Corn starch
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce or regular soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Shao Xing wine ( optional )
Stir Fry Sauce
- 3 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 1 tsp Dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Water
- ½ tsp Corn starch
- 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Sesame oil
- 2 tsp Sugar
Instructions
- First, cut the beef steak into thin slices against the grain. Season the beef with soy sauce, sugar, Shao Xing wine, baking soda and corn starch. Set aside and marinade for 10-15 minutes.
- Cut the choy sum into 2" pieces, separate the stem and leaves. Mix all the stir fry sauce ingredients in a bowl, whisk well and set it aside.
- In a large wok or pan, drizzle 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Heat the wok over medium high heat and add the marinated beef slices. Flatten and sear the beef for 2-3 minutes then flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Follow with the garlic, ginger and stir it well for few seconds.
- Next add the onion slices, stem part of choy sum and stir fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Then add the choy sum leaves, stir for few seconds and pour the sauce in.
- Continue cook for another 1-2 minutes until the sauce start to get thick and glossy.
- Transfer to serving plate and serve with plain rice or noodles.
Notes
- Beef - Recommend using tender steak cuts like ribeye, sirloin, rump, flank steak, etc. Do not skip the marinade step as this is the key method to keep the meat moist and juicy when you stir fry with high heat.
- Choy Sum - You can use pak choi, bok choy, Kai-lan ( Chinese broccoli ), or any other stir fry green vegetables. If you use hard vegetables like broccoli or tender stem broccoli, blanch them in hot boiling water for 1-2 minutes before adding in the stir fry.
- Shao Xing Wine - is a Chinese cooking rice wine, you can avoid it or can be substituted with Japanese mirin or dry sherry for this recipe.
- Can you reheat? Like most stir fry dishes, it tastes best to be served right away. However, you can reheat with a microwave or in the wok until piping hot.
- Can you freeze it? I do not recommend freezing but you can keep it in the fridge with an air-tight container, it lasts in the fridge for a couple of days.
Christine says
Very delicious the family loves it.
Luke Kim says
Great recipe
Hannah says
So good! Really chuffed with how this came out and now looking forward to perusing your other recipes!
Laura says
We only had mirin in the house, so for the marinade we used mirin but left out the sugar. We used udon noodles instead of rice.
The sauce we made to recipe, and my goodness, it was soooo good, thank you so much for this, it was delicious, will be making again.
Kayla says
You say to cook the rice in advance but don’t say why?
Khin says
Hi Kayla, this dish is usually served with rice at our house. So we cook rice in advance before we stir fry the beef. So as soon as the dish is ready, you can serve it immediately with rice. You can also serve it with noodles.
Dianne Clatworthy says
I made for the second time first time too salty so second time left out the dark soy it was more to our palette thanks for sharing
Regards Dianne
Khin says
So glad that you enjoyed it, Dianne! Thanks for sharing feedback.
Alison Swift says
Could you use chicken instead of beef for this recipe? I'm trying to cut down on red meats.
Love your recipes.
Khin says
Hi Alison, definitely you can try with chicken. Hope you enjoy it.
Grahame says
Just made it, delicious
Khin says
I am really glad to hear that you enjoyed it Grahame.
Amer Syed Hasan says
I love all kinds of different Chinese dishes
Khin says
Thank you Amer. I am so glad you enjoy the recipe.
May says
Addicted to it.
Khin says
Thank you so much May! Glad you enjoyed it!
Yasmine says
I’ve never tried this dish before. Thanks Khin!
Khin says
Hope you enjoy our recipe Yasmine!