Easy Beijing Beef Recipe - tender beef with crispy coating and tossed in Panda Express style sauce. Spicy, sweet, and savoury at the same time and made with simple cupboard friendly ingredients.
Super budget-friendly and taste way better than regular take out dishes. Learn how to make at home with our easy step by step instructions.
What is Beijing Beef Panda?
Beijing beef is an Americanize Chinese dish, crispy beef slices tossed in bell pepper, onions, and sweet & tangy sauce. One of the most popular beef dish on the menu of Panda Express American-Chinese fast food restaurant. Another name for Beijing beef is Peking beef, as Peking is a former name of Beijing City in China.
What is your favourite Chinese takeaway beef recipe? Here is our website's most viewed crispy beef recipes you might like to try out:
- Crispy Chilli Beef ( UK Chinese restaurants and takeaway favourite chilli beef recipe. )
- Crispy Shredded Beef ( Must try shredded beef steak tossed in sweet and savoury sauce. )
- Salt & Pepper Beef ( Crispy fried beef strips tossed with Chinese salt and pepper seasonings. )
Here is the ingredients you will need:
Beef marinade:
Most beef steak cut works well for this recipe, we usually use flank steak, ribeye, rump or sirloin steak. Always cut the beef against the grain to get the tender result and marinate with simple basic ingredients, soy sauce, white pepper powder, sugar, sesame oil, and baking soda.
Baking soda: Adding baking soda in the beef marinade tenderize the meat and you will achieve the melt-in-mouth restaurant quality crispy beef.
Why do you add egg white in the coating? Egg white prevent the beef slices soft and tender, even though the corn starch coating is still crispy outside.
It's important to marinade the beef slices before deep frying to prevent the beef from getting tough and dry.
You can swap the beef with chicken and make it a crispy Beijing chicken. Or to make it vegetarian, add tofu slices instead of meat and no need to marinade tofu. Simply season it with salt and pepper and coat with corn starch, then deep fry until the coating is crispy.
Sauces, vegetables and ingredients for stir fry:
As this is a very versatile dish, you don't need to add exactly same vegetables or sauces. Adjust the sauces amount according to your preference and swap or add any of your favourite stir fry vegetables.
To bring a bit of heat to the dish I add fresh red chilli slices. You can also add dried red chilli flakes or you can omit the chilli if you wish to make it less spicy.
Hoisin sauce:
Hoisin sauce is made of fermented bean paste, sugar, sweet potato and Chinese spices. It has a sweet, savoury and salty taste. You don’t need to use much, a tablespoon of sauce can bring the aromatic flavour. If you can't easily get hoisin sauce, substitute with oyster sauce for this this recipe.
How to serve this dish
You can have on it's own with your favourite drink or serve it up with steamed rice, egg fried rice or simple stir fry noodles. Pair it with Hot and Sour Soup, Crispy Fried Wonton, or Chicken Fried Rice and make it a wholesome Chinese banquet dinner. Your dinner guests will definitely amazed by your Chinese cooking skills.
If you enjoy our recipe, please leave a comment and give us a rating! If you’ve tried this recipe, tag me on social media, I would love to see your creations! Follow me on social media Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for the latest updates.
Beijing Beef Recipe
Ingredients
- 9 oz Beef steak about 250 g, cut think slices ( flank, rump, sirloin or ribeye steak )
- ½ Bell pepper cut in small squares
- ½ Onion cut small cubes
- 1 Red chilli pepper cut thin slices ( or red crushed chilli flakes )
- 1 tsp Garlic chopped
- 1 cup Corn starch or potato starch
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1 Egg white
- Vegetable oil for frying ( or neutral flavour oil, sunflower, canola, grapeseed, etc )
Beef Marinade
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce light soy sauce or all-purpose soy sauce
- 1 tsp Sugar
- ¼ tsp White pepper powder
- ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Sesame oil
Sauce
- 2 tbsp Ketchup
- 1 tbsp Hoisin sauce or Oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp Sweet chilli sauce
- 1 tbsp Rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp Water
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Corn starch
- 2 tbsp Light soy sauce
Instructions
- First cut the beef steak into thin slices or strips, against the grain. Marinade with soy sauce, sugar, white pepper, sesame oil and baking soda. Set aside for 15-20 minutes.
- Prepare the vegetables by cut the onion and bell pepper in small cubes. Cut re chilli into thin slices.
- In a small bowl, mix all the sauce ingredients and set it aside.
- Break one egg into the marinated beef mix it well. Then dredge the beef slices in the corn starch. Make sure each beef slices are separated and coated well. Toss the excess flour out before frying.
- To deep fry the beef, heat the oil into high-heat about 350° F. Fry the coated beef slices for 2-3 minutes, until the coating is crispy. Remove from oil and transfer to paper towel or cooling rack.
- In a large wok or pan, add 1 tablespoon oil, heat the pan to medium heat, add chopped garlic and stir for few seconds. Follow with the onion and bell pepper and stir fry for 1 minutes.
- Pour the sauce mixture in and stir well until the sauce starts to get thicken. Place the fried beef and chilli slices in. Toss well to combine the beef and sauce evenly.
- Transfer to serving plate and serve immediately with plain rice, egg fried rice or stir fry noodles.
Nutrition
Erika says
My boys are HUGE Panda Express fans and Beijing Beef is one of their favorite dishes along with Orange Chicken. I happened to stumble on this recipe when they told me they wanted me to make Beijing Beef as we are no longer residing in the states. Let’s just say it’s a HUGE hit with even the big kid (dad). I make this dish at least once a week. It’s simple and absolutely DELICIOUS!!! The longest part of making the dish is going to be frying up the meat. You can precut veggies and have sauce made for when meat is done to have everything come together quickly. I definitely recommend this recipe. I always make 1 1/2 x the sauce so there’s extra sauce for their noodles (egg noodles) that I make to go with it. YUMMY!!! 😋
Khin says
So happy to hear it Erika. This dish is one of our family's favorite crispy beef recipe too! Thanks for trying out and sharing feedback with us.
Miss T says
Hi, what is the egg white used for in this recipe?
Khin says
Hi Miss T, egg white keeps the meat most and tender when you deep fry it.
Jean says
Not sure what baking soda is. Bicarbonate soda or baking powder. Thanks
Khin says
Hi Jean
It's Bicarbonate soda. Thank you for reaching out.
Jame says
One of my favourite beef dish from Panda Express. Now I can make at home. Thank you.
Khin says
My pleasure, Jame. Hope you enjoy our Beijing Beef recipe!
John says
I love Beijing beef. Thanks for sharing easy recipe. My son doesn’t like hoisin sauce. What can I substitute?
Khin says
Hi John, you can add oyster sauce instead of hoisin sauce for this recipe. Thank you so much for trying out.