Stir fried beef in oyster sauce is often one of the early dishes that Asian food virgins experiment with before moving on to more adventurous and spicier recipes.
Video Showing How to Make the Best Stir Fried Beef in Oyster Sauce
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If you are having guests over or have younger children, it is a great dish to present because it is different from the usual fare without being strongly spiced.
Just because it lacks the chili fire of my usual Thai dishes does not diminish its awesome tastiness just as you could say for our Thai Beef salad or Nam Tok Nua dish.
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Ingredients You Will Need
- A tender cut of beef
- Baking soda
- Oyster sauce
- White pepper
- Sesame oil
- Cornstarch
- Olive Oil
- Soy sauce
- Black soy sauce
- Chinese wine or cooking sherry
- Brown sugar
- Stock (or water)
- Yellow & Red peppers
- Button mushrooms
- Onion
- Spring onions
- Spur chili (garnish)
Why You Want to Make Stir Fried Beef in Oyster Sauce
- It is a great recipe as an introduction to Asian food.
- It is children friendly so the whole family can enjoy.
- Healthy peppers mix with delicious tender beef.
- It is super tasty served with a little freshly steamed Jasmine Rice.
- Great for dinner parties as there’s limited spice in the dish
- Easy to heat up leftovers in the microwave and retains that great taste.
How to make this Thai Stir Fried Beef in Oyster Sauce Recipe Step by Step
Step 1 Marinating the Beef
If you’ve ever had a cheap stir fried beef takeaway you’ll probably remember a rather chewy experience with soft and meh vegetables. If you’ve had the same dish from a good Thai or Chinese restaurant then you will probably have commented on how tender and delicious the beef tasted.
The first key to making the best stir fried beef in oyster sauce is to marinate the beef first. The longer you marinate the better but 20 minutes or so is good enough and several hours is better.
We use a little baking soda in this recipe which breaks down the fibers in the beef and acts as a tenderizer. This alkaline ingredient is neutralized by the slightly acidic oyster sauce so no need to wash it off.
Slice the beef thinly so that the marinade can really get into the meat and also so the beef cooks quickly.
Add the baking soda and massage it into the beef for a couple of minutes and then add the remaining marinade ingredients and mix together well. Cover and leave for 20 minutes and if leaving for longer then refrigerate.
Step 2 Preparing the Vegetables
Cut your peppers as shown in the video above. This keeps them chunky and gives them a little crispiness when cooked rather than those soggy peppers you might have had foisted on you.
Chop the green part of the spring/green onions into 1-2 inch sections so you have some color in the dish and something to bite into. Similarly, with the mushrooms, halve them unless they are quite large in which case you might want to quarter them.
Peel and then chop up the onion into moderately sized pieces.
You want the vegetables to have some substance to bite into and to be very lightly cooked for the best consistency and taste.
Step 3 Doing the Stir Fry
Start by heating your large pan or wok with a little cooking oil – a high temperature vegetable oil is best or light olive oil (not virgin which has a low smoke point and is best for salads).
Add in the garlic and cook until it releases that wonderful aroma and then add in the marinated beef, stirring well to brown on all sides and soak up yet more flavor from your garlic.
When the beef is browned, mix together all the sauce ingredients with the exception fo the cornstarch and stock and add into the mix. Rinse out the sauce mixing bowl with 1/3 cup of water and add to distribute the sauce.
Mix together the cornstarch with the stock and add after a minute or so to thicken the sauce, cooking for a couple of minutes. Then add the prepared vegetables and stir around to mix everything together, continuing to cook for 3-4 minutes.
Serve with freshly steamed jasmine rice and luxuriate in the seventh heaven of taste.
Recipe for Thai Style Stir Fried Beef in Oyster Sauce
Stir Fried Beef In Oyster Sauce With Vegetables
The Video showing this recipe being cooked is near the top of the page – A convenient Jump Link to the video is below the description under here.
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Ingredients
Ingredients For Marinade
- 12 oz Sirloin Steak
- 1 Tsp Baking Soda
- 3 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
- ½ Tsp White Pepper
- ¼ tsp Sesame Oil
- 1 Tbsp Cornstarch
Ingredients For Stir Fried Beef
Garnish
- 3 Sliced Chili Spur
- 2 Tbsp Chopped Spring Onion
Instructions
Marinade
- Add baking soda to the beef and massage until mixed well then add oyster sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch and mix together. Add cornstarch and massage a bit more. Cover and leave in the fridge at least 15 mins. A longer time marinading will produce a greater depth of taste.
Stir Fried Beef In Oyster Sauce With Vegetable
- Dice pepper and onion into chunks. Chop the mushrooms in half and chop the green/spring onion tops about 1-2 inches long.
- Mix together the stir fry sauce ingredients such as oyster sauce, soy sauce, Chinese wine, black sweet soy sauce and brown sugar in preparation for the stir fry.
- Separately mix the stock (or water) with the cornstarch which will be used as a thickening agent. Keep a little extra water on hand for swishing out the sauce and thinning the stir fry sauce if necessary
- Heat a frying pan with olive oil then add beef, stir until the beef 90% cooked. Add the mixed sauce, peppers, onion & mushrooms. Stir to mix well then taste adjusting with additional sugar or a little oyster sauce if necessary.
- Once happy with the taste, then add the chopped spring onion and stir for a few seconds.
- Serve with freshly steamed Jasmine rice garnished with spur chilli and a little reserved spring onion tops.
Nutrition
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Katie in Action
It turns our Katie is rather partial to strawberries. Elsa wasn’t watching anyway and so was happy to keep playing!
I am a Thai mum and love cooking for my children. Over the years, I have taken my family recipes as well as ones borrowed from friends and adapted them to make them even tastier. I publish my authentic Thai Food Recipes here for all to enjoy around the world. When I get a chance to travel I publish information to help others visiting Thailand.