Beef chow fun(pan-fried flat rice noodles) is one of my favorite Cantonese dishes. It is considered as a snack or sometimes a staple food and one of the most basic Cantonese he fun dishes. The ingredient–flat rice noodle is named as “河粉” HeFun in China. Sometimes you may find it spelled as Hor Fun, He Fen or Ho Fun. It is a kind of flat and wide rice noodles in southern china especially in Guangdong province. Either served in stir fry recipes or soup recipes. I fall I love it when I firstly had a small bowl of ho fun soup. And this stir fry ho fun with beef, onion, bean sprout and Chinese chives.It belongs to those 15 minutes that can totally win my heart.
Then for the beef chow fun, let’s take a look at the ingredients. As I am living in Guangdong province, I can purchase fresh ho fun easily at market. You can also used dried flat rice noodles and re-soak until soft before frying.
The most difficult part of this dish is to make a tender taste of the beef and make sure that you do not break the hefen during the process. After stir frying, there should be more extra sauce in the pan. That’s why this dish is called as 干炒牛河 in Chinese meaning dry fried rice noodles with beef. In order to keep the beef a tender taste, firstly after slicing, garnish some water or Chinese cooking wine with the beef and then grasp well, letting them absorb enough water and then add light soy sauce, salt, oyster sauce, and sesame oil and starch to marinade for around 15 minutes.
There are fresh rice noodles and dried ones. If you cannot find fresh ones, pre-soak the dried ones according to the instructions. Fresh wide rice noodle usually is available in package and sometimes they may stick with each other. Do separate them before frying.
Firstly heat up oil in wok and stir-fry the beef. Transfer it out as long as the color changes.
Then all the oil should be poured out,clean your pan or wok. We need a clean and dry pan for later frying process. Add oil and then add shredded onions and rice noodles to cook. Stir in stir fry sauce quickly.
Tips: do not use slice to fry the noodles, recommended tool should be chopsticks. Toss your pan with one hand and then use another hand to fold chopstickers and help turn over the rice noodles gently.
Return beef slices and add bean sprout to fry for around 30 seconds. Then add Chinese chive section or scallion to fry for another 30 seconds.
Here we are! Enjoy!
Beef Chow Fun
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound beef
- 1 pound wide rice noodle , ho fen
- 1 small bunch of Chinese chive or scallion , cut into sections around 10cm long
- 1 small bunch of bean sprouts
- 1/4 middle size white onion , shredded
Marinade sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine or water
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon starch
Stir fry sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Cut beef into thin slices, put into a bowl. And then add all of ingredients for marinade sauce. Stir until well combined and set aside for around 15 minutes.
- Heat up cooking oil in wok. Add beef slices in to cook around half minute or just until the color of beef slices changes. Transfer the beef slices out and also pour the oil out. Clean your pan or wok.
- Heat up around 1 and 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil, add rice noodle and onion shreds and straight after that stir in the stir fry sauce. Keep tossing your pan or wok until the noodles are well coated with the sauce.
- Return beef slices and bean sprouts to fry for another half minutes. Keep tossing your pan.
- Add Chinese chives or scallion to fry for another 30 seconds.
- Serve hot!
Notes
Newly updated recipe on Nov. 2014.
Nutrition
I loved this recipe and also your beef chow mein. Keep the the recipes coming, yummo!
Thank you! Darryl.
This was so good! Perfect amount of flavor and easy to make. I will also be adding it in my weeknight rotation. 🙂
At last I found it–the besr and easiest chow fun recipe on the internet. Delicious and addictive! Thank you. My wife, who ix Cantonese, also loved it.
Thanks and you are the most welcome, Herman. I am glad to be helpful. Happy cooking in 2016.
Bonjour et bravo ,je voudrais savoir qu’ elle morceaux de boeuf faut acheter pour cette recette ?
Hi Martins,
You can use beef steak or beef shoulder for this recipe.
Hi
Your recipes are gonna help.me alot…your pancake…chowmein..etc.they are all amazing and easy to cook.
thumps up to your blog.??
Thank you!
I am preparing this now and I am not familiar with rice noodles and your recipie doesn’t indicate to soak the noodles for 25 min before adding to the pan with stirfry sauce sooo I added them dry….guess we’ll see if I can save this. Hopefully it turns out ok. I have made it before but used pre-prepared udon noodles and i L❤VE the flavor
Hi Pamela,
I use fresh Ho fun noodles which can be equal to fresh udon noodles. But if you are using dried ones,you need to pre-soak them until soft.
There is nothing I like more than a bowl of fresh noodles and meat. I have easy access to fresh rice noodles, and am excited to give this recipe a try. Can I ask what kind of beef your use?
Beef steak is the best ingredients.
I tried your recipe and my family loved it!!! Thank you
“…and make sure that you do not break the hefen during the process.” What does hefen refer to? The only thing I can find is that hefen is the German word for yeast.
By the way I’m going to attempt to make fun noodles from rice flower. I know it has to be steamed.
Hi John,
Hefen is the Chinese name for rice noodles.
I bought some fresh wheat noodle and I’m wondering if they can be used in this recipe.
Hi Annie,
There are several types of fresh noodles but not all of them are good for stir fry. You need to make sure that the noodles contain enough egg or lye water.