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Hunan Beef – A Spicy Beef Stir Fry Popular Across the Country

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Hunan style beef stir fry—a dish popular across the country. This is the authentic Chinese version.

Hunan Beef

As a foodie who loves spicy food, Hunan food is one of my top choices; even sometimes Hunan style dishes are too spicy for me. Hunan cuisine usually features fresh chili and short term picked chili peppers for example this salted Hunan chili.

There are several versions inside China, mostly with essential pickled yellow pepper. We call this as 小米椒. It might be difficult to find outside China. You can try to pickle some at home or replace with other fresh chili pepper+ 1 teaspoon of vinegar (used in the stir fry sauce). This little pickled yellow pepper enjoys a really high popularity in China in different cuisines (mainly in Hunan and Sichuan cuisine). It presents a unique sour flavor bought by the fermentation. If you love to make some at home, check this post.

Hunan Beef

Hunan Beef

And celery can be replace with coriander. But I highly recommend using celery in this recipe as long as you do not hate it. And it is very important to note that even you need to make a larger batch, do you stir fry too many beef once!! The large amount of beef will immediately make the temperature lower down greatly and thus creating unqualified wok temperature.  To keep the beef tender, you need to use highest fire and limit the time. I do not photo the stir fry steps because I am alone at home and cannot wait for around 10 seconds to take pictures.

5 from 3 votes
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Hunan Beef -A Spicy Beef Stir Fry Popular Across the Country
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
5 mins
Total Time
20 mins
 
Hunan style beef stir fry--a classic and popular Chinese beef stir fry recipe
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Beef, stir fry
Servings: 2
Calories: 555 kcal
Author: Elaine
Ingredients
  • 200 g beef tenderloin
  • 2 long green peppers
  • 3 long red peppers
  • 1/2 cup pickled yellow pepper
  • 1 cup celery
  • 2 garlic cloves , chopped
  • 1 thumb ginger , chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda , can be used for tendering the meat, optional
  • small pinch of salt
  • 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons cooking oil
Marinating sauce
  • 1 tablespoon cooking wine
  • 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon starch
  • small pinch of salt
  • pinch of pepper
  • 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
Instructions
  1. Cut beef into thin slices (as thin as possible). If you are not skilled at cutting, frozen the beef for around 10 or 15 minutes before cutting.
  2. Transfer beef into a large bowl and then add cooking wine, light soy sauce, starch, salt and pepper. Mix generally and them add sesame oil. Combine everything well. Set aside for 15 minutes.
  3. Prepare all the side ingredients, cut peppers, celery, garlic and ginger.
  4. Heat up cooking oil in wok until really hot and then fry the beef slices for around 30 seconds. Transfer out.
  5. Return the extra oil to wok, fry garlic, ginger and all the peppers until aroma. Add celery and sprinkle a pinch of salt too. Return beef, add light soy sauce and give a quick fry. Transfer and serve with steamed rice immediately.
Nutrition Facts
Hunan Beef -A Spicy Beef Stir Fry Popular Across the Country
Amount Per Serving
Calories 555 Calories from Fat 414
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 46g 71%
Saturated Fat 11g 55%
Cholesterol 70mg 23%
Sodium 2803mg 117%
Potassium 625mg 18%
Total Carbohydrates 12g 4%
Dietary Fiber 2g 8%
Sugars 1g
Protein 21g 42%
Vitamin A 7%
Vitamin C 95.1%
Calcium 3.8%
Iron 18.3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Serve with steamed rice. It is really comforting!

Hunan Beef

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  2. Your English is fine. I’ve been following your blog for a while. Thank you so so much for bringing out lots of authentic mainland Chinese dishes recipes to share. I lived in China a couple years and love Sichuan and Yunnan food. Could you share some Yunnan noodle soup recipes too?

    Reply

  3. Your English is fine! I understand all your instructions! Thank you very much for sharing these wonderful recipes! I see these dishes when we dine out in a Chinese restaurants. Now, I can cook them myself! Kudos to you…. Hope to see more authentic recipes!

    Reply

    • Thanks Ne for your sweetness. This is a must order dish in China for people who loves spicy food. I promise more authentic recipes will be on the blog. Thanks for visiting and leaving me such a kind comment.

      Reply

  4. I tried finding the pickled Yellow Peppers here in L.A. at a Chinese Market and I could not find them..?? Do they sell them?

    Reply

    • Pickled baby yellow pepper might be very hard to find outside China. Can you find fresh baby yellow pepper? If yes, I can post a tutorial about how to pickle them at home.

      Reply

  8. Are Chinese yellow peppers the same as the Thai ones? I grow those in my garden and would love to try them in this recipe.

    Reply


  11. Have just discovered this site and I am blown away about how good it is.
    Your English is good enough for me. Thanks again for the great recipes.

    Reply


  12. I love this recipe. I used chicken instead and it came out delicious. I didnt find anything you said hard to understand and definitely not weird. Keep up the good work!

    Reply

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