• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

China Sichuan Food

Chinese Recipes and Eating Culture

  • Recipes
    • All Time Popular
    • Sichuan Food
    • Staple| Rice|Noodles
    • Pork
    • Beef & Lamb
    • Chicken & Poultry
    • Fish & Seafood
    • Egg & Dairy
    • Salad & Cold dishes
    • Beverages & Tea
    • Dessert
    • Soup
    • Vegan
    • Vegetarian
  • Pantry
  • Blog
  • About
    • PRIVACY POLICY
  • Video
  • How to
  • Hot Pot
    • Chinese Hot Pot e-Cookbook

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

May 12, 2015 36 Comments

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

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
Print
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*
Fat 46g71%
Saturated Fat 11g69%
Cholesterol 70mg23%
Sodium 2803mg122%
Potassium 625mg18%
Carbohydrates 12g4%
Fiber 2g8%
Sugar 1g1%
Protein 21g42%
Vitamin A 350IU7%
Vitamin C 78.5mg95%
Calcium 38mg4%
Iron 3.3mg18%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Serve with steamed rice. It is really comforting!

Hunan Beef

Filed Under: beef and lamb, Recipes, Stir fry

« Garlic Snow Peas Stir Fry
Three Cup Chicken »

You may also like

Liangpi—Cold Skin Noodles

Liangpi – Cold Skin Noodles

Chinese beef noodle soup

Chinese Beef Noodle Soup

Sichuan Dumplings (Zhong Dumplings)

Comments

    Leave a Reply to Elaine Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *






    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Iris says

    October 28, 2018 at 3:56 pm

    5 stars
    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
    • Elaine says

      October 30, 2018 at 7:58 am

      Thanks Iris. You are so sweet.

      Reply
  2. Javes N Wells says

    October 29, 2018 at 3:26 am

    5 stars
    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
    • Elaine says

      November 9, 2018 at 8:20 am

      Thank!

      Reply
  3. beelove says

    July 31, 2019 at 2:07 am

    i am so excited to try this recipe tonight!

    i have all ingredients at hand except for the pickled yellow peppers. are they hot (spicy) peppers? i’m trying to see if i can substitute latin american pickled peppers (which are very spicy) for the chinese peppers.

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      July 31, 2019 at 7:39 am

      Those pickled yellow peppers are quite spicy too. I believe the version you mentioned can be a good substitute. It is actually pickled wild peppers. Let me know how it turns out. Happy cooking!

      Reply
  4. Matt says

    April 27, 2020 at 9:06 am

    I know the yellow peppers that are used in this recipe, and I have not found them in the US. I did find a pepper that is similar in taste, maybe a little less sweet but just as hot. They are Cock Brand Pickled Red Chilli (Whole), and are imported by Thai World Import &Export Co.,LTD.

    https://www.amazon.com/Cock-Brand-Pickled-Chilli-Whole/dp/B07GQMG678

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      May 3, 2020 at 8:20 am

      Matt,
      That seems workable. By the way, if you get fresh peppers, you can pickle them at home.

      Reply
« Older Comments

Hi, Welcome!

Please not be limited by site name, as Elaine shares Chinese recipes beyond Sichuan dishes. Know me more from About Page

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe for Updates

Most Popular

Beef Shank Noodles

Beef shank noodles

Homestyle Mai Fun

homestyle mei fun | chinasichuanfood.com

How to Make Kimchi at Home

homemade kimchi |chinasichuanfood.com

Chinese Pantry

sweetened red beans|chinasichuanfood.com

Sweetened Red beans

Chinese aromatics|chinasichuanfood.com

An Introduction to Chinese Vegetables: Allium, Aromatics and Peppers

homemade rice noodles|chinasichuanfood.com

Homemade Rice Stick Noodles

Saqima|chinasichuanfood.com

Sachima

ChinaSichuanFood.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use only images without prior permission. 图片和文字未经授权,禁止转载和使用。

Copyright © 2021 · Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in