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

May 12, 2015 36 Comments

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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*
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

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  1. Yonina says

    May 14, 2015 at 1:47 pm

    You need to work on the English on this site. It is very peculiar.

    Reply
    • Elaine Luo says

      May 15, 2015 at 1:44 am

      Thanks for the suggestion Yonina. I will try my best.

      Reply
      • Joy says

        May 15, 2015 at 10:09 am

        I understood everything described in your story & instructions! *** Real food comes from a place close to its source *** I appreciate your recipes and stories! You are doing GREAT!!

        Reply
        • Elaine Luo says

          May 15, 2015 at 9:44 pm

          Hi Joy,
          Thank you!! You are so sweet.

          Reply
          • andrea says

            May 29, 2015 at 12:00 am

            Your recipes are great and very clear! Thanks so much

          • Elaine Luo says

            May 30, 2015 at 1:25 am

            Thanks Andrea!

      • Bill says

        January 10, 2016 at 3:44 am

        Elaine, Your English is fine. :>)) And thank you for all the recipes.
        Chengdu forever !!

        Reply
    • Shalisha says

      February 4, 2016 at 8:37 am

      Thank you for this amazing recipe. Don’t worry sbout your Enblish. We understood you perfectly!

      Reply
      • Elaine says

        February 4, 2016 at 9:54 pm

        Thanks Shalisha for your kindness! Happy cooking.

        Reply
    • Marcb says

      January 22, 2017 at 1:59 am

      You need to work on your manners and attitude. what a disgraceful comment on your part.

      Reply
    • Pete says

      June 8, 2018 at 10:29 am

      Peculiar is a peculiar word to use there 😀

      Reply
  2. Datchanee Strange says

    May 15, 2015 at 3:18 pm

    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
    • Elaine Luo says

      May 15, 2015 at 9:39 pm

      Hi Datchanee,

      Thanks so much for your kind words. I love Yunnan food too. I visited Yunnan province in last year and met lots of yummy and delicious dishes I mentioned them here https://chinasichuanfood.com/yunnan-trip-yunnan-food/. Yunnan noodle soup is one of my favorite. I will definitely try to provide the recipe, as you suggested. Thanks again.

      Reply
  3. Ne lyv says

    May 23, 2015 at 4:10 am

    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
    • Elaine Luo says

      May 24, 2015 at 8:41 pm

      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. Martin says

    May 29, 2015 at 6:42 pm

    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
    • Elaine Luo says

      May 30, 2015 at 1:33 am

      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
  5. martynn says

    May 30, 2015 at 3:25 am

    Just found your blog and I love it. Beautiful pictures.

    Reply
    • Elaine Luo says

      May 31, 2015 at 7:29 pm

      Thank you! Martynn.

      Reply
  6. Alice says

    July 4, 2015 at 6:46 pm

    Great post, Elaine! I would love the recipe for how to pickle the yellow peppers!!

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      July 7, 2015 at 1:16 am

      Great Alice,

      I will start as long as I get the fresh peppers.

      Reply
  7. Christine Aben says

    November 5, 2016 at 11:44 pm

    Great website! Greetings from Canada

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      November 6, 2016 at 9:14 am

      Thanks Christine

      Reply
  8. John Thorne says

    May 11, 2017 at 6:44 am

    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
    • Elaine says

      May 15, 2017 at 8:31 am

      Similar and interchangeable.

      Reply
  9. Ed says

    November 20, 2017 at 11:06 pm

    I am going to try this one today. It sounds great.

    Reply
  10. Adrian says

    February 13, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    5 stars
    This recipe is like visiting changsha again , love it !

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      February 14, 2018 at 8:30 pm

      Andrian,
      Thanks. This is my favorite Hunan dish and I love to cook it at home.

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

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