Black Pepper Beef Stir Fry (37g Protein)

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Black pepper beef lives or dies on one move: toasting coarsely crushed peppercorns in hot oil before anything else goes in. Skip that and you get brown beef with dust on it. Do it and you get the Cantonese restaurant version, with 37g of protein per serving from a pound and a half of flank steak.

The whole thing cooks in about 10 minutes once your slicing is done. The marinade is a quick velvet, the sauce is four pantry things stirred in a bowl, and the wok does the rest.

Why this works

Two techniques carry this recipe. First, the cornstarch and soy marinade is a shortcut velvet. It coats the thin beef slices so they stay tender at high heat and gives the sauce something to cling to. Second, the wok has to actually smoke before the beef goes in. Flank steak is lean, and lean beef turns chewy when it stews instead of sears. If your burner is weak, cook the beef in two batches rather than crowding it. I covered the same crowding problem in my lighter Mongolian beef, and it matters even more here.

Ingredient notes

Flank steak is my pick for the price, but skirt or sirloin work the same way, sliced thin against the grain. Buy whole peppercorns and crush them in a bag with a pan. Fine pre-ground pepper burns in the oil and tastes flat. Shaoxing wine is in most Asian aisles now; dry sherry is the standard substitute, or just leave it out. Green bell pepper is traditional here and its slight bitterness fits the pepper sauce, but use whatever color you have.

Black Pepper Beef Stir Fry

Cantonese restaurant style black pepper beef, with the pepper toasted in the oil so it actually tastes of something.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 390

Ingredients
Method

Ingredients

  

• 700 g flank steak about 1.5 lb, sliced thin against the grain
• 1 tbsp soy sauce for the marinade
• 1 tbsp cornstarch for the marinade
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
• 2 tsp black peppercorns, coarsely crushed plus 1 tsp ground, do not use fine pre-ground only
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce for the sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 4 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 1 large onion cut into petals
• 1 large green bell pepper cut into chunks
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced

Method

 

1. Slice the flank steak thin against the grain, no thicker than 5mm. Toss with the soy sauce, cornstarch, and Shaoxing wine. Let it sit 10 minutes while you cut the vegetables.
2. Stir the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and water together for the sauce.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok over the highest heat your stove has, until it just starts to smoke. Lay the beef in a single layer and leave it alone for 60 seconds before stirring. Cook 2 minutes total, until browned but not quite cooked through, then scoop it out.
4. Add the remaining oil, then the crushed peppercorns. Toast them in the oil for 20 to 30 seconds until fragrant. This step is the whole dish.
5. Add the onion and bell pepper. Stir fry 2 minutes, keeping some crunch. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds more.
6. Return the beef with any juices, pour in the sauce, and toss for about a minute until everything is glossy and the beef is just cooked. Serve immediately over rice.

Tips and storage

This keeps 3 days in the fridge and reheats better than most stir fries because flank steak is lean enough not to go greasy. If you are cooking for the week, portion it over rice the way I do my beef and broccoli meal prep bowls, and slightly undercook the peppers so they survive the microwave. For a faster ground meat version of the same wok-and-rice formula, my Korean ground beef bowls get you 41g of protein with less knife work. If you like beef cooked fast and hot, try my cumin beef stir fry next.