Beef Noodle Stir Fry

The ideal hearty and flavour-packed quick and easy dinner! This beef noodle stir fry recipe takes just 10 minutes to cook, perfect to make on weeknights! The star of this dish, aside from the Hokkien noodles of course, is the velvety, tender beef strips.

What makes the beef 'velvety' you might think? It all comes down to using the right combination of marinating ingredients and the most effective marinating technique. More on this below. Spoiler: you gotta get your hand dirty.

For more delicious and easy noodle recipes, also check out my Chicken Hokkien Noodles, quick 15-minute Pork Mince Noodles and pork belly Yaki Udon!

Jump to:

• Velveting beef for stir frying
• Ingredients
• The art of stir frying
• How to make beef noodle stir fry
• Useful tips and tricks for making a beef noodle stir fry
• Good to know (FAQs)
• Leftovers/freezing
• Video
• 📖 Recipe
• More delicious stir fries

Velveting beef for stir frying

Have you ever wondered how the meats (be it chicken, beef, seafood etc) at Chinese restaurants are always tender soft with a delicious, flavourful coating around every single piece?

This is all thanks to the ingenious 'velveting' technique!

The velveting technique was developed to create tender meats covered with a light, velvet-like flavourful coating. This is achieved through taking the following steps:

1. Marinating the meats with cornstarch combined with other flavouring condiments, typically soy sauce, oil, rice wine and some sugar. Liquids and cornstarch create that desirable silky, velvet coating.
2. Massaging the marinating ingredients into the meats. Of course, one can simply mix with a pair of chopsticks or a fork. But the best result comes from getting your hand dirty and massaging the marinade into the meats. This is how you get the meats tender. Think of it as you massaging the toughness out of the meats!
3. Finally, flash fry in oil or flash cook in boiling water before quickly removing and setting aside. This seals the meat. Keeping all the moisture inside the meat and bringing about that velvet coating. For this recipe, the marinated beef will be quickly seared in a hot pan to seal and create a caramelised velvet coating then removed.

To complete a dish, typically, other ingredients such as vegetables and noodles (if using) will be stir fried then the velvety meat will be added back into the pan in the last 30 seconds or so to finish off.

Now let's bring this technique to life and incorporate it into this beef noodle stir fry!

Ingredients

• Beef steak. Any steak cut will work, depending on your budget. Think rump, flank, scotch, porterhouse, chuck, etc. However, since the velveting method is used, the budget cuts are perfect to use (for the wallet and taste!). I used the blade steak (trimmed off the fat and white fibrous chewy tissue) when shooting for this recipe.
• Hokkien noodles are ideal for stir frying! Usually in the fridge section of a supermarket or Asian grocer. Can use other types of egg noodles as well such as thin egg noodles or Singaporean noodles (which as slightly thinner than Hokkien noodles).
• Snow peas add a light crisp texture to the noodles. Can substitute with sugar snap peas or other green vegetables you have in the fridge such as celery, broccoli and even zucchini.
• Dark soy sauce and normal soy sauce. Dark soy sauces are richer in flavour (umami/savouriness) and colour with a lower sodium level compared to normal soy sauce. A combination of both is used for a balanced flavour profile in this noodle recipe.
• Brown sugar is preferred over white sugar as it is richer in flavour (added molasses). This is a personal preference of mine, feel free to use white sugar instead.
• Shaoxing wine is a cooking rice wine that is a staple in Chinese cooking. Suitable substitutes include mirin (Japanese rice wine) and dry sherry.
• Oyster sauce is a delicious flavour enhancing condiment with a touch of sweetness. It is also a very frequently used condiment in Chinese cooking. A dish that really heros oyster sauce is easily the popular dim sum (yum cha) Chinese Broccoli (gai lan).

The art of stir frying

Key elements to highlight when it comes to stir frying are:

• Heat - stir frying means cooking on high heat, stirring quickly. This creates caramelisation of ingredients which in turn, creates depth and complexity. Remember to always preheat the pan or wok nice and hot before adding oil and other ingredients. You want to hear that sizzling sear.
• Speed - one of the appeals of stir fries is that they are quick to cook. There is art behind the timing of when certain ingredients are added. This means everything happens quickly which brings me to the last point. Preparation.
• Preparation - for a successful, stress-free cooking process, make sure to prepare everything in advance. Plates, spatula, ingredients washed, trimmed and laid out ready for use.

Now that we've got the basics down pat, time to cook.

How to make beef noodle stir fry

Marinate and prepare

To begin, the first thing you've got to do is marinate the beef. As discussed above, the key here is to massage the marinade into the beef strips to tenderise and help the seasoning to penetrate well.

Before marinating, cut the beef into bite-sized strips. For the best texture, cut against the grains of the beef. This is technique is not limited to beef of course, you want to do this when stir-frying chicken, pork and lamb also.

Cutting against the grains of meat makes the meat much easier to chew as it shortens the length of the muscle fibres. The result, together with marinating using the velveting technique, is tender and flavoursome meat!

For this recipe, marinate the beef with soy sauce, oyster sauce, shaoxing wine, oil, cornstarch, black pepper and minced garlic. Marinate for at least 15 minutes up to overnight.

The beauty of cooking with fresh Hokkien noodles is that all you have to do is loosen the noodles in hot, boiling water.

Whilst beef is marinating, wash, chop and trim the vegetables.

Takes just 10 minutes to cook

First, get the aromatics going. Saute thickly sliced brown onions, minced garlic and some spring onions (green onions) with 1 tablespoon of neutral-tasting oil. Best use a non-stick pan or wok.

Once the garlic has turned lightly golden (this happens quickly!), push the onion mixture to the rims of the pan to make room for the beef.

Add beef, spreading it into a single layer to allow each and every piece direct heat from the pan for caramelisation. Do not stir the beef, let it sear on high heat for about 1 minute until caramelisation develops then flip and sear the other side for a further minute.

By now the beef should be 70% to 80% cooked. Transfer beef and onion mixture into a bowl/plate and set aside.

In the same pan (no need to wash), saute thickly sliced mushrooms with a little more oil. Cook on high heat until mushrooms are lightly caramelised. This will take about 5 minutes so a little patience will be well rewarded! Getting colour on mushrooms develops the most amazing flavours. A particularly important technique when the mushroom is the star of a dish like my Creamy Mushroom Sauce!

Now, add trimmed and stringed snow peas and stir fry for about a minute. Do not cook it any further as you want the snow peas to stay crisp!

Then, add prepared Hokkien noodles, dark soy sauce, brown sugar and a few drops of sesame oil. Sesame oils are very aromatic and thus a little goes a long way. Adding too much will overpower the overall aroma of the dish.

Toss the noodles thoroughly on high heat. Best use both hands for even tossing. You can use two spatulas, one in each hand or a spatula and a pair of chopsticks like me.

Soy sauces' flavour deepens and matures when cooked and thus it's important to let it caramelise in the pan. Toss the noodles for about 1 minute.

Finally, add the beef and onions mixture back into the pan. Season with freshly cracked black pepper. Toss and stir fry for about 1 minute to let the flavours distribute evenly.

The beef should be just cooked and snow peas still crisp with the rawness cooked out of it.

Serve with a sprinkle of finely sliced spring onions and some toasted sesame seeds.

This beef noodle stir fry recipe makes 4 generous portions.

Useful tips and tricks for making a beef noodle stir fry

• Use a non-stick pan/wok. Since the meats are marinated with cornstarch, they can easily stick at the bottom of a pan. Non-stick cookware will eliminate this inconvenience. Otherwise, make sure your wok is well seasoned and get it very hot before adding the beef in.
• To save time, you can marinate the beef in advance, up to about 24 hours. This can significantly cut down the amount of time spent in the kitchen on the day! Particularly useful for busy weeknight dinners.
• Drain the Hokkien noodles well before adding them to the pan. This will help proper sizzling of the noodles and promote caramelisation (which means flavour!) of both the noodles and the seasoning.

Good to know (FAQs)

Leftovers/freezing

This beef noodle stir fry keeps well in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 days in the fridge and 2 to 6 months in the freezer. Make sure to store in airtight containers to maintain freshness.

Made this recipe? Let me know your thoughts or questions by dropping a note in the comments section below! I'd love to hear from you. 🙂

Happy cooking! - Gen

Video

📖 Recipe

More delicious stir fries