A Beef Stir Fry to die for! Tender strips of beef with a sticky honey black pepper stir fry sauce, this is one of my favourite dishes at my local Chinese restaurant. This may well be the fastest stir fry recipe you make all year – 1 minute to cook the beef, 1 minute to make the sauce. And you’re DONE!
Beef Stir Fry with Honey Pepper Sauce
Chinese Beef with Honey Black Pepper Sauce is one of my favourite dishes that I order at Chinese restaurants. Never take out. It has to be at a restaurant because I love the theatrics of how it’s served – sizzling in a cast iron dish.
I don’t recreate the sizzle at home – I wish I could! If you have a cast iron dish or a small skillet so you can take it straight from the stove to the table, then you’ll get the sizzle. And I’m jealous.
But I have managed to recreate the glorious sauce for this stir fry! Sweet, salty and with a subtle peppery heat, this really does taste like what you get at restaurants. Look at it! Who could resist that??
What you need
I promised you simple, and I exaggerate not! Here’s all you need:
Beef – rule of thumb for stir fries: if you’d serve it as steak, it’s ideal for stir fries! Use a decent-to-good tenderloin, flank, New York strip / Porterhouse / Sirloin (same thing!), boneless ribeye/scotch fillet. It doesn’t need to be a high end dry aged steak! To use a budget slow cooking cut of beef, tenderise it the Chinese way before using (“velveting beef”);
Honey and black pepper – the two dominant flavours in the sauce!
Oyster sauce – loaded with complex flavours, a secret weapon in Chinese/Asian cooking. Sub with Hoisin;
Chinese wine aka Shoaxing wine – the secret ingredient in 99% of Chinese cooking. Read more about it here, sub with Mirin, dry sherry or cooking sake. For a non alcoholic sub, use chicken broth/stock (see recipe notes);
Soy sauce – everyday, ordinary all purpose soy sauce. Or light soy. Don’t use dark soy – too strong!
Garlic and onion – because not much food happens in this kitchen without these two!
How to make it
As with all stir fries, once you start cooking it moves super fast so be sure to have everything ready to toss into the wok before you start cooking!
In this recipe, we cook the beef first, then take it out – this is to control the cook time of the beef. Then we simmer the sauce in the pan until it becomes syrupy, then toss the beef back in.
Intense flavoured stir fry sauce!
My stir fry recipes tend to err on the side of generous amounts of sauce, because a stir fry isn’t a stir fry if you don’t get to eat sauce soaked rice. Nobody wants to be left with a bowl of plain rice after eating the stir fry!!
However, this is particular Beef Stir Fry is one of the exceptions. The flavour of this honey pepper stir fry sauce is quite intense, being a concentrated syrupy sauce as opposed to being thickened with cornflour/cornstarch like they usually are.
So you don’t want nor need loads of sauce. But there’s enough to carry plenty of flavour through the rice!
And another difference to most of my stir fry recipes – this Beef Stir Fry is light on the veg, whereas most stir fries are a kaleidoscope of colour of a small amount of protein with lots of veggies!
So serve this with a fresh side – like a crunchy Asian Slaw, this Chinese Lettuce with Creamy Sesame Dressing or a leafy Asian Side Salad with Sesame Dressing.
You could also sneak some veggies into the stir fry – some julienned carrots and similar shaped vegetables would be ideal.
Enjoy! – Nagi x
PS For a healthy low carb option try Cauliflower Rice – 77% fewer calories and 87% less carbs than rice.
Watch how to make it
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Beef Stir Fry with Honey and Black Pepper Sauce
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce (Note 1)
- 3 tbsp honey
- 1 1/2 tbsp Oyster sauce (sub Hoisin)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine , Mirin or dry sherry (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tsp coarsely crushed black pepper (or 1/2 tsp normal ground black pepper)
Stir Fry
- 2 tbsp peanut oil (or vegetable or canola oil)
- 1 garlic clove , finely minced
- 1/2 onion , peeled and sliced
- 500g/1 lb thinly sliced tenderloin, flank, sirloin/Porterhouse/strip, or any other cut of steak suitable for stir frying (Notes 3)
Instructions
- Mix the Sauce ingredients in a bowl.
- Heat the oil in a wok or large heavy based skillet over high heat until it is smoking.
- Add the onion and garlic and cook for 1 minute or until the onion becomes translucent. Keep it moving so the garlic doesn’t burn.
- Add the beef and stir fry for 1 minute until just cooked to your liking, then remove into bowl.
- Turn the heat down to medium high, pour in Sauce – it will start simmering very quickly! Let it cook for 1 minute or so until it becomes syrupy – the bubbles will be larger and caramel colour.
- Add the beef and onion back into the wok, along with any juices pooled on the plate. Toss in the sauce until just warmed through – 1 minute at most. Don’t overcook the beef – that would be tragic!
- Serve immediately with rice – or for a low carb, low cal option, try Cauliflower Rice!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published July 2015. Updated November 2019 with new photos, new video and the most important thing – Life of Dozer section added!!!
Life of Dozer
It’s Melbourne Cup tomorrow, the race that stops the nation! 🐎🐎🐎 We’re heading out to a lunch and Dozer’s coming. So here he is being fitted for his Race Day outfit! 😂 Turns out his hat is a little small…. need to find a bigger one!
Nagi.
Another great recipe . Its one of my favourites when I go out so it was great to make it at home especially with our fresh honey. Hubby has put in the order for chicken chow mein tonight…. lol . Always have a jar of Charlie sauce in the fridge. Love your website and recipes. I have recipes coming out of my ears from many sources but yours is one of my favourites.
I’m so pleased you like this Maxine! Thank you for taking the time to come back and let me know – N x
WOW! I had head and tail pieces from the filet. Found this recipe and I am hooked. So good with so much flavor. Served over Basmati rice.
Fantastic!🙌🏻 I’m so pleased to hear that Lou! N xx
Hi!
The recipe seems very tempting. I’m thinking of trying it today as I already have all the ingredients in my kitchen. One thing I’m wondering though.. the recipe does not mention salt? Do we not need to marinate the beef with salt first or add it at any other stage?
Please let me know.
Thanks
Hi Nimra! You don’t need salt, the sauce provides the salt!
Hi Nagi,
If I wanted to add broccoli to this dish, at what point would i add it?
Thanks!
Right at the beginning, saute it to cook 🙂 It will take longer than the beef to cook. N x
Another winner recipe from Recipe Tin! I made this tonight for dinner and it was amazing. I used a flat iron steak, which was a good choice. I also added more garlic (my brain doesn’t process one garlic clove), instead I used four. Served it over rice as suggested with a side of gently steamed baby asparagus. Very very good recipe which I will make again and again.
Hi Farrel, I’m so glad you enjoyed it, thank you for letting me know! ❤️ N xx
Hi Nagi,
I made this tonight and it was delish! Question- how do you get the sauce to thicken? Couldn’t for the life of me get it thicker!
Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed this Ebony! The should definitely thicken because of the honey and oyster sauce. Were you cooking on high heat?? If one low heat juices can leech out of the beef and thin the sauce. N xx
Hi Nagi,
I’m at the prep stage (excited) ive got some tender loin I’ve marinated
and I’m about to cook I’ve left the beef in the fridge for several hours
will let you know the outcome thnx in advance. x
Oooh! Hope you love it! 🙂
Tried this and nailed it. Perfect just like a restaurant, also tried the Cashew Chicken and again nailed it. Thanks Nagi for making it easy to follow and easy to cook.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this Stuart! Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and let me know! N x
Hi Nagi, Great recipe!! It was easy and super delicious!! I love to cook but usually fail lol I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes!! Thanks for sharing (:
Hi Nagi, I am going to try this today. Normally I do not comment before actually making, but I must have graduated somewhere. I have actually made the Pork Mince bowls, Char Siu Pork, Nasi Goreng and quite a few variations on any one of your recipes. I really appreciate your work. I messed up on the Char Siu by attempting to heat the marinade before reapplying it during the roasting time, my own fault and lesson learned: it separates (it also should have been the culinary death of those nice hunks of pork that I singed it way too much under broiler). Nevertheless even that mistake made great pork for a version of Egg Foo Yung that I found and tried: it was delicious. I used it in the Nasi Goreng and heard the applause of all eaters, it was great. My family now believes that there is only one type of pork, that’s now my mistaken attempt at your classic: Whoops Char Siu. I’ll get it right next time.
This beef interests me, I have never even heard of the use of baking soda as a tenderizer for any meat. I looked it all up and learned all about “velvetize”, wow, no kidding? I appreciate your note that it is not necessary too. Nevertheless, I am going to try it. Your method seems to be the most practical and something belonging in a kitchen rather than a science lab. I can also hear quite clearly your advice on the 3 ingredients and I am about to take off to the store to get the Oyster Sauce.
Thank you.
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth! Thanks for your message, I really appreciate you taking the time to leave this message!! I do hope you try it – I promise this method of velveting words just as well as the egg / cornstarch method but is much cleaner and easier!!! Love to know what you think if you try it!
Nagi: I did not try this as the only Oyster Sauce I could find was “Oyster Flavored Sauce”. That would be like getting cheese flavored cheese (we do have American Processed Cheese Food, but it is still a valid point). I did make the Crispy Sticky Mongolian Beef (5 yums) from your site. Great recipe. When and if I can find real Oyster Sauce I’ll be back here. I have a question on the Char Siu but will post it on that recipe. I do want to try the “velvet” concept but I happened to get lucky on the rump steak and the Crispy beef was perfect.
Thank you.
Elizabeth
I always joke that American Cheese is not actually cheese…..it’s not! It’s NOT!!! 😉
I am about to write a very in depth review into the intricacies of this dish. Thusly, if you are short on time, this review is not for you.
I will proceed…
SIZZLE. The trademark noise of any good Chinese meal and a real head turner in the kitchen. This recipe propels kitchen status exponentially onto a galactic scale.
This dish is comparable to a strong cup of jasmine tea, if you know what I mean, and can eradicate and shame felt from dropping a chopstick due to its shear authenticity.
Tasty! The pepper undertones are complementary to the perfectly peppery palate this dish provides. With a delectable sweet lift of the honey. A real touch of class to a takeaway favourite, this dish would not be out of place in the streets of my hometown, Hong Kong.
One of my most favourite aspects of this recepie is its quick, easy and fail safe. A real go to classic that I will definitely be having again.
I hope you enjoyed this review, and as always my friends, Eat Rice!
Thanks for trying my recipe Alex! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for taking the time to let me know! N x
Hey.. The recipie seeems delicious..
Can i replace the oyster sauce with any other sauce? I have worchestire sauce..
Hi Dina! I’m sorry to say you won’t get the same result if you use worschestire because it is quite different to Oyster Sauce!
Hi there. I stumbled across this recipe, and it looks great. Is Rice Wine the same as cooking wine? Or should I just use dry Sherry? I can’t find Cooking Wine (unless Rice wine is the same) at my local supoermarket
Hi Mike! Rice wine will work just find as a substitute!
Hello,
Cooked this meal couple of times now and it tastes great. So simple and quick !!! Struggling to get the sauce syrupy like in your pictures, any tips ?
Hi Alex! So glad you love the taste! 🙂 Just cook the sauce down a wee bit more. The more you cook the sauce, the thicker it becomes!
Hmm just tried this with Quorn Steak Strips and a veggie “Oyster” sauce – and very nice it is too! Thank you 😀
So glad you enjoyed it!! 🙂
Hello,
I’m gonna try this recipe this week, I found some rice wine on Tesco website, is this the Chinese cooking wine that I need? Really looking forward to this as it’s my favourite Chinese dish. Thanks in advance, i’m gonna check out your other recipes!
That’s it Richard! I hope you love it!!
Hi Nagi,
I made this recipe last week for me and the misses and it was truly delicious! That’s the first time I’ve made anything by following a recipe but definitely won’t be the last! Chicken wings next I think. Thanks and have a good Christmas.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! And I really appreciate that you took the time to come back and let me know! 🙂 Merry Christmas to you too!
Hi There,
Made this and served it with your Singapore noodles…..went down an absolute storm !
My 17 year old son has aked can I make this weekly !
Thanks for this great collection….I will be trying more
Cheers,
Dave
YAY! SO GLAD!! And what a combo – this AND noodles?? You rock!
Love your recipes Nagi, I have made several of them now and they have all been delicious, so far this is my favourite, the one pot shwarma a close 2nd
Oooh, thank you Fiona! This is a big personal favourite for me too 🙂 It reminds me of my childhood – mum would never let me have honey prawns because they were too sweet but we were allowed to have this!! N x
Wow! it looks absolutely delicious..I’ll make this ASAP..thanks for the recipe..
So glad you like the look of it! Hope you love the taste of it too!!
So delicious looking food! Will be trying them soon!
Thank you Rajitha! 🙂
Hi! I have dark soy sauce in my fridge, how much of that can I use for your recipe? and what can I substitute for oyster sauce?
Hi there! I would use 2 tbsp of dark soy (because the flavour is stronger than ordinary) but I’m afraid there is no good substitute for the oyster sauce in this. Hoisin has a close texture in terms of thickness but the flavour is quite different. Hope you can hunt oyster sauce down, it’s sold in all supermarkets nowadays! 🙂
Thanks for getting back to me so quick. I live in South Africa so will hunt down for markets that sell oyster sauce