It’s a super easy Cantonese ground beef rice bowl cooked with an oyster-sauce-based sauce, onion, green peas, and runny eggs. Top steamed rice or noodles with it to make a hearty and healthy meal. It’s also perfect to make ahead and use as meal-prep. {Gluten-Free Adaptable}
The Cantonese ground beef and egg bowl is somewhere between Shakshuka and shepherd’s pie. It is a one-pan egg dish that is bright and bursting with flavor, so you’d feel comfortable eating it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or any snack time in between. The sauce is made from oyster sauce and soy sauce – savory with a slight hint of sweetness. Braised with ground beef, onion, ginger, and green peas, it produces a hearty flavor that you won’t mind eating again and again. The dish is so easy to prepare. You simply brown the ground meat, saute it with aromatics, briefly braise it in the sauce, then crack a few eggs into the pan and add some frozen peas. Instead of moving the pan into the oven, you simply need to cover the pan and let the eggs cook to your preferred texture. The prep and cooking takes about 30 minutes total. You can serve some steamed rice on the side. Start the rice right before you start the beef and they’ll both be ready at the same time.
Cantonese Ground beef rice bowl cooking notes
1. Traditional approach vs. this recipe
The traditional approach to making the Cantonese ground beef rice bowl is to marinate the beef in the sauce and cornstarch, then cook it in a wok. The marinating process is intended to eliminate the gamey taste of the beef, impart some flavor, and tenderize it a bit. However, I found that step a bit redundant. The quality of ground beef in the US is so high that the result is great if you simply simmer the meat.
2. Top it with an egg
Many traditional recipes have you crack the eggs at the very end of the cooking, after you dish the beef onto the rice. The idea is to use the hot beef to quickly cook the egg, which forms a semi-raw texture. I personally prefer my eggs cooked to the point where the white is set and the yolk is sticky and runny. So I used a totally different approach and cooked the eggs with the beef and sauce. The end product looks a bit like shakshuka and is pretty stunning, if I do say so myself. My default egg brand for use in daily cooking is Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs. I mentioned them in a previous post. In short, they are a B-Corp brand that sources fresh, high quality eggs from the small family farms they partner with, and then brings them to your grocery store. Unlike at mass-production facilities run by big corporations, their hens are truly humanely treated, and have access to fresh water and grass. As a result, you’ll notice that their eggshells are much thicker, the yolks have a more vibrant yellow color, and the egg whites have a thicker texture. The other day I had a friend come over to cook something together. When he was cracking the eggs, he was surprised and said “Wow, the chicken that made this egg was very well-fed,”Because it took him three tries to crack the egg open. When he dropped the egg yolk into a glass cup from a height of a few inches after separating the eggs, and the yolk held its shape and didn’t break apart at all: a testament to the high quality of Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs.
3. How to tweak this recipe
The traditional Cantonese minced beef and eggs are usually braised with green peas. But you can use any veggies you have on hand to add some color and nutrition to your dish. For example, broccoli florets, sliced carrots, baby bok choy, and spinach all work very well. Or you can also use frozen veggie mix, frozen corn, or frozen green beans. And of course, you can always use other types of ground meat. For example, ground chicken, ground turkey, and ground pork will work well with the sauce.
4. Ingredient replacement
The recipe uses both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. If you only have regular soy sauce, that’s totally OK. The purpose of the dark soy sauce is to add an appetizing brown color to the dish. Replacing it with regular soy sauce won’t affect the taste, but your dish might look a bit lighter than in the pictures shown here. You can replace the Shaoxing wine with dry sherry or even Japanese rice wine. I often get questions from readers asking if they can skip the wine to make the dish halal. You can totally replace it with more stock/broth in this recipe. Oyster sauce is the key ingredient in the dish. In case you need to make the dish gluten-free, you can check out my homemade oyster sauce that’s made with mushrooms. You can also purchase bottled gluten-free oyster sauce.
More easy egg recipes
Easy Egg Curry Easy Egg Foo Young Chinese Egg Drop Soup 3-Ingredient Egg Fried Rice Classic Tomato and Egg Stir-Fry
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag @omnivorescookbook and @peteandgerrys on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
