A super comforting and appetizing stir-fried beef dish with a sweet, savory flavor and a pungent aroma. Use my homemade chili garlic sauce to create this one-dish meal for dinner in under 25 minutes! In this post, I wrote: An introduction to the all-purpose chili garlic sauce and to this dish Some cooking notes A Recipe In a post earlier this week, I introduced a Sichuan all purpose chili garlic sauce and explained how to use it to effortlessly create super flavorful spicy dishes. I use the original chili garlic sauce as a master sauce, so I can add it into a dish at the end of cooking to infuse a pungent garlicky flavor. Beyond that, I use it as a base sauce to create various Sichuan style sauces by simply adding a few more ingredients. You can click here to get the recipe and read more about the master sauce. It is super easy to make, can be stored for months, and helps you get dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less. After my first example, which used the sauce to cook stir fried spicy shrimp, I will introduce a slightly more complex recipe today. In this recipe, I use the master sauce as a base, and add oyster sauce and sugar. The pungent garlic sauce turns into a comforting savory sauce with a spicy and sweet flavor that goes great with all sorts of stir fried dishes.
Although I use beef and pepper in this recipe, you can replace them with various other ingredients. You can easily replace pepper with broccoli and the beef with chicken or pork. You can also use the sauce to create stir fried noodles or a vegetarian dish.
Cooking Notes
Although this is a very standard recipe, I do have a few things to stress. First of all, I used a wok and a gas stove when cooking this dish, so you will find that the given cooking times are very short. If you are using an electric stove or a flat bottomed skillet, the cooking time may need to be doubled or even tripled. For any stir fried dish, you should always judge the cooking time by the doneness of the ingredients. Do not follow the times given in a recipe strictly, since a lot of factors affect the cooking time. I’ve talked about how to create tender and moist beef with a skillet in this post. That method is slightly different from doing so with a wok. So I suggest you read that post if you’re going to use a skillet to cook this recipe. The only tricky part of this dish is generating moist and tender beef slices.
There is one thing I always do with all meat and poultry dishes. Coat the meat with cornstarch when marinating. It will protect the meat from the high heat and will keep it tender during cooking. (Although there’s also a method that involves using baking powder, I am personally reluctant to use it.) I also found that keeping the beef a bit raw will be really helpful. I love a medium rare steak, so I don’t find it much of a problem if the beef is not completely cooked through, as long as I use a nice cut. However, if you need the beef to be cooked thoroughly, you should keep the cooking time as short as you possible, so the beef will be just cooked through and still be tender. Transfer the beef to a plate as soon as it’s cooked, otherwise, the heat of the wok / skillet will continue to cook the meat.
Related recipes
Sichuan All Purpose Chili Garlic Sauce Sichuan Spicy Shrimp Stir-Fry Yu Xiang Rou Si (Sichuan Shredded Chicken Stir-Fry)
