Easy Mongolian Beef | The best recipe out there (8 years strong!) | The Woks of Life

Hi everyone, this is a great day because we're going to make Mongolian beef, which means that we all here are going to have Mongolian beef for lunch. One of our most popular recipes on the blog and since we've introduced it, everybody loves it. The crowd pleases, the family loves it, my husband loves it, my picky son loves it, everybody loves Mongolian beef. And so Mongolian beef, you think, where was this invented? Now we think it probably was invented somewhere in Taiwan and certainly not Mongolia, but it was popularized by P.F. Chang here in America. And when we first tried it, we thought the beef was good, but it was a little bit sweet. So we adjusted that, we backed off the sugar and then we added some aromatics, which are very key. Some of these toasted red peppers, some ginger, some garlic, and of course scallions that you gotta have. So just one note is that the recipe has been there for a long time, but we got a lot of feedback because the portion was kind of small, eight ounces of beef, and everybody's like, hey, I gotta double this recipe. So we updated that recipe and we also, this recipe is featured in our latest cookbook, The Walks of Life, which you'll want to pick up by the way. It's always nice to be able to cook from the book as well, but you've got a whole bunch of other fantastic recipes, you won't be disappointed. But for now, we're finally, it's overdue, we're going to make this on video so you can see all of the little details. I'm going to point out the questions actually that readers have come up with. First thing is the beef. People say, hey, it's a little bit of a pasty when you make it. Well, the reason why it's pasty sometimes is that your beef might be quite dry. I typically wash the beef. So when I wash the beef, it dehydrates it a little bit. Maybe it has a little residual water after you slice it. But even then, I add a tablespoon of water. We add a little bit of the cornstarch and the baking soda. So the water helps that baking soda tenderize the beef as well. And you'll get a nice, juicy beef inside and then a crispy outside. That's the key. All right. So after this beef has been marinated and been tenderized for a while, you just start dredging your beef. I love using this sheet pan. And you just, you know, go through this, power through this a little bit, make sure that it's lightly coated. You get all sides here, you know, because you want a nice crust on it. And with this sheet pan, you get plenty of real estate spread out. I used to do this on a plate. You know, using this half sheet pan, you get so much more real estate. It's so much easier. And you don't have to worry about making a mess. And then you get these little crispy bits, right, that build up on your finger over time. That's actually great. It gives it a little bit of texture. Kind of like fried chicken. Future crispy bits. And when you're dredging this beef, I get it. You want to make a lot of it. Because you don't want to go through this trouble of dredging and frying it. And when you taste it, you're like, I want more. Absolutely, yes. That's a very good point. Because instead of making a separate slurry and discarding this cornstarch, you could just put a couple of tablespoons of water on the sheet pan afterwards, stir it all up, and use that as the slurry. Because remember, I've gotten so many comments on this. Oh, I put the cornstarch in, it was too much, it was all gloopy. Well, the idea is actually not to use all the cornstarch. It's very hard to predict, because sometimes people have hotter pans, or cooler pans, and less or more liquid evaporates. So just pour a little bit of cornstarch in there, a little slurry in there. If it's not enough, put some more. If it's too much, you don't use it all. What was that? Do this how you want to do it. Lightly dredge, get a little wet spot. Now some of you have added vegetables, feel free to, but I think there's something to be said about keeping that recipe pure with the beef and the scallions, crispy beef and scallions Check it out. Ruin that up, man. No broccoli. Broccoli and carrots and vegetables. There's other times to eat vegetables. I said, eat it on the side. So I've got the oil heating here, and of course I've set up my ingredients off to the side. I'm going to have my trusty cast iron pan where I'm going to put the crispy beef after we get done, and I'm just going to start laying these in. It's about two-thirds of a cup of oil, maybe a little bit more. I'm using avocado oil here, because it has very good smoke point. Key is to be very careful with the oil, but don't be afraid of it. I'll let it cook on one side. Get nice and brown. I could probably use a little bit more time. Okay, this first batch looks like it's almost done. See how that nice crust is? Nice crispy. It gets kind of dried in the crust, and then the sauce is just going to soak up into that. Oh boy, can't wait. I'm going to take my strainer here, push the beef up, put it on the strainer, scoop it out, give it a couple of shakes. And while that's draining a little bit, I'm just going to multitask here. Start laying out the second batch. A little heat control here. Turned it down a little bit towards the end, and now I'm putting the beef in. It's cooling off the oil again, so I have to turn it back up. You can actually make it in a skillet, yes. Actually, this cast iron skillet right here, you can use this cast iron skillet. Most people have it. No reason not to. So I'm going to, this second batch is almost ready. I'm going to put that there. You can see these pieces of beef. Look at that. Nice and crispy. All right, so I left about a tablespoon of oil in here, and I'm going to put the dried peppers and the ginger, and we're just going to toast this up a little bit. Low heat. I'm going to rush this because you don't want to burn these aromatics, but you want just enough flavor out of these peppers. If you like a lot of heat, you can break these up, but be careful because they are hot. Let me see. Yep, I smell these peppers starting to toast now. They're starting to get fragrant. You're not going to eat these peppers, although you could. They're just going to add flavor to the sauce. Now I'm going to add the white portions of the scallions in, and the garlic, and then just give it a quick toss there like that, like so. There you go. That's really nice. And now I'm going to give my sauce a stir. Turn up the heat a little bit. Before all that, make sure you get all the sugar and everything. Everything's gone. We use hot water to make that sauce so all the sugar dissolves, and you're going to let this simmer for about, go for about a couple of minutes until it comes up to a simmer, actually. I'm going to stir up your cornstarch slurry. I just use my finger. You could use a spoon. Now it's at a nice simmer. Now I'm going to stir in this cornstarch slurry, thicken it up a little. Just drizzle it in. Not all of it. Don't be tossing all of it in. Then you're going to be like, oh, it's so goopy. What do I do? Then you're going to have to add water. So you can see it's not quite thick enough, so I add more. Just enough to coat a spoon. Right there. That's about right, actually. See how it bubbles up and about that consistency, right there. You've got a lot of beef here, so next what I'm going to do is I'm going to toss this beef right in here, like that. I'm going to toss all these scallions in, just like that. Keep the heat going. Make sure all the beef is coated. Look, I didn't use all the cornstarch, and the beef is nice and crispy and dry, so it's soaking up all the sauce. Perfect. This is exactly what you want it to look like. I'm going to go get a plate, and we're ready to plate it. Now that, a little bit of work involved. It's Mongolian beef, but frying the beef and what have you, but it comes together quickly at the end, and look, just look at what you get. The sauce consistency is perfect. Mongolian beef, folks. That, at least as good as, if not better than a lot of restaurants. You try it. It's a proven recipe. People have been cooking it again and again and again, and now you have a reference video. See how easy it is? Let's go try it. You guys are lucky you get to do the taste test. I love that it's not too sweet. It's like the perfect amount of sweet, because usually it's like really sugary. Like a syrupy, right? This is perfect. Just the right amount of sauce. It's just supposed to cook the beef. These aromatics, you don't have to eat them, but you could. I don't know. I think you're asking for a nightmare on the toilet with that. Pretty good though. Might be. I'll worry about tomorrow. Are they really spicy or not? They're pretty spicy. Yeah, I don't do that. Here you go. The perfect bite. It is yummy. I literally have readers say I've made it 20 times. Delicious. All right, that's a wrap. Mongolian beef. Make it. Love it. Live it. Laugh it.