This shortcut Mongolian Ground Beef has all the delicious flavor and heartiness of our classic Mongolian Beef recipe, but it’s made with ground beef instead of flank steak. It’s our new favorite hack for one of our most-loved dishes!
Check out our recipe and VIDEO to see how we make it! (Jump to the recipe card to play the Youtube video)
A Cheaper, More Convenient Route to Mongolian Beef
For many Chinese beef stir-fries, flank steak is the go-to. It’s not too expensive, and when you slice it thinly against the grain and velvet it (a marinating step that makes proteins remarkably more tender and silky), it’s tender, juicy, and really beefy.
It’s no surprise that flank steak has gotten quite popular. That means prices are up, and I don’t know about where you live, but sometimes when I go to my local grocery store, it’s sold out! Reliably though, there are almost always packages of ground beef available, or even already stashed in my refrigerator.
Enter this little hack of a Mongolian Beef recipe! There’s no slicing and no sedulous cornstarch dredging. You do toss the ground beef in cornstarch, but it’s crazy fast.
“Marry Me” Mongolian Beef
I will say, writing this recipe served as a reminder of just how accessible my dad’s Mongolian Beef recipe really is. It’s truly not complicated once you’ve got your pantry in place. A close friend of mine makes it all the time. She even made it recently for her boyfriend, and he proclaimed it his #1 favorite meal she’s made for him! A week later, they got engaged. Coincidence?! I think not…
Recipe Instructions:
In a medium bowl, mix the ground beef with the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and baking soda. Set aside to marinate for 20 minutes while you prep the other ingredients, or if making ahead, cover and refrigerate overnight.
Next, make the sauce. To a measuring cup, add the hot water and soy sauce. Then stir in the dark soy sauce and brown sugar. Best to use a dry measuring cup for the brown sugar (alternatively, 4 tablespoons make a ¼ cup). Set aside. In a small bowl, mix up the cornstarch slurry.
Once you’re ready to cook, add ⅓ cup cornstarch to a shallow dish. Break up the ground beef into pieces on top of the cornstarch, then use your fingers to break up the ground beef into nuggets and toss them in the cornstarch. You don’t want to mush or combine anything. You want nuggets of ground beef in a layer of cornstarch.
Heat your wok or skillet over high heat. Add the oil and ground beef (you can test one nugget to make sure it has a strong and satisfying sizzle when you add it to the hot pan). Arrange the beef nuggets in a single layer and fry until golden. Don’t move the beef too much! This will allow it to form a nice crust. Once that golden crust has formed, use a wok spatula to flip the beef and let it brown once more undisturbed. Repeat this a couple more times until the beef is uniformly brown and well-seared.
Transfer the beef back to the dish you dredged it in (it will get cooked again), leaving behind the cooking oil.
With the heat on medium-high, add the red chili peppers and cook for 1 minute or so. Add the ginger, and fry for 30 seconds. Add the white parts of the scallions and the garlic, and cook for another 30 seconds to a minute.
Are your dried chilies fresh?
Like most mortals, we’re sometimes guilty of having less-than-fresh spices hanging around our pantry. A common culprit is dried red chili peppers. I made this at my apartment with my old chili peppers and it hardly added the heat and flavor I was looking for. On the other end of the spectrum, we recently bought some fresh ones, and boy were they spicier than I was expecting! You’ll see in our Youtube video, we use 8, but 3-5 is a more measured number.
Stir up your sauce and add it to the pan. Bring to a simmer, then stir up your cornstarch slurry again to ensure it’s well-incorporated. Add it to the sauce mixture. Stir until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of your spatula.
A note about sauce thickening
If you’ve watched our Youtube videos before, you’ve probably heard Bill give the advice to not add the cornstarch slurry all at once. Home heating elements vary, as do wok and pan setups, so you may need a little less or more thickening power. If your sauce looks a little too thick, add a splash of water. If it looks too thin, let it bubble and cook down or add another drizzle of cornstarch slurry.
Add the beef back to the wok along with the green parts of the scallions. Toss to coat everything in the sauce. It should be bubbling and glossy.
Serve with steamed rice!
Watch us make Shortcut Mongolian Ground beef:
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Recipe
Shortcut Mongolian Ground Beef
Ingredients
For marinating the beef:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine (or dry cooking sherry, optional)
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
For the sauce:
- 3/4 cup hot water (or hot low sodium chicken or beef stock)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (mixed with 2 tablespoons water to make a slurry)
For the rest of the dish:
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- ¼ cup neutral oil
- 3-8 dried red chili peppers (optional; use as little as 3 for mild heat or as many as 8 for a kick!)
- 2 teaspoons ginger (minced)
- 4 scallions (white and green parts separated, cut on a diagonal into 2-inch/5cm pieces)
- 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix the ground beef with the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and baking soda. Set aside to marinate for 20 minutes while you prep the other ingredients. (Or if making ahead, cover and refrigerate overnight.)
- Next, make the sauce. To a measuring cup, add the hot water and soy sauce. Then stir in the dark soy sauce and brown sugar. In a small bowl, mix up the cornstarch slurry.
- Once you’re ready to cook, add ⅓ cup cornstarch to a shallow dish. Break up the ground beef into pieces on top of the cornstarch, then use your fingers to break up the ground beef into nuggets and toss them in the cornstarch.
- Heat your wok or skillet over high heat. Add the oil and ground beef in a single layer and fry until golden. Once a golden crust has formed, use a wok spatula to flip the beef and let it brown once more undisturbed. Repeat until the beef is uniformly seared. Remove from the wok, leaving behind any oil.
- With the heat on medium-high, add the red chili peppers and cook for 1 minute.. Add the ginger, and fry for 30 seconds. Add the white parts of the scallions and the garlic, and cook for another 30 seconds to a minute.
- Stir up your sauce and add it to the pan. Bring to a simmer, then stir up your cornstarch slurry and add it to the sauce mixture. Once the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of your spatula, add the beef along with the scallion greens. Toss until the scallions are just wilted. Serve with steamed rice!
