This ginger beef recipe, with crispy coated beef, a gingery, lightly sweet sauce, and caramelized ginger is a delicious restaurant-style meal that will make you wonder how you pulled it off in your own kitchen! Easy to make and impressive, this dish has a pleasant ginger flavor that isn’t overpowering.
The Origins of Ginger Beef
Ginger Beef isn’t a dish you see too often in the U.S., because it’s more well-known as a Canadian Chinese dish! It is said to have originated in Calgary.
There is a Chinese precedent, 姜牛肉 – jiāng niúròu in Mandarin or geung gnau yuk in Cantonese, which often uses young ginger, which is milder and sweeter. The young ginger is added to the dish in larger quantities, almost as a vegetable!
Ginger enjoys a warm, humid environment, so we’re pretty sure it wasn’t growing readily in Calgary. As such, this version uses regular “old ginger” which you can find in any grocery store.
It sort of reminds us of Mongolian Beef—another North American dish that doesn’t have much to do with Mongolia, and that you’d be hard pressed to find in China.
The sauce is sweet (my version goes lighter on the sugar, however) and savory. I added minced ginger as well as caramelized julienned pieces of it to create a gingery flavor without it being TOO gingery. Some versions include vegetables like peppers and onions, but that felt too close to Pepper Steak for me, so I left them out.
Our famous Mongolian Beef is beloved by so many of our readers. If you’ve made that recipe and loved it, think of this dish as a tasty, gingery riff on it!
Let’s cook!
Ginger Beef Recipe Instructions
Add the sliced flank steak to a medium bowl, and add the marinade ingredients (the cornstarch, neutral oil, oyster sauce, water, and baking soda). Mix well, and marinate for at least 30 minutes (or up to overnight).
In a liquid measuring cup, mix all the sauce ingredients together—the water, light brown sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, and minced ginger. Set aside.
Add the cornstarch to a shallow dish, and dredge the marinated beef slices in the cornstarch until thoroughly coated, placing the dredged beef on a clean plate or sheet pan.
Heat the neutral oil in a wok over high heat. Just before the oil starts to smoke, spread half the flank steak pieces evenly in the wok. Sear for 1-2 minutes on each side, until you have a crispy coating. I found ¼ cup was enough for my 14-inch wok. If you have a larger wok, you may need a tablespoon or two more to properly fry the beef.
Remove the beef from the wok, leaving any oil behind, and repeat with the remaining beef. Turn off the heat and transfer the beef to a plate.
Watch Us cook this recipe!
Drain the oil from the wok (save it for other cooking), leaving 2 tablespoons behind. Turn the heat to medium-high. Add the julienned ginger, and fry until crispy. At this point, you can remove a few pieces of fried ginger to reserve for garnish, but that’s up to you!
Add the premixed sauce to the wok, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the remaining 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water. Drizzle this cornstarch slurry into the sauce. Cook until it has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Add the beef and the scallions, and toss everything together for another 30 seconds. The sauce should all be clinging to the beef.
Plate and serve with steamed rice!
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Recipe
Ginger Beef
Ingredients
For the beef and marinade:
- 1 pound flank steak (sliced against the grain into ¼-inch/6mm thick slices)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons neutral oil (such as vegetable, canola, or avocado oil)
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon water
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
For the sauce:
- ⅔ cup water
- 1 ½ tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- ¾ teaspoon dark soy sauce (or more regular soy sauce; the dish just won't be as dark)
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
For the rest of the dish:
- ⅓ – ½ cup cornstarch (plus 1 tablespoon)
- ¼ – ⅓ cup neutral oil
- 2 tablespoons finely julienned ginger
- 1 scallion (thinly sliced on an angle)
Instructions
- Add the sliced flank steak to a medium bowl, and add the marinade ingredients (the cornstarch, neutral oil, oyster sauce, water, and baking soda). Mix well, and marinate for at least 30 minutes (or up to overnight).
- In a liquid measuring cup, mix all the sauce ingredients together—the water, light brown sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, and minced ginger. Set aside.
- Add the cornstarch to a shallow dish, and dredge the marinated beef slices in the cornstarch until thoroughly coated, placing the dredged beef on a clean plate or sheet pan.
- Heat the neutral oil in a wok over high heat. Just before the oil starts to smoke, spread half the flank steak pieces evenly in the wok, and sear for 1-2 minutes on each side, until you have a crispy coating. 1/4 cup oil works for a 14-inch wok, but if you have a larger wok, you may need a tablespoon or two more to properly fry the beef. Remove the beef from the wok, leaving any oil behind, and repeat with the remaining beef. Turn off the heat and transfer the beef to a plate.
- Drain the oil from the wok (save it for other cooking), leaving 2 tablespoons behind. Turn the heat to medium-high. Add the julienned ginger, and fry until crispy. At this point, you can remove a few pieces of fried ginger and reserve it for a garnish if you like.
- Add the premixed sauce to the wok, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the remaining 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water. Drizzle this cornstarch slurry into the sauce, and cook until it has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Add the beef and the scallions, and toss everything together for another 30 seconds. The sauce should all be clinging to the beef. Serve!
Nutrition Facts
FAQs
We think you’ll get the best out of this recipe with flank steak, but yes, you can use other cuts. See our post on How to Velvet Beef for a conversation around different cuts and tenderizing.
Just substitute a gluten-free soy sauce and gluten-free oyster sauce (Lee Kum Kee makes one—look for the green panda label). For the dark soy sauce, you can use your preferred gluten-free soy sauce to make our dark soy sauce substitution here.
Thinly slice the ginger on its broadest side (so you have wide slices)—cutting the narrower side of the ginger to make a flat surface for the ginger to stand on will make this easier. Fan the slices out straight, so they’re slightly overlapping, like a deck of cards. Then you can just follow that line of slices to julienne into very thin matchsticks.
