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Mongolian Beef

I saw this recipe on Pinterest the other day and tried it that same night. It was one of those days where I was running all afternoon to doctor’s and soccer games, and it came together pretty quickly. I used  flank steak and cut it diagonally against the grain. I think it’s important to use a good cut of meat  for this to not be tough and chewy.

The original recipe only served 2, so I adjusted everything up and while it fed our family of 5, I would say that it would serve 4, since my kids don’t eat much. *Also, she had 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes for spicy. I doubled that and ours was pretty spicy, but my red pepper flakes were very fresh. If you don’t like things very spicy, adjust down to 1/2 teaspoon or less.This was really good and I’ll definitely be making it again. 

Mongolian Beef

Original recipe from Pink Bites. Altered by Crafty Farm Girl, November, 2011.

Serves 4

You will need:

  •  1-3/4 to 2 lbs. of flank steak, thinly sliced on the diagonal
  • 1/2 cup of cornstarch
  • 4 tablespoons of canola oil, divided
  • 1 tablespoon of grated ginger (1-1/2″ piece)
  • 2 tablespoons of chopped garlic (about 6 large cloves)
  • 3/4 cup of water
  • 3/4 cup of soy sauce (I use low sodium)
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes*
  • 6 large green onions, sliced crosswise into thirds

Prepare the meat:

Since this was a large steak, I cut it in half horizontally. To ease the slicing, I stuck it in the freezer for about 45 minutes. Slicing slightly frozen meat thinly is so much easier than slicing raw meat. Forty-five minutes to an hour is enough time that it slices well, but any slightly frozen parts will thaw quickly.


First, make sure the steak slices are dry (pat them dry) and mix them with the corn starch. Using your hands or a spoon, move them around to make sure all pieces are coated. Place beef slices in a strainer and shake off excess corn starch.



Make the sauce:


Heat half of the oil in a large wok or large flat-bottomed skillet at medium-high and add the garlic and ginger.


Immediately add the soy sauce, water. Be careful, mine made a terrible sputtering mess when the soy sauce hit the hot pan, so work quickly.


Quickly add the brown sugar and pepper flakes. Cook the sauce for about 2 minutes and transfer to a bowl. Don’t worry if the sauce doesn’t look thick enough at this point. The corn starch in the beef will thicken it up later.



Cook the meat and assemble dish:

Turn the heat up and add the remaining oil to the wok or skillet. You may want to cook the beef in two batches. I probably should have. Add the beef and cook, stirring until it is all browned (this is a quick thing).


Add the green onions to the beef and cook very briefly while stirring, about 30 seconds. Pour the sauce back into the wok and let it cook along with the meat. Now you can choose to cook it down and reduce the sauce or leave it thinner.



Serve it hot with rice.



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