Mongolian Beef is one of our favorite classic Chinese takeout dishes. The tender beef coated in a sweet and savory sauce is so good! It also couldn’t be easier to make at home.
Our Mongolian Beef recipe is so incredibly simple and can be made in under 30 minutes. It’s the perfect weeknight meal to make, especially on busy nights. We love making a double batch of this recipe because it makes great leftovers to enjoy the next day.
How to make Mongolian Beef
- First start by seasoning the sliced steak with salt and pepper. Then toss the steak in cornstarch until fully and evenly coated. The cornstarch helps to tenderize the beef as well as thicken the sauce.
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add some oil. Saute the ginger and garlic until fragrant. Then add soy sauce, water and sugar and bring to a boil until sugar dissolves. This allows the flavors of the sauce to meld together.
- Pour sauce into a measuring cup and set aside.
- Place skillet back over heat and add more oil. Add steak and sear until evenly browned on both sides, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Pour sauce back into skillet and toss together with meat. Allow sauce to thicken, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Toss in green onion and continue to cook for 1 more minute until sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
- Pour Mongolian beef over steamed rice and serve. So easy!
What to serve with Mongolian beef?
This dish is commonly served with a side steamed rice. We like to serve ours over a bed of steamed rice so the sauce runs into the rice. It’s so good!
Mongolian beef is also commonly served over a bed of fried cellophane noodles, which adds a light, crisp texture to the overall dish. We opted out of the noodle version since frying the noodles would add an extra step and more clean-up in the end, but it is a delicious alternative!
Make Ahead
- The sauce in this dish can be made up to 5 days ahead of time. The meat can be sliced up to a day ahead of time.
- When ready to make the dish, toss beef in salt, pepper and cornstarch. Sear in skillet as directed.
- Warm the sauce in a saucepan for a few minutes before adding it to the seared meat. This will help to avoid the temperature dropping in the skillet, not allowing for quick and even cooking.
- The overall dish can be made up to 3 days ahead of time. When ready to serve, pour entire mixture into a large skillet and simmer over medium heat until warmed through, about 5 to 6 minutes.
Freeze Ahead
Cool Mongolian beef completely before transferring into a freezer friendly container. Store in freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to use, thaw in refrigerator overnight. Pour mixture into a skillet and slowly reheat until just heated through.
FAQs
Mongolian beef is a stir fry beef dish served at Chinese restaurants. The sliced beef is quickly cooked and coated in a sweet and salty sauce with green onions.
The name of the dish refers to Mongolian barbecue style of cooking, which is quick and over high heat. The dish itself isn’t actually a part of Mongolian cuisine.
Many people think Mongolian beef originated in the U.S. and is considered a Chinese-American Dish. It was actually developed in Taiwan, where Chinese barbecue restaurants originated.
Coating the sliced beef in cornstarch is important because it helps to tenderize the meat. Cornstarch also helps to thicken the sauce.
Flank steak, sliced against the grain is most commonly used to make Mongolian beef, although any quick cooking beef works great. We use New York strip steaks in our version, as flank steak isn’t always found at all grocery stores and New York strip steaks generally are.
This recipe is so simple and requires such few ingredients, it’s one of our favorite weeknight dinners! We love serving it with some lightly roasted green beans to make it a complete meal.
If you love this simple and delicious Mongolian beef recipe as much as we do, you’ll also love our recipes for Sesame Chicken, Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Garlic Noodles. Enjoy!
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Mongolian Beef
INGREDIENTS
- 2 New York Strip Steaks, thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 pounds)
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- ⅓ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ⅓ cup water
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- 2 green onions sliced into 1 inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds optional
- salt and pepper to taste
- steamed rice for serving
Recipe instruction visual controls:
INSTRUCTIONS
- Season sliced steak with salt and pepper. Toss steak in cornstarch until fully and evenly coated. Set aside.
- Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoons oil. Add garlic and ginger and saute for 1 minutes. Add soy sauce, water and sugar and bring to a boil until sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes.
- Pour sauce into a liquid measuring cup and set aside.
- Place skillet back over heat and add remaining oil. Add steak and sear until evenly browned on both sides, 1 to 2 minutes per side.
- Pour sauce back into skillet and toss together with meat. Allow sauce to thicken, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Toss in green onion and continue to cook for 1 more minute until sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
- Pour Mongolian beef over steamed rice and serve.
NOTES
- The sauce in this dish can be made up to 5 days ahead of time. The meat can be sliced up to a day ahead of time.
- When ready to make the dish, toss beef in salt, pepper and cornstarch. Sear in skillet as directed.
- Warm the sauce in a saucepan for a few minutes before adding it to the seared meat. This will help to avoid the temperature dropping in the skillet, not allowing for quick and even cooking.
- The overall dish can be made up to 3 days ahead of time. When ready to serve, pour entire mixture into a large skillet and simmer over medium heat until warmed through, about 5 to 6 minutes.
- Cool Mongolian beef completely before transferring into a freezer friendly container. Store in freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to use, thaw in refrigerator overnight. Pour mixture into a skillet and slowly reheat until just heated through.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
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So good!!! Think next time I’ll cut the sugar in half. We added green beans and onions that had been sautéed with garlic and ginger, and didn’t add the sesame (forgot) or green onions (didn’t have). Will definitely make again.
So glad you loved this recipe!
Made this for the fam last night and added in some broccoli. Winner!! Everyone loved! Thank you for the easy and delicious recipe :)
Super delicious, the fam loved it!
So glad to hear that!
Just made this, its bomb.com…
I made 3 times the amount of sauce so there was enough to use it on rice or the yakisoba noodles we used in place of the rice.
I’ll be making this again, it was delicious and took only about 15 min to make it..
Yes! So happy to hear you loved this. I love your idea of making more sauce to use on other things, so smart
Just made this and it was great! I would add a little less sugar and less ginger next time and I added broccoli and it turned out. I would definitely make again. Every recipe I try from you two is always so great and easy. Love the videos for the step by step visual learners.
This was so delicious and really easy to make! No need for me to order out anymore.
This is crazy good!! First time making Mongolian beef at home and holy crap, so good!
This is so good. My family loved it
OMG!!! Once you taste this you are gonna smack yourself for ever paying for this dish with Takeout because this ends up tasting better then any Takeout Mongolian beef! It’s absolutely to die for so thank you for sharing this with all of us! I made mine and family dinner was pushed back a bit because kids practice ran late, so ours sat for a bit and when I got home I was so excited because it looked exactly like it came from a Chinese restaurant! So now every time I make this I make it about a half hour before I plan to serve it because letting it sit for that short amount of time allows it to thicken and envelop each and every piece of meat and the sauce gets a thick Carmely almost like a bbq sauce On Ribs when it adheres and caramelizes on the meat surface. Ok enough said sorry but I’m so excited about this now lol! Family approved! Even by picky husband.
Thank you so much Kendall for your comment. We are so happy you enjoyed it!
Found your blog last weekend- made 3 things so far and all have turned out great! We had NY strip in the freezer from buying a portion of a cow, and it was nice to be able to use the steak creatively. My whole family loved this and we’ll be making it again. Thank you! :-)
Yay! Janis, thats so nice to hear! :)
My favorite. Love the flavors!
I never rate recipes online, but this was too good not to comment on! What a great way to get a takeout fix during quarantine. Thank you for such a simple to prepare, delicious recipe with easy to source ingredients.
Thank you Shawn!
I made this for dinner and it was a hit. Definitely will make this again.
This is my family’s favorite quick and easy dinner. The flavors are on point!
This was really yummy and easy too! Thanks for the super recipe!
Made this tonight to thunderous applause!! Will definitely go into regular rotation. One note though; the photo with the recipe shows sesame seeds (I think) but there was no mention of them.