Among beef stir-fry dishes, this beef and pepper stir-fry is one of our favorites. It can be mild or spicy, depending on which peppers you use, and is very simple to make. Combine these two ingredients, and you have a real winner of a dish!
It’s simplicity makes it a good candidate for a regular weeknight rotation meal. With some practice, you can cook this dish using a searing hot wok to get some serious ‘wok hei’ going and bring out the flavors of the beef and peppers. Don’t forget to serve with steamed rice!
Note: this post was originally published in March 2015. We have since updated it with higher quality photos, metric measurements, and clearer instructions. The recipe is the same. Enjoy!
Let’s Talk Beef
Tender flank steak is especially tasty when sliced into thin strips and marinated. That’s what we used here, though you could also use sirloin, skirt steak, or even more affordable beef chuck.
(If using chuck, you’ll have to tenderize it using the optional baking soda in the recipe. See our how to prepare beef for stir-fry post for more information!)
Of course, you could also use more expensive cuts, but we normally save those for the grill!
With whatever cut you use, make sure you’re slicing the meat thinly against the grain. This ensures that you’re cutting the fibers of the meat into short pieces, which will make it more tender—less chewy.
Slicing beef thinly is much easier when it’s partially frozen. If you have beef from the freezer, de-frost it partially, but do not completely thaw it. Slice while it’s still firm, and you’ll get even, thin slices.
In the case of this recipe, we’re going a step further by taking our slices and cutting them into even thinner strips. This allows the beef to have a similar shape as the strips of peppers, which creates a better textural experience!
What About the Peppers?
We used long hot green peppers in this dish, along with 1 long hot red pepper (though this is optional—you can use all green peppers!).
Also known as Italian long hots or Italian sweet chili peppers, these peppers range from mild to quite spicy, depending on the batch you get.
They are a very popular item at the Chinese grocery store and also readily available at our local supermarket. They pack a ton of flavor when stir-fried at high temperatures.
If you use long hots, you’ll generally get a dish that has a medium to spicy heat level. Sometimes, you’ll get a very mild flavor, and sometimes you get walloped with spicy deliciousness!
The one caveat here before I move on is that occasionally, these long hot peppers can be VERY hot. I mean like sweat beads forming on top of your head while you’re eating them, hot! This can be the case even when the seeds are removed from the pepper.
Use your own judgment and mix in some milder peppers if this scares you. If you’d like the dish to be a lot more mild, you can substitute sweet cubanelle peppers.
If you can’t find long hots, you can also substitute Anaheim peppers.
Beef Pepper Stir-fry: Recipe Instructions
To a medium bowl, add the flank steak, baking soda (if using), soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, and oil.
Mix well and set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature. For more tips, see our post on selecting, cutting, and velveting beef for stir-fries.
When you’re ready to cook, place your wok over high heat until it’s almost smoking, and add the oil.
Sear the beef until it’s just browned but still a little rare. If your carbon steel wok is as hot as it should be, the beef should not stick and you should see a nice seared color.
Turn off the heat while you transfer the beef to a bowl. Leave any oil/fat in the wok.
Heat the wok back up over medium-high heat and add the garlic, long hot green peppers, and long hot red pepper. Stir-fry for 20 seconds and then spread the Shaoxing wine around the wok to de-glaze it.
Stir-fry for another 20 seconds and add the beef back to the wok along with any juices from the bowl.
Add salt, sugar, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and fresh ground white pepper. Turn the heat back up to high. Stir-fry for another 1 to 2 minutes.
If you like to have more sauce with the dish, add the chicken stock to further de-glaze the wok and reduce the liquid slightly. The cornstarch from the marinade will help thicken the sauce.
Plate and serve your Beef and Pepper Stir-fry immediately with rice.
Beef and Pepper Stir-fry
Ingredients
For the beef and marinade:
- 12 ounces flank steak (sliced into thin strips)
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda (optional tenderizer)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
For the rest of the dish:
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 3 cloves garlic (sliced)
- 8 long hot green peppers (de-seeded and julienned into 3-inch/8cm strips)
- 1 long hot red pepper (de-seeded and julienned into 3-inch/8cm strips)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- ¼ cup chicken stock (optional)
Instructions
- Add all the marinade ingredients to the beef in a bowl, mix well, and set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature.
- When you're ready to cook, place a wok over high heat until it's almost smoking, then add the oil. Sear the beef until it's just browned but still a little rare. Turn off the heat while you transfer the beef to a separate bowl. Leave any oil/fat in the wok.
- Heat the wok back up over medium-high heat and add the garlic and peppers. Stir-fry for 20 seconds, then spread the Shaoxing wine around the wok to de-glaze it.
- Stir-fry for another 20 seconds and add the beef back to the wok along with any juices from the bowl. Add salt, sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and white pepper. Turn the heat back up to high and stir-fry for another 1 to 2 minutes, or until the peppers turn darker.
- If you like more sauce, add the chicken stock to further de-glaze the wok and reduce the liquid slightly. The cornstarch from the marinade will help thicken the sauce. Plate and serve immediately with rice.
I used what I had which was a green bell pepper and some serranos for heat. Wow! This is probably the best dish I’ve ever cooked in my life! Thanks!!
Hi Dylan, a combination of bell and serrano peppers is a good balance of sweet and spicy for this dish!
This recipe is awesome !! My Chinese wife, who is from the Shaanxi province said this is the best beef and long hot pepper dish she ever tasted. Beware !!! This dish can be extremely spicy, depending on how fresh the long hots are. I added some sweet green bell peppers (for me to eat) because the long hots were mind-blowingly hot (I should have worn some gloves when slicing the peppers). Also, I added some corse chopped onions, minced ginger and a teaspoon if Shaanxi black vinegar. Why? Why not? More layers of flavor !! Mixed a teaspoon of corn starch and chicken broth for more sauce at the end. Thank you very much Bill. We really appreciate it.
Hi Robin, Agree – these long hot green peppers can be super hot and sometimes they are quite mild. So glad to hear you and your wife are loving this dish!
I disagree with the comments that say it doesn’t have a lot of flavor – I’ve been making this receipe off and on for years and we love the sauce. I definitely recommend adding the chicken broth.
We usually use pork loins instead of beef and it works really well. Also add some scallions and extra garlic.
We just made it this week but instead of the hot peppers, we used bell peppers (yellow, orange, red) so the little one could eat it and he loved it so much he asked to take it to school the next day. My boyfriend wrinkled his nose at the thought of using bell peppers instead of long green spicy peppers but it was still good.
Hi Charlie, I would agree :) Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Structurally fantastic – the beef turns out nicely browned but tender, with a savoury gloopiness that holds it all together with no runny juices. But it’s really, really salty, and doesn’t have a lot of background flavour besides salt and the addition of the peppers. I’ll make something like this again, omit the extra salt since the soy sauce is plenty salty, and add spices.
Good comment Tom – definitely adjust the salt to your own taste. Keep in mind that granulated salt is much saltier than kosher or sea salt because 1/2 tsp gives you more net salt because of the tiny granules ;-)
Table salt has twice the density of kosher salt. So use half, if using table salt (I did).
Hi Robin, thanks for commenting on this. Yes, idiodized table salt definitely measures out to be more salt by volume than other salts. :)
Made exact to the recipe- phenomenal, addictive, and relatively simple to make. I think about this dish the next day.
Excellent to hear you successfully made it Vivian. I love eating the leftovers with rice the next day – if we have any left ;-)
This recipe was phenomenal! Simple and easy to make and in the end was something that I would’ve been happy had I ordered in a restaurant! I only had 1 lb mini bell peppers and a large jalapeño available, so that’s what I used. It was beautiful (very colorful) and healthy. AND tasted great…that ticks a lot of boxes! Next time I’ll try with the long hots. Thanks for a new recipe for my “regular rotation” file!
Awesome! This is a great tasty recipe, no wonder it’s in your rotation.
I really like this dish :-)
Here in germany it is a popular item at chinese all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants.
They usually add onions to the dish.
On the one hand, i like onions stir fried in a wok over high heat. Which turns them slightly brown and caramelized on the outside while theres is still texture on the inside. You cant replicate that in a regular pan on a regular stove.
On the other hand, by adding onions you can stretch the meat and make the dish more budget friendly.
Good job, Martin. I think adding onion to this dish is also a good idea.
Delicious! Excellent sauce. Can’t find the recipe’s preferred peppers but it was delicious with seeded jalapeño peppers and green and red bell peppers, cut smaller than 3” since they are thicker.
Good job, Sylvia.
Yum. This looks delish! I will have to skip the hot peppers and use regular peppers. I can’t tolerate too much spiciness. :-)
Hi Marie, regular peppers work well for this recipe too :-)
This is very much like a Hunan homestyle pork belly and pepper dish I had in Beijing years ago and have been making ever since with pork belly (even thick bacon on occasion), beef or firm well-crisped beancurd depending on what I have on hand, served over rice or ramen noodles. So fast and delicious. The other wonderful takeaway from that restaurant was a simple raw edible chrysanthemum leaf thing with lots of very hot roasted sesame oil poured over. I bought some seeds last time I was in China, but they’re still in the freezer waited to be planted. You should grow some in your new garden.
Sounds like an interesting dish that you are describing ;-)