Beef with string beans is a simple, delicious one pan dinner to serve with steamed rice. It’s also a great meal prep option—you can marinate the meat and mix the sauce in advance (either the night before or in the morning), and then whip up the dish when you come home!
Searing Green Beans
Unlike our Chicken with String Beans recipe, the string beans in this recipe are seared much like they are in our Sichuan Dry Fried String Beans.
The green beans get a bit wrinkly in the process, which makes it easier for them to cling to the sauce in the dish.
Alternatively, you can steam the string beans like we do in the chicken version of this dish.
All in all, this is a simple, tasty recipe, particularly if you already have our 10 Essential Chinese Pantry Ingredients in your kitchen!
Let’s get to the recipe!
Recipe Instructions
In a bowl, add the beef, baking soda, and water (if you don’t want your beef tenderized too much, omit the baking soda). Massage the beef with your hands until all the liquid is absorbed. Mix in the cornstarch, oil, and oyster sauce, and set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.
Combine all the sauce ingredients in a measuring cup and set aside: the chicken stock, sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper.
Heat your wok over high heat until smoking. Add 2 tablespoons of oil and sear the beef until browned (this should only take 2 minutes). Turn off the heat, remove the beef from the wok, and set aside. Leave behind any oil in the wok.
Set the wok over medium heat and add another tablespoon of oil to the along with the string beans.
Sear the string beans on all sides until lightly scorched and wrinkly, about 6-8 minutes.
Add the garlic, and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Increase the heat to high, and pour the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok.
Next, add in the sauce mixture you made earlier. Stir the sauce around the sides of the wok to deglaze it (all those nice bits from stir-frying the beef should be absorbed into the sauce). Bring the sauce to a simmer.
Stir the cornstarch and water slurry to ensure it’s well combined, and drizzle the mixture into sauce while stirring constantly. Allow it to simmer and thicken for 20 seconds. Add the beef back to the wok and stir-fry to combine.
Serve with rice!
Beef and String Beans
Ingredients
For the beef & marinade:
- 1 pound flank steak (sliced into thin strips)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda (optional)
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
For the sauce:
- 1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar (or brown sugar)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
For the rest of the dish:
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (divided)
- 1 pound string beans (ends trimmed and cut in half)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (mixed with 3 tablespoons/45 ml water)
Instructions
- In a bowl, add the beef, baking soda, and water (if you don’t want your beef tenderized too much, omit the baking soda). Massage the beef with your hands until all the liquid is absorbed. Mix in the cornstarch, oil, and oyster sauce, and set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a measuring cup and set aside: the chicken stock, sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper.
- Heat your wok over high heat until smoking. Add 2 tablespoons of oil and sear the beef until browned (this should only take 2 minutes). Turn off the heat, remove the beef from the wok, and set aside. Leave behind any oil in the wok.
- Set the wok over medium heat and add another tablespoon of oil to the along with the string beans. Sear the string beans on all sides until lightly scorched and wrinkly, about 6-8 minutes.
- Add the garlic, and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Increase the heat to high, and pour the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok.
- Next, add in the sauce mixture you made earlier. Stir the sauce around the sides of the wok to deglaze it (all those nice bits from stir-frying the beef should be absorbed into the sauce). Bring the sauce to a simmer.
- Stir the cornstarch and water slurry to ensure it’s well combined, and drizzle the mixture into sauce while stirring constantly. Allow it to simmer and thicken for 20 seconds. Add the beef back to the wok and stir-fry to combine. Serve with rice!
I am a great Chinese cook. This recipe followed exactly left me flat. Like food from a bad Cantonese takeout. I actually deleted recipe from collection. Surely there is something he left out. Just beef and green beans in a terrible brown Cantonese sauce.
Hi Kathleen, readers have already tried this recipe and loved it, and this sauce is based on existing tried and true recipes. Not sure what could’ve gone wrong when you made it.