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!
Great recipe. I made it according to the instructions then started adjusting. I call mine “String Beans with Beef” rather than “Beef with String Beans” because my family and I don’t want to eat that much beef, and I think the flavor balance is better. I halved the beef and doubled the green beans. Also adjusted amounts of other ingredients according to whether they’re for the beef, the beans, or both.
It may be because I’m using extremely fresh green beans from my garden (I get pounds and pounds of them), or because I’m forced to use electric stove which doesn’t heat the whole wok as well as gas, but it takes about 15 minutes of frying to get them wrinkled just a little bit. 8-10 definitely can’t cook them with my beans and stove. After doubling amount of green beans I have to go even longer.
I find that peanut oil works better for the high-temp frying, but vege/canola oil is fine for medium or low-temp.
A bit challenging to merge the overlapping and conflicting instructions/ingredients in this recipe and in the beef prep instructions, but no problem once I have them merged.
I’m having a great time working through different recipes here. My family loves this one.
Would be good if us fans could post small photos with our comments.
That’s good to know, Blaine, but yes doubling the amount of green beans definitely slows down the process. You can do it in batches if you’d like to increase the green bean amount! Glad you enjoyed it though, and if you’d like to share photos, you can email them to us at [email protected] or tag us on Instagram!
Should the meat be rinsed to remove the marinade before searing? Most stir fry recipes call for the beef to be rinsed thoroughly under running water to rid it of any excess baking soda, or you will taste it in the dish.
No, you don’t have to rinse the beef in this case, Mark, as the amount of baking soda called for is very small.
Delicious! And the leftovers were great too… cold, right out of the fridge!!!
Thank you Jane! :)
Family loved it! Sauce was great, not salty. Added white onion and added some chili flakes 🙌🏼
Thank you Tina!
I made this for the gentleman I take care of and absolutely loved it and it was so simple to make!
Yay! So happy this recipe helped, Kim!
One of our favorite recipes! We love how delicious and simple this meal is to make. We live on our boat and don’t have the luxury of fancy meals that require tons of ingredients. This is perfect for our boat lifestyle. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Ashley! Living on a boat must be awesome!