Lots of families are big on chicken. Roast chicken, grilled chicken, chicken pastas, chicken pot-pie, chicken Caesar salad, you get the drill. But for as long as I can remember, whenever my family had a choice of protein, the default tended to be beef. Steaks, not chicken on the grill, steak, not chicken on top of salads, and beef fried rice and beef lo mein from the takeout place, natch. This Chinese rice cake stir-fry is one dish that fits in perfectly with our red meat tendencies.
The tender slices of steak, the savory seared scallion and ginger, and the rich umami flavor of the soy and shaoxing wine, all lifted up by the delightful glutinous heaven that is the Chinese rice cakes (Nian Gao) …you won’t regret making this!
When it comes to “rice cakes,” we’ve always gotten some funny looks or confused faces from our non-Chinese friends, but, basically, they are a mixture of rice flour and water that’s been shaped into cylinders, then sliced into “cakes.” They have a deliciously chewy texture kind of similar to gnocchi.
We whipped this up while I was in Beijing last month, and it was seriously satisfying. Of course, you can swap the beef out for chicken or pork if you like. But don’t be surprised if when you make this, your family ends up fighting over the last piece of steak!
Some of our other rice cake stir-fry dishes you must see are Classic Sticky Rice Cakes , and Shanghai Rice Cake with Shepherd’s purse. They all start with the chewy and addictive rice cakes (nian gao) which you cannot stop eating once you start!
Recipe Instructions
Marinate the beef with 1 tablespoon oil, cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon light soy sauce. Set aside for 15 minutes. For more complete information on preparing beef, see Bill’s post on How to Slice and Velvet Beef for stir fries.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in your wok over high heat. Once it’s smoking, add the beef and sear for a minute before setting aside on a plate. Add the ginger to the wok…
…and when it starts to brown, add the scallions and give everything a stir.
Pour in the rice cakes and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.
Spread the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok and cover the wok immediately. Cook, covered, for 2 minutes.
Add the beef, 1 tablespoon each of dark soy sauce and light soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and sugar.
Toss together for another 2 minutes. The rice cakes should be tender but still a bit chewy. If not, cover the wok and cook a little longer.
Rice cakes wait for no one–serve immediately!
You can also top your steak and scallion rice cake stir-fry with some of your preferred Chinese hot sauce, if that’s your fancy–sriracha, black bean hot sauce, homemade hot chili oil, or anything you want!
Steak and Scallion Rice Cake Stir-Fry
Ingredients
- 12 oz. sirloin steak (340g, sliced)
- 3 tablespoons oil (divided)
- 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 4 thin slices ginger (finely julienned)
- 3 scallions (cut into 2-inch pieces)
- 1 pound rice cakes (450g)
- 2 tablespoons shaoxing wine
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar
Instructions
- Marinate the beef with 1 tablespoon oil, cornstarch and 1 teaspoon light soy sauce and set aside for 15 minutes. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in your wok over high heat. Once it's smoking, add the beef and sear for a minute before setting aside on a plate. Add the ginger to the wok, and when it starts to brown, add the scallions and give everything a stir. Pour in the rice cakes and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Spread the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok and cover the wok immediately. Cook, covered, for 2 minutes. Add the beef, 1 tablespoon each of dark soy sauce and light soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and sugar. Toss together for about 2 minutes. The rice cakes should be tender but still a bit chewy. If not, cover the wok and cook a little longer.
Are you supposed to boil the rice cakes first or do they cook as you stir fry?
Hi Lydia, no need to pre-boil the rice cake.
I made this for CNY and it was delicious! I even managed to get some elusive wok hay because I left my cast iron wok heating for a lot longer than expected while I prepped other dishes. Happy accidents! Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Hi Michelle, I love it whenever you can get some wok hei at home. Happy Tiger New Year!
Thanks for all the rice cake recipes! I discovered this ingredient in a Chinese restaurant
in Rome (its called gnocchi di riso or rice gnocchi here) and was hooked! I love mochi and Korean rice cakes and am excited to explore this ingredient more. Do you have any recipes for rice cakes with vegetables and/or fish?
Hi Elaine, here are our other rice cake recipes:
https://thewoksoflife.com/stir-fried-sticky-rice-cakes-nian-gao/
https://thewoksoflife.com/spicy-stir-fried-rice-cakes/
No recipes with rice cakes and fish, as that combo is somewhat unusual!
This looks great. Should a cornstarch slurry get added at the end?
Hi S, the cornstarch is used for marinating the beef and no slurry is used in the recipe for thickening since there shouldn’t be any sauce. The rice cakes soak up most liquid. That said, you can add some cornstarch slurry if you find there is extra liquid in the wok when finishing.
Hi – the recipe says to add 1 tablespoon of each dark and light soy sauce at the end but the ingredients only call for 1 tablespoon dark. Just wanted to know which was correct.
Thanks!
Hi! I’m about to make this dish this week. I noticed that there is a parenthetical on the light soy sauce that says “plus one tablespoon”. So I think they use the teaspoon to velvet the beef and then one tablespoon with the dark soy later in the dish.
Hi Andrew, you’re right and I made clarifications :)
Hi Jenn, it should be 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce and 1 tablespoon regular soy sauce. I made some corrections and added a little bit of sugar, which I think will make the dish better. Thanks for pointing it out!
Made this for dinner. As with all of your recipes, it is incredible!
Followed recipe entirely but tossed in a large fist of red dandelion greens at the end.
Amazing dish, thank you so much!
Hi Lori, interesting addition, the dandelion greens – glad you enjoyed it.
Like Cary who commented in August, my rice cakes stuck to the bottom of the wok. I see that in your “Spicy Stir-Fried Rice Cakes” recipe, you add more oil to the wok after removing the pork belly. Wondering if it might be useful to do the same in this recipe, after removing the beef?
Otherwise, another enjoyable recipe from you site–though I found it just slightly salty.
Thanks!
Hi WBW, adding some extra oil will help, but keeping that wok screaming hot is the way to keep things from sticking. Make sure all your ingredients, including the rice cakes, are at room temperature.
Hi Kaitlin,
This is the first time I’ve cooked these rice cakes. I bought a packet a while back and hadn’t used them. So I tried this recipe tonight.
It is delicious. Thanks for the great recipe. I added a bit of chopped bok choi for greenery.
I think these rice cakes are my new favourite ingredient.
Thankyou,
Helen
That’s so awesome! Did you see our new rice cake soup recipe?. Happy wokking!
Thanks for all of the great recipes. I am new to stir fry and have been relentlessly cooking with a carbon steel walk for about a month. Your website has been an incredible resource! I made this for the first time this evening and followed the recipe exactly.
At the step where you put in the cooking wine and cover for 2 minutes, I found that the food at the bottom of the wok began to burn after about 1 minute. So, I took the cover off and began trying to stir things up from the bottom. I had to add a little bit of the water and cover again to get the rice cakes to cook through. In the end, it still tasted pretty good, but there was a smoky, almost burned flavor. I’m sure that I didn’t exactly get this right.
I have a Viking range that gets very hot. Should I have turned down the heat at that step where you deglaze with the wine and cover? Or is it that my wok is still new and just not well seasoned yet?
Hi Cary, we have a viking stove too, so I know it’s pretty powerful. With your viking range, it’s a good idea to turn the heat to medium once the cover is on, because liquid cooks off very fast in a wok due to the thinness of the metal. If there is still too much liquid after the cooking time required, uncover the lid, turn up the heat, and stir the food for a minute or two. You will see the liquid quickly turns into a nice glaze :-)