This post may contain affiliate links, please see the privacy policy for details.
Crispy ginger beef is a tasty takeout-inspired recipe made with steak, vegetables, and a delicious ginger, garlic, and sesame oil-based sauce. It’s Asian food at its finest – expect crispy but tender fried beef strips paired with a sweet, spicy sauce. It’s savory, sweet, and tangy all at the same time. It’s a homemade takeout dish that rivals your favorite restaurant and is sure to become one of your top favorites. This Chinese beef stir-fry is the perfect weeknight dinner that will earn a place in your heart forever!
Get ready to meet your new favorite Asian dish! Ginger beef is beloved in Canada and it offers sweet, spicy and savory flavors in every tasty mouthful.
If you want to try some more Asian-inspired recipes, you might like this gochujang chicken stir fry, beef yaki udon stir fry, beef bulgogi, or sesame avocado chicken salad.
Why You’ll Love It
Surprisingly easy: This recipe is simple to prepare. You need to double-fry the beef until crispy, prepare the sauce, and then combine the two.
Really tasty: This ginger beef recipe offers a lot of incredible flavor, offering a balanced amount of sweet, spicy and savory flavors.
Always satisfying: This is the kind of dish that’s great served over a big pile of fluffy white rice. It’s just so filling and satisfying. If you crave comfort food, you’ll love this garlic and ginger beef recipe.
Ginger Beef Ingredients
A complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below
Sirloin steak: I like to use sirloin steak but you can use another cut of beef if you have a preference.
Cooking oil: Choose from oils that do well over a high heat, such as canola, vegetable or peanut oil for example.
Soy sauce: A key component in the sauce. Choose from dark soy sauce or light soy sauce (regular soy sauce) for this. Low sodium soy sauce works too.
Green onions: The white parts go into the ginger beef mixture and the green parts make a colorful garnish.
Brown sugar: For sweetness. You can use white sugar or artificial sweetener instead if you prefer.
Ginger: Use fresh ginger for your ginger beef, since it’s one of the main ingredients in the recipe. Ginger isn’t just delicious, it also has health benefits.
Chili crunch, chili oil or red pepper flakes: To add heat. Chili flakes, oil or crunch add some heat to the dish, but you can use as little or as much as you prefer.
Cornstarch: For the beef batter. This is the main ingredient in the batter that makes the beef oh-so-crispy!
How to Make Ginger Beef
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card
Cut the beef: Cut the beef with the grain into strips.
Batter the beef: Combine the cornstarch, water, egg, salt, and pepper to make a batter, than mix the beef strips with it, to coat.
Fry the beef strips: Heat 3 cups of oil to 350°F in a large wok or pot. Add half the battered beef strips to the oil and fry for 2 or 3 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels and repeat with the second half of the beef.
Fry the beef strips a second time: Bring the oil back up to 350°F and fry the first half of the beef again, adding half the carrots. Drain and fry the second half of the beef with the rest of the carrots. Give it about 4 minutes per side or until it’s golden brown and crisp. Drain the beef and carrots on paper towels.
Start the sauce mixture: Discard the oil and wipe out the wok. Heat more oil in there and add the sesame oil, white parts of the green onions, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, and chili flakes. Sauté for 5 minutes.
Continue the sauce: Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, water, and sugar, stirring often. Bring it to a boil, and then simmer for 2 minutes.
The finishing touches: Put the beef and carrots in the sauce mixture, warm them back up, and serve immediately, garnished with sesame seeds and the green parts of the green onions.
Substitutions and Variations
Different veggies: Green and red bell pepper are good in ginger beef, or you could add thinly sliced broccoli or mushrooms. Bell peppers should be cut into matchstick shapes for stir frying.
Another cut of steak: Flank steak works as well as sirloin steak.
Adjust the spice level: Make this as mild or as spicy as you like.
Optional cooking wine: A tablespoon of Shaoxing Chinese cooking wine (here) in the sauce adds a lovely flavor.
Serving Suggestions
Appetizers: Start off with some crab cake egg rolls or salt and pepper pork chop bites.
Side dishes: Ginger beef can be served with white or brown rice, or perhaps you prefer noodles. If you want to pair it with other Asian dishes, consider tangerine chicken or shrimp spring rolls.
Dessert: Finish the meal with something light and refreshing, such as dragon fruit ice cream.
How to Store Ginger Beef
Store: Keep any leftovers in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Freeze: You can freeze it in portions for up to 3 months.
Thaw: Defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
Reheat: Warm it back up in a pan on the stove or in the microwave.
Top Tips
Meat slicing: Try to slice the meat like fries, and that means steakhouse fries not McDonalds style fries! Also, cut with the grain and not across it.
Double fry the beef: Don’t skip this step because the double fry technique makes the beef perfectly crispy.
Adjust the spices: The original ginger beef from Silver Inn is quite spicy but you can make this less spicy if you prefer or even amp up the spice if you like it hot!
Toasted sesame seeds: Toast sesame seeds in a dry pan (don’t add oil) until golden brown and fragrant. This really brings out their flavor.
Ginger Beef FAQs
You can do the first fry on the beef and also make the sauce but don’t combine them yet. When it’s very close to dinnertime, you can give the beef its second fry and then warm up the sauce and combine the two components.
If you like plenty of sauce, it’s worth doubling the sauce mixture. Ginger beef isn’t a particularly saucy dish so you can make more sauce if you choose.
Peanut oil, canola oil or vegetable oil would work. Use whichever you prefer with a high smoke point.
This mouthwatering recipe was created by George Wong who owned Calgary’s Silver Inn in the early 1980s. The popularity of this tasty dish didn’t take long to spread throughout Calgary and eventually all over Canada.
Crispy Ginger Beef Recipe
Ginger Beef
Ingredients
- 1 Pound sirloin steak, sliced into strips
- 1 Cup cornstarch
- ¾ Cup water
- 1 egg
- ½ Teaspoon black pepper, or white
- ¾ Teaspoon salt
- ½ Cup carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 3 Cups cooking oil, for frying
For the Sauce:
- 1 Tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 3 green onions, julienned and separated into green and white parts
- 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
- 5 Cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 Teaspoon red pepper flakes, or chili crunch or chili oil
- 1 Teaspoon sesame seeds, plus more to serve
- 3 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 3 Tablespoons water
- 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
Instructions
- Slice the sirloin steak into long pieces going with the grain, roughly the size of a medium/large steak fry. Set aside.
- In a large wok or sauté pan, heat the 3 cups of oil (add more or reduce as needed) to 350°F.
- While the oil is heating up, mix the cornstarch, water, egg, pepper, and salt until well combined and smooth.
- Add the beef to the batter and make sure all of the pieces are well coated.
- When the oil is up to temp, add about half the battered beef to the pan and fry for 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
- Remove it and let it drain on paper towels while you fry the second batch.
- After all the beef has been fried once, return the oil back to the heat and bring it back up to 350°F.
- Take half of the already fried beef and fry it for a second time, this time adding half of the carrots per batch.
- Fry for about 4 minutes or until the beef is rich in color and feels firm and crisp.
- Use a spider or slotted spoon to take the beef and carrots out of the oil, and let it drain on paper towels.
- When the beef is cooked, carefully discard the oil and clean out the pan.
- Return the cleaned pan to the stove and heat 1 tablespoon of oil in it.
- Add the sesame oil, whites of the green onions, fresh ginger, minced garlic, chili crunch or red pepper flakes, and sesame seeds.
- Sauté this over a medium high heat for about 5 minutes or until fragrant and the garlic is just beginning to turn golden.
- Add the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, water, and brown sugar, and then mix well.
- Bring it to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Let it simmer for 2 minutes before turning the heat off and tossing the fried beef and carrots in with the sauce.
- Plate the beef immediately, pouring any remaining sauce in the pan over the top.
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds and garnish with the green parts of the julienned green onions.
Notes
Double fry the beef: Don’t skip this step because the double fry makes the beef perfectly crispy.
Adjust the spices: The original ginger beef from Silver Inn is quite spicy but you can make this less spicy if you prefer or even amp up the spice if you like it hot!
Toasted sesame seeds: Toast sesame seeds in a dry pan (don’t add oil) until golden brown and fragrant. This really brings out their flavor.
Nutrition
This authentic ginger beef recipe is beloved all over Canada. It’s a delicious beef and vegetable mixture with a spicy, sweet and tangy sauce. Whether you enjoy these crispy fried beef strips and veggies over jasmine rice or noodles, you’re going to love the incredible flavors it every mouthful. Once you’ve made this once you’ll definitely want to make it again. And again!
Other Recipes to Try
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
I gotta say, this dish is awesome! Really glad I gave it a try.
This recipe is the bomb! So flavorful and easy to prepare! Absolutely my new fave. 🙂
We’ve been enjoying this recipe so much! It’s become a family favorite.