Think Chinese takeaway style Beef Chow Mein is too difficult to make at home? Think again! This Easy Beef Chow Mein is not only quick and simple to make, it’s also healthier than a standard takeaway version… and cheaper too!
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Beef Chow Mein – just like your favourite Chinese takeaway!
Love the Beef Chow Mein you get from your local takeaway, but think it’s too difficult to make at home?
Think again… Beef Chow Mein is actually surprisingly easy to make… and takes just 20 minutes from start to finish!
Better still, Homemade Beef Chow Mein is also healthier than a standard takeaway version… and cheaper too! What’s not to like?
What’s in Beef Chow Mein?
The exact recipe varies from restaurant to restaurant, but Beef Mein always contains beef, noodles and chow mein sauce. It also typically contains a mix of finely sliced vegetables.
In my easy Beef Chow Mein recipe I have used a mix of onions, carrots, red pepper, cabbage and beansprouts for the vegetables. But you can adapt this to suit your own preferences and/or what you have in the fridge. (See below for ideas on how to adapt this recipe.)
How to make homemade Beef Chow Mein
This Beef Chow Mein recipe really is so simple to make!
All you need to do is velvetize the beef strips (see below), then make the simple, but flavour packed, homemade chow mein sauce.
Next fry the beef strips until nicely browned on the outside, but still tender in the middle. Then, fry the sliced onion, carrot, red pepper and cabbage.
Add the chow mein sauce to the pan and simmer for 1 minute, before adding the beef strips back to the pan together with cooked noodles, beansprouts and sliced spring onions. Stir together thoroughly then turn off the heat.
Serve immediately, garnished with more sliced spring onions.
The whole thing takes just 20 minutes from start to finish (quicker than getting a takeaway delivered where I live!) and produces delicious results every time.
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
What to serve with Beef Chow Mein
This Beef Chow Mein really is a complete meal in its own right – and that’s exactly how I like to serve it on a busy weekday evening.
But, of course, you can serve this as part of a bigger Chinese-themed spread, featuring other Chinese fakeaway dishes, such as Egg Fried Rice or Sweet and Sour Chicken.
What to drink with Beef Chow Mein
It’s really tricky to choose a wine to go with Beef Chow Mein! Most Chinese-style dishes are best paired with aromatic whites like Riesling, Pinot Gris, Viognier or Gewurztraminer. However, beef pairs best with red wine!
So what is the solution?
I think you can go two ways here…
Either go for a robust white wine with enough ‘oomph’ to stand up to the strong flavour of the beef. For me Riesling works the best here, especially if it’s a slightly off-dry one.
Or go for fruity, medium-bodied red with low to medium tannins, like a Zinfandel. This will go very well with the beef and be the best complement to the Asian flavours of the dish.
Personally, I think the Riesling option works the best, if you are willing to break the beef with red wine ‘rule’. Try it – I think you’ll be surprised how well it works!
Love easy Chinese fakeaway recipes?
Then you are going to love these:
- Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Easy Sweet and Sour Pork
- Crispy Sweet Chilli Chicken
- Easy Sesame Chicken
- Special Chow Mein
- Special Fried Rice
Easy Sweet and Sour Pork
What does it mean to ‘velvetize’ beef?
To ‘velvetize’ beef (or indeed any meat), means using a Chinese cooking technique that involves marinating raw meat in baking soda to tenderize it. This gives the beef a much more tender texture when cooked and stops the meat becoming ‘tough’ or chewy, which can sometimes happen with this kind of recipe.
It’s a small extra step, but well worth it!
(Don’t go too mad with the baking soda, though, or it will impair the flavour of the dish!)
How to get that smoky taste in Chow Mein at home
One of the key features of a classic chow mein is that slightly smoky taste. Restaurant chefs achieve that smoky taste (called ‘wok hei’) by using specialist equipment: a well seasoned carbon steel wok and restaurant burners which cook food at a much higher temperature.
Well, unless you happen to have a professional kitchen at home, that’s not going to be possible… but what I found is, if you stir fry the veggies, especially the cabbage, over a high heat and don’t use too much oil, you can lightly ‘char’ the veggies and this will give you a hint of that smoky flavour. Don’t go too far, though or you’ll end up burning the veggies!
Tips for making the perfect beef chow mein at home
I have 4 tips for making the perfect beef chow mein at home:
1. Prep everything first, then cook
Once you start cooking, you need to work fast. That means you need everything prepped before you start cooking. If you don’t, something will almost certainly get overcooked!
2. Don’t fully cook your noodles
If you are using dried noodles, you will need to cook them in boiling water first before adding to the wok. Since they will cook a little more when you add them to the wok, I recommend slightly undercooking your noodles in the boiling water. The brand I use, cooks to perfection in 4 minutes, so I cook them for 3½ minutes in the boiling water.
3. Toss your noodles in sesame oil
If you work fast, you may be able to get away with not bothering with this step. But if you are leaving the noodles to stand for more than a minute, toss with a tablespoon of sesame oil to stop the noodles sticking together.
4. Don’t fully cook your beef
For the same reason, when you stir fry your beef strips, only stir fry them for about 1½ – 2 minutes. At that point the beef will still be quite pink inside, but it will be nicely browned on the outside. When you add the beef back to the wok at the end, it will cook a little more – resulting in perfectly cooked, beef that is wonderfully flavoursome on the outside and beautifully tender inside.
Make it your own…
I have spent a long time working on my homemade version of Beef Chow Mein, trying to come up with the ‘perfect’ recipe that is both easy AND delicious… but of course you can adapt this recipe to suit your own personal preferences and/or what you have in your fridge. Here are some ideas…
- Use beef mince, instead of beef steak.
- Use leftover roast beef, instead of freshly cooked beef steak.
- Use pork, lamb, chicken or turkey instead of the beef.
- Use a mix of proteins, as per my Special Chow Mein.
- Use a different type of cabbage, instead of savoy cabbage.
- Use different vegetables, such as mushrooms, tenderstem broccoli, mangetouts or baby corn.
- Add a sprinkle of chilli flakes or some fresh chillies – not traditional, but it really works!
I’d love to hear how you’ve adapted my recipe! Let me know in the comments section 😀
Can you reheat leftover Special Chow Mein?
No – this is a dish that’s best served fresh!
Can you freeze leftover Special Chow Mein?
No – this is a dish that’s best served fresh!
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
- Easy Homemade Chow Mein Sauce
- Homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce
- Plain Egg Fried Rice (Chinese Takeaway Copycat)
- Easy Turkey Mince Fried Rice
- Easy Beef Mince Fried Rice
Easy Beef Fried Rice
Easy Beef Chow Mein (Chinese Takeaway Copycat)
Ingredients
Super Tender Beef Strips
- 450 g beef sirloin steak (approximately 2 steaks) fat removed and chopped into thin slices on the diagonal
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda (See Note 1)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Easy Chow Mein Sauce
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce (I use Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce)
- 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce (I use Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 3 tablespoons cold water
Beef Chow Mein Stir Fry
- 1 small onion peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 medium carrot peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 1 small red pepper peeled and thinly sliced
- ½ small savoy cabbage thinly sliced
- 150 g beansprouts
- 4 spring onions thinly sliced
- 225 g dried medium egg noodles (I use Sharwoods Medium Egg Noodles)
Instructions
Preparation
- Place the thin strips of beef in a large bowl. Sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon of baking soda and pour over 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil. Use your hands to turn the beef and get it evenly coated with the baking soda / soy sauce / sesame oil mixture (see Note 1). Set aside until later.
- Mix all the Chow Mein Sauce ingredients in a jam jar (or similar). Screw the lid on tightly and give it a good shake.
- Prepare all the vegetables as above. (This is important because you will need to work fast afterwards!)
Cooking
- Place the dried noodles in a saucepan. Cover with plenty of boiling water. Bring back to the boil and cook for 3½ minutes or until nearly (but not quite) done to your liking. Use a fork to separate the noodles during cooking to ensure they don’t all clump together. Drain immediately when cooked. (See Note 2.)
- Meanwhile, place a wok (or very large frying pan) over a high heat for 1 minute. Add the beef strips and fry for 1½ - 2 minutes, until nicely browned on the outside and but still a little pink in the middle. (See Note 3.) Remove the beef to a plate.
- Put the wok back over a high heat and add the sliced onion, carrot, red pepper and cabbage. Fry for 2 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Add the chow mein sauce to the pan. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for 1 minute, stirring regularly. Add the beef strips to the pan and cook for 1 more minute.
- Add the drained noodles, beansprouts and HALF the sliced spring onions. Stir together thoroughly for 1 minute, then turn off the heat.
To Serve
- Serve immediately, garnished with the remaining sliced spring onions.
Notes
- Using baking soda is a Chinese restaurant secret hack! It tenderises the meat, meaning that, though your beef is nicely browned on the outside, you will get super tender beef inside!
- If you are leaving the noodles to stand for more than a minute, toss with a tablespoon of sesame oil to stop the noodles sticking together. It is important you don’t quite fully cook your noodles at this point, as they will cook a little more in the wok.
- I recommend you don’t keep moving the beef around too much or you will not give the beef enough time to brown nicely on the outside. You want the beef to have lots of nice dark brown colour on the outside for maximum flavour, while leaving it slightly pink in the middle for maximum tenderness.
- Not suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Disclosure
This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!
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