This easy Beef Stir Fry Recipe is loaded with juicy beef and crispy vegetables coated in easy stir fry sauce. A restaurant-quality dinner ready in 30 minutes!
Other stir fry recipes we keep in regular rotation are these Korean ground beef and rice, healthy beef and broccoli and sausage stir fry.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Restaurant quality meal: This beef stir fry recipe is Chinese inspired take out right at home!
- Healthier: You’re able to control the amount of sugar and sodium and avoid the MSG. High protein recipe that comes together in 30 minutes.
- Delicious: Thinly sliced pieces of tender juicy beef and crisp veggies are tossed around in a sweet and savory teriyaki sauce.
Love Stir Fry?
So do we and our readers! Be sure to check out Mongolian ground beef noodles, healthy chicken stir fry and chicken cabbage stir fry.
Ingredients for Beef Stir Fry
- Beef steak: Sirloin steak, ribeye steak, tri-tip, tenderloin, flank steak, or shoulder steak can be used. Make sure to thinly slice against the grain.
- Vegetables: Sliced red bell pepper and yellow bell pepper, brown mushrooms, broccoli, and white onion.
- Beef stir fry sauce: Soy sauce or Bragg’s liquid aminos, beef broth or water, then maple syrup, honey or brown sugar. Cornstarch.
- Minced garlic and ginger: If you don’t have any fresh ginger, you can substitute it with 1 teaspoon of dried ginger instead. Or just omit.
- Oil for frying: The best oil to use is the oil with a high smoke point. The healthiest choice is avocado oil with a smoke point of 520 degrees F. You can also use toasted sesame oil to give it an awesome Asian flare!
- Garnishes: Sesame seeds for an added earthy, nutty crunch. But it also looks pretty!
Stir Fry Sauce Tip
It is not the end of the world if you replace maple syrup or honey with brown sugar if that’s all you have on hand. I prefer sugar to honey in beef and broccoli recipe because it makes crispy beef extra saucy, almost like deep fried.
How to Make Beef Stir Fry
Here is a quick overview how to make it. There is a full recipe card below.
To get a good sear on beef and veggies, I recommend to use a large non-stick skillet. I find a wok does not sear food well on a residential stove but rather steams it. But use what you are used to!
- Prep: Chop the veggies and beef, whisk together ingredients for the stir fry sauce.
- Stir fry beef in batches: Preheat your pan until very hot and add add half of the beef. Cook uncovered until nicely browned on all sides. Transfer to a bowl and repeat with remaining meat.
- Stir fry the mushrooms: Return the skillet to high heat and add the mushrooms. Cook until brown. Mushrooms produce a lot of water, so cooking them on their own will help avoid the other veggies getting mushy. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
- Stir fry peppers and onions: Cook bell peppers and onions, stirring a couple of times. The residual brown bits from the beef, as well as the high heat, will help give the veggies a bit of a char.
- Add the stir fry sauce: Give mixture a good stir, pour into the skillet, mix and let the sauce come to a boil. Cook until thickened, stirring a few times.
- Combine and garnish: Grab all of your cooked ingredients and add them back into the skillet. Stir everything together gently. Turn off the heat, garnish with sesame seeds and serve it nice and hot!
Tips for Best Results
This recipe is super easy but there are a few things you can do to get the best beef stir fry ever!
- Be ready: “Stir fry” means to cook small pieces of food quickly on high heat while stirring constantly. So make sure all ingredients are prepped before you light the stove.
- Avoid mushy veggies: Add stir fry sauce before vegetables look cooked so they stay crispy.
- Cornstarch settles: Whisk sauce once again before adding it to the wok to blend the cornstarch that has settled.
- Best veggies for stir fry: You want veggies that will cook quickly when sliced thin. Bell peppers, zucchini, snow peas, sugar snap peas, carrots, and broccoli are great. You could also try cabbage, asparagus, mushrooms, bok choy, water chestnuts, and garlic. Check out this awesome guide to Asian vegetables.
- Dark colored sauce: If you would like dark stir fry sauce, use brown sugar.
Variations
- Frozen veggies: You can use a frozen veggie mix or the package labeled “stir fry blend” vegetables. I always use one for Instant Pot stir fry. Just cook until veggies are heated through and to your preferred doneness. Keep in mind frozen veggies are already somewhat “cooked” by the freezing process. They also contain a bit more water, so you might need to drain the extra liquid before adding the sauce.
- Additions: 3/4 cup toasted cashews, sliced almonds, or bean sprouts.
- Less meat: If you’re aiming to eat less red meat, use only 1 pound of meat.
- Like a little heat? Toss in some red pepper flakes. Some might even enjoy sliced jalapeno.
- No soy sauce? Try using Bragg’s liquid aminos or coconut aminos. You may need to adjust the salt with coconut aminos because they tend to have less than soy sauce.
Serving Ideas
Instant Pot brown rice, Instant Pot quinoa, Instant Pot long grain white rice and brown rice vermicelli are just a few options that go well with any stir fry.
You can also serve it over whole wheat spaghetti, brown rice or quinoa.
To keep it light and low carb, serve on its own, with a small side salad like butter lettuce salad or over cauliflower rice for a low carb meal.
How to Store and Reheat
Store: Beef stir fry will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Leftovers will be just as tasty the next day.
Reheat: Simmer on the stovetop with a splash of water or broth until heated through while stirring occasionally. If you’ve packed it for lunch at work, you can also reheat it in the microwave.
FAQs
Flank steak and sirloin steak are the best cuts of beef for a beef stir fry. They are more affordable and available at many grocery stores.
Be sure to select right cut of beef and cut steak against the grain.
Yes. Cut and refrigerate vegetables covered for up to 2 days. Then toss them in when you’re ready. Or to speed up dinner, buy pre-cut stir fry vegetables or a bag of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot mix.
More Stir Fry Recipes to Try
- Chicken and broccoli stir fry
- Salmon stir fry
- Buckwheat stir fry
- Broccoli mushroom stir fry
- Egg roll in a bowl
- Chicken soba noodles
Beef Stir Fry Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Beef Stir Fry Sauce:
- 1/4 cup soy sauce I used Bragg liquid aminos
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth or water
- 2 tbsp brown sugar, maple syrup or honey
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1 inch ginger minced
Beef Stir Fry:
- 1 1/2 lbs sirloin, ribeye, tri-tip, tenderloin, flank or shoulder steak thinly sliced
- 1 large white onion thinly sliced
- 2 large bell peppers sliced
- 6 oz mushrooms sliced
- 1 lb broccoli chopped
- 2 tbsp oil for frying
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Cut the vegetables and beef. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, beef broth, brown sugar, cornstarch, garlic and ginger. Set aside.
- Preheat large ceramic non-stick skillet on medium heat and add 1 tbsp of oil. Add half of beef, cook uncovered for 3-4 minutes per side or until browned, and transfer to a bowl. Repeat with remaining beef. Set aside.
- Return skillet to high heat and mushrooms. Cook for 3 minutes or until browned, transfer to a plate. Set aside.
- Return skillet to high heat, add remaining 1 tbsp oil, bell pepper and onions. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring once or twice and transfer onto a plate. Set aside.
- Return skillet to medium heat, add broccoli, whisk stir fry sauce well (cornstarch settles fast at the bottom) and add to the skillet. Stir, let sauce come to a boil, then cook for a few minutes until thickened, stirring often.
- Return cooked beef, mushrooms, onion and bell peppers to the skillet. Stir gently, turn off heat and garnish beef stir fry with sesame seeds.
- Serve hot over Instant Pot quinoa, Instant Pot brown rice, brown rice vermicelli or whole wheat spaghetti.
Video
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate covered for up to 2 days.
- Reheat: By simmering stir fry on the stove with a splash of water or broth until heated through. Stir occasionally.
- Be ready: “Stir fry” means to cook small pieces of food quickly on high heat and stirring constantly.
- Avoid mushy veggies: Add stir fry sauce before vegetables look cooked to avoid mushy stir fry.
- Cornstarch settles: Whisk sauce once again before adding to the wok to mix in settled at the bottom cornstarch.
- Dried ginger: If you don’t have any fresh ginger, you can substitute it with 1 tsp of dried ginger instead. Or just omit.
- Additions: Old version of recipe contained 3/4 cup toasted cashews.
- If using water: You will need to add 1 more tbsp of soy sauce.
Excellent recipe! I will definitely use this recipe again and again. I added bok Choy and wax beans. One of the things I enjoyed is that I used veggies I had in the fridge and it worked great! Next time I will use 2 tbls of cornstarch instead of 3 but this recipe was a hit!
So glad you could adapt it to what you had on hand! Thanks for the rating and review.
This recipe was a huge hit with the family. I filled the recipe as written (rare for me!) next time, I will chop veggies early in the day so everything will come together quickly at dinner time.
This was quick and delicious. Had with Sunrice Brown rice & quinoa. Added a pinch of chilli flakes. Yum thanks
You are very welcome!
My mom and I followed this recipe and we loved it! Delish. It ended up taking us a little over 1 hour. The chopping of the vegetables took us awhile. Perhaps we will be quicker next time or, if we do some prep before that will cut the time down. But it was well worth it!
Thanks very much this was a winner in my house with fussy eaters we don’t always get to have a beef stir fry but everyone loved it even went back for seconds and the wok was empty.
I add carrot to ours.
I am so happy to hear this was a hit with your family, Vannessa!
I make stir frys all the time (have you noticed how much the Bragg’s has risen in price?!), but I have to ask – what’s wrong with fried onions? I make those often, too! With pork chops, steak, perogy’s, too. I cook them so long they become caramelized. Yummy! I didn’t make this recipe, but instead of sugar, I put in some Hoison sauce which adds some sweetness. From a CDN in Calgary 🙂
Everything goes up in price all the time sigh. I am not sure what you mean about fried onions, sorry.
My husband and I really enjoyed it!
Thanks Olena!
You are very welcome Mary!
I actually made this in my Instant Pot. I sautéed the beef first, removed it and then sautéed all of the veggies and removed them, turned off sauté. Then I returned the beef to the instant pot, added the sauce and 3/4cup of beef broth. Pressure Cook high for 5 minutes.
QPR, thicken the sauce and add the vegetables back in. My husband enjoyed and he’s not really a stir fry/ vegetable person.
That’s so great. Thanks for sharing Michelle!
Total cook time on meat seems like alot. 10 minutes by itself, 3-4 more with vegetables and the 3-4 more after sauce is added. Is that correct?
Yes, the recipe has been tested as written! When cooking the vegetables, push the meat to the side of the wok.
This is the second time I’ve done this recipe. First time was excellent, even with my dark, thick soya sauce that darkened everything…
Tonight, I did it with my Bragg Liquid Amino and cooked everything to perfection, no overcooking.
It was amazing! And colourful! And healthy! Definitely as good as, if not better than, in a good restaurant! 😋
Thank you for sharing your amazing feedback Marie!
So delicious!! Love how the ingredients are simple and the recipe easy! Thank you!!
You are very welcome Lucinda!