Crispy Sesame Beef
Restaurant-quality, amazingly crispy beef made in just 30 min with less oil – you won’t even be able to tell the difference!
I don’t always eat beef but when I do, it definitely has to be crispy.
Am I right or am I right?
And you know what? You can skip the takeout and make this right at home.
I promise. It’s better than restaurant-quality by a mile, hands down.
And you get to use less oil.
Even with the less oil, that crispiness is out of this world! The secret ingredient is the cornstarch.
Crispy Sesame Beef
Restaurant-quality, amazingly crispy beef made in just 30 min with less oil – you won’t even be able to tell the difference!
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut oil
- 1 pound sirloin steak, sliced into thin strips
- 4 tablespoons cornstarch, divided
For the sauce
- ¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha, optional
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Heat peanut oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat.
- In a large bowl, combine steak and 2 tablespoons cornstarch, tossing to coat and letting the steak absorb the cornstarch. Add remaining 2 tablespoons cornstarch before adding to the stockpot.
- Working in batches, cook steak until golden and crisp, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
- In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, orange juice, vinegar, garlic, ginger, Sriracha and sesame oil until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in steak and gently toss to combine.
- Serve immediately, garnished with sesame seeds and green onion, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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Sooo delicious & easy! Whole family loved it
Just tried this out..it was absolutely fantastic!! Yum! YUM!!
I made this last night and it was really good! I used what was called sliced sandwich steak and sliced it into strips. I salted it before adding the cornstarch, the directions didn’t say to, but I assumed I should. The beef got nice and crispy, but the only problem is that I didn’t cook down the sauce enough so when I added the beef it got soft. Bummer, all that hard work was ruined! But it was still really, really good. I’m not really experienced at frying, but I made sure my oil was really hot before I started, I used canola and peanut. I used my lodge porcelain cast iron casserole. I made sure the beef was nicely coated with corn starch – I cooked 2.5 lbs so 4T wasn’t enough. I would love a video of this to see if I even added enough cornstarch. I’ll definitely make it again, the sauce was perfect and 1T Sriracha didn’t make it too spicy for even my tastes.
Can I do with pepper steak or does it need to be sirloin? Thanks
Yes, you can substitute pepper steak.
This sounds absolutely delcious. can’t wait to give this a go. Thanks simon
Absolutely love this recipe! It is so delicious! And my husband is requesting it for tonight
Would it be possible to add 1 or 2 cups of broccoli to this recipe?
Thanks,
Bill
Yes, absolutely.
How would I work this into the instructions? Thank-you for the help. Would I just add the broccoli when I add the sauce and just warm a little???
Yes, you can add already steamed/roasted broccoli – you may also want to double the sauce as well, but really, it’s up to you.
Hello Chungah,
I am sorry to keep asking about this but how would I add fresh uncooked broccoli to this? As would like to cook it some in the sauce? And this will duplicate the meal I get at my favorite Chinese restaurant. Theirs comes with broccoli throughout the sesame beef and in the sauce. And the broccoli has a faint taste of the sauce also.
Bill, it may be best to steam the broccoli first prior to adding it to the sauce, letting it warm and soak through. Of course, that’s just my recommendation but as always, please use your best judgment to suit your preferences.
Hi Chungah, Ok I will try to steam the broccoil, It is just I really do not know how to cook or steam the broccoli, but I do have a steam pot in my double broiler, so will just be a matter of doing it to the consistency that I prefer.
Made it last week and it was damn delicious!
Working on this one as I type. Curious… when I added the beef to the peanut oil it became super frothy. Is that normal?
Yes, some frothiness is normal.
This tastes delicious!!! but crispy? nope…..it seemed the corn starch ended up stuck to the bottom of the pan…Do I have to use nonstick pan>
What kind of pan did you use?
I used a traditional Dutch oven….not non stick..
I have never had any issues using a Dutch oven – perhaps you need more oil in your pot?
I had this same problem. Everything else turned out great but beef was definitely not crispy and now I have to scrape off a bunch of cornstarch/oil from the bottom of my brand new dutch oven 🙁 With that said, I will make this again but just fry the beef without cornstarch in a regular non-stick pan. The sauce was yummy!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was AMAZING! My kids devoured it. Very easy and quick to make. Along with your simple lo mein, this will be a front runner in our house. Thank you
Can I use fryer to cook?
Yes, absolutely.
Glad I read comments before making this. I will be using my removable slow cooker pot to do the frying in as it is my only non stick pot/pan. Will let you know how it turns out.
Any suggestions for rice vinegar substitute?
Here is a great resource discussing possible substitutes – hope that helps!
We had a local Chinese restaurant that had the best Crispy Beef….and then it closed. Bummer! Craving it so much, so can’t wait to try this recipe! Thanks!
You lie!!! Made this two nights ago and while it says “Yields: 4 Servings”, my girlfriend and I proceeded to gobble it all up for dinner with barely any leftovers for me to take to work for lunch the next day!!! And now I’m craving more and have none! Curses!!! Super yummy!!! Thank you!!!
I was looking forward to making this dish but when I finally completed it and tasted it something was bitter. Not sure what went wrong. Overall it was good but I had this strong hint of bitter with the meat. Must have been the sauce. My rice vinegar I had in the pantry was never opened until I used it for this and I noticed the best by date was 2/14/16. Since it was unopened I can’t imagine it was that. I’d love to hear any ideas that might have caused this.
Katy, even if the vinegar had never been opened, it is almost 3 weeks past the expiration date!
This looks yummy!! Thank you for sharing 🙂
I saw the comment about the choice of pan. I have a Le Creuset 5-1/2-Quart Dutch Oven… will that work?
Yes!
Once again, I’m so in love with your recipes, but I was wondering what substitutions I can use for the peanut oil?
Vegetable or canola oil will also work.