Chinese Pepper Steak
Photo: Hanxiao Xu / Unsplash
Tender, velveted strips of beef stir-fried with green and red peppers and onion in a savoury oyster-sauce gravy, finished with plenty of cracked black pepper. A fast, satisfying weeknight wok dish.
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Start your free weekContinue with free accessVelvet the beef
Mix the beef with the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, cornstarch, baking soda and 1 tbsp water. Leave for 15 minutes — the baking soda keeps it tender.
Mix the sauce
Stir together the oyster sauce, dark soy, sugar, black pepper and the cornstarch-water mixture.
Sear the beef
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Fry the vegetables
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Finish
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Velvet the beef
Mix the beef with the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, cornstarch, baking soda and 1 tbsp water. Leave for 15 minutes — the baking soda keeps it tender.
Mix the sauce
Stir together the oyster sauce, dark soy, sugar, black pepper and the cornstarch-water mixture.
Sear the beef
This step is part of Foodie Premium. Subscribe to unlock the full method, cooking mode and every recipe in the library.
Fry the vegetables
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Finish
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The Story Behind the Dish
Stir-fried beef with peppers is a classic of Cantonese home cooking, where it's often made with black bean sauce. Chinese cooks in North America adapted it into 'pepper steak' in the mid-1900s, with a glossy oyster-sauce gravy and plenty of black pepper.
It became a standard of Chinese-American restaurants and family dinners.
⭐ Why It's Famous
It's quick, inexpensive and dependable — tender beef and crunchy peppers in a savoury sauce made for rice.
💡 Fun Fact
Restaurant beef is so tender thanks to 'velveting', a marinade with cornstarch and a pinch of baking soda.
Guangdong & Chinese diaspora
23.13°N, 113.26°E
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