This beef chow fun is loaded with fat noodles, tender steak, and crisp veggies. Even better, now you can cook restaurant-style fried noodles in your home kitchen with a flat skillet!
If you look at any authentic beef chow fun recipe, it always calls for a wok and a gas range. After all, it is the proper way to get perfect seared steak and charred noodles, like you’d get in a restaurant. However, this setup might not be practical for every home cook. As a personal example, I live in an apartment that only has an electric stove, and it never generates heat fast enough for wok cooking.
That’s why I’ve spent a lot of time researching and mastering how to cook stir fries with a flat nonstick skillet. I’ve even written posts on why I do not recommend a wok for beginners, and how to choose between a wok and a skillet for your stir fry station.
After many experiments, I’ve concluded that you can make a legit stir fry without a wok, with a few tricks and a great stir fry sauce.
Best beef chow fun in a skillet
Here are the keys to making a great beef chow fun without a wok:
(1) Plenty of fresh aromatics to add depth of flavor
Dry spice powders just won’t cut it for stir fry, so please always use fresh aromatics.
In this recipe we use fresh garlic, ginger, and plenty of green onion.
(2) Make a good stir fry sauce using the right ingredients
Namely, you need light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and a good wine.
The light soy sauce will add saltiness and umami to the dish, while the dark soy sauce adds that beautiful dark brown color to give the noodles an appealing look. Shaoxing wine (the unsalted type) is always the first choice to add a rich aroma, but you can get very good results using dry sherry, as well.
(3) Prepare a large skillet with a pair of tongs
If possible, pick a heavy nonstick skillet for your beef chow fun and every other stir fry you cook. We are not using a wok here, but high heat is still a crucial factor to creating a great dish. The reason we need a large heavy skillet is that it will heat up faster on an electric range due to its large contact surface. And a heavier pan always holds heat better, so the pan temperature won’t drop the second you add in the sauce; such a drop would cause all your ingredients to be steamed instead of seared.
A pair of tongs is a must-have for tossing noodles, so you don’t end up splashing half of the ingredients onto your kitchen counter.
More cooking notes
(1) How to create juicy tender beef with a perfectly seared surface
First, always cut against the grain. It is OK to slice the beef thinly, such as 1/8-inch thick pieces. Or you can cut it into 1/4-inch thick strips. Your call.
Second, always marinate the beef and use some cornstarch in your marinade. Not only will it make your beef extra flavorful, but it will also tenderize the meat and protect it from overcooking. It’s an ancient Chinese cooking hack that I use even when searing meat for pasta or any other Western dish.
If you follow these two steps, you can choose almost any cut of the steak and still produce great results. However, my favorite choice is always flank or skirt steak, which are cheaper in price, yet well-marbled.
(2) When it comes to fried noodles, less is more
Just like with pizza toppings, using fewer ingredients will yield better results because the ingredients won’t crowd your pan and transform the noodles into a stew.
(3) How to replace ingredients
Beef chow fun is a very versatile dish and you can tweak it with whatever ingredients you have at home. For example, feel free to replace the broccoli with gai lan (Chinese broccoli), kale, or bok choy. You can skip the bean sprouts and use a bit more white onion for texture. As a rule of thumb, you want to use some crisp, crunchy veggies to enhance the texture of the dish.
(3) How to prepare rice noodles for chow fun
Each brand comes with its own cooking instructions, so the best approach is to follow the steps on the back of the package. No matter whether it says to boil or soak the noodles, you want the noodles to reach al-dente. That is, cooked noodles with a slightly chewy texture. So the noodles will be perfectly cooked once they’ve been stir fried.
I also drizzle a bit of oil onto the pre-boiled noodles and toss them with my hand. It is a good way to prevent them from sticking.
(4) What your kitchen counter should look like before the stir frying starts
Near your stove, you should have:
- Marinated beef in a bowl
- Mixed sauce
- Chopped ginger and garlic in a bowl
- Pre-boiled noodles
- Green onion and white onion in a bowl
- Bean sprouts and blanched broccoli on a plate
Note, I grouped some ingredients together because you will add them at the same point in the stir fry. It makes the workflow easier, plus you’ll have fewer plates to wash.
Want to learn more about stir fry?
Check out my most popular posts below:
- 7 Best Chinese Stir Fry Sauce Recipes
- How to Make Stir Fry in 15 Minutes with Minimum Prep
- Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce
- General Tso Tofu (Crispy Tofu without Deep Frying)
- Sweet and Sour Chicken (Without Deep-Frying)
I created this short video for you, so you can easily get an idea of the workflow. The video is slightly different from the recipe below because I updated the recipe with a few small tweaks… But the cooking process is the same.
Are you ready to cook some noodles?
Happy cooking and I hope your dish turns out great!
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Real-Deal Beef Chow Fun (干炒牛河)
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1/2 pound (226 grams) beef flank , skirt, sirloin, or tenderloin
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (*Footnote 1)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Stir Fry
- 1 batch broccolini (or 1 small head broccoli) , tough ends removed and chopped into bite sized pieces (*Footnote 2) (Optional)
- 7 ounces (200 grams) wide dried rice noodles
- 3 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1/4 white onion , sliced
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 4 green onions , chopped
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil (Optional)
Instructions
- Slice beef against the grain into 1/8-inch (1/3-cm) thick pieces or 1/4-inch (1/2-cm) strips, and transfer the pieces to a small bowl. Add the light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and cornstarch. Use your hand to gently mix the beef and the added ingredients, until the beef is coated with a thin layer of the mixture. Let marinate for 15 minutes while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients with 2 tablespoons water. Mix well and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Blanch the broccolini (or broccoli) until tender, 1 minute or so. Drain and set aside. Reserve the boiling water to cook the noodles.
- Cook or soak the rice noodles according to the instructions until cooked through, but still a bit chewy inside. Rinse rice noodles with cold water and drain. To avoid sticky rice noodles during stir fry, add 1 teaspoon sesame oil to the drained noodles. Gently toss noodles by hand to separate and evenly coat them with a thin layer of oil.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat until hot. Spread the beef slices in the skillet in a single layer. Cook until the bottom side of the beef turns golden brown, about 1 minute. Flip the beef and cook the other side until browned, but the inside is still a bit pink, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer beef to a plate immediately.
- In the same skillet, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and turn to medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, and onion. Stir constantly until you can smell a strong fragrance, 15 seconds.
- Toss the cooked noodles again and add them into the skillet. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil onto the noodles. Use a pair of tongs to toss the noodles with oil. If the noodles start to get sticky, swirl in 2 tablespoons water.
- Add the beef back into the skillet. Pour in the mixed sauce. Immediately use a pair of tongs to toss and mix everything.
- Add the green onion. Toss a few more times, until the sauce is absorbed by the noodles.
- Add bean sprouts and cooked broccolini back into the skillet, swirl in the sesame oil (if using), and give it a final toss. Turn off heat and transfer everything to serving plates immediately.
- Serve hot as a main.
Notes
- You can use regular soy sauce to replace all the light / dark soy sauce in this recipe. Note that the dish will come out with a lighter color if you do so.
- Restaurant-style beef chow fun usually does not contain this ingredient. However I prefer to add more veggies into my noodles to make it a complete meal.
Video
Nutrition
This post was originally published by Oct. 6, 2014 and updated by Oct. 11, 2017.
I’m really into this dish! Although when I made it, I didn’t use the wine. It turned out so flavorful and delicious!
– Natalie Ellis
Now you are sending me the good stuff. No sea food. Thank you so much. I can’t wait to try these.
Great recipe – delicious and practical! (More generally – this is becoming my go to site for both authentic and more practical Chinese recipes — I really like your approach to cooking)
Hi Maggie Zhu,
I just subscribed to your website. I would like your cookbook, however, I don’t want the e-book, I want an actual cookbook, please tell me how to order one.
Thank you for the thorough directions as well as beautiful pictures. I love your recipes!
This is my husband’s favorite dish and now I can cook this for him at home.
I came across your site by looking for a recipe for cold tofu noodles salad that they serve more often with dim sum. Not many recipes out there. The salad served at restaurants tastes a little garlicky, salty and maybe some vinegar? Such a healthy salad but not to many recipes out there. Also, the restaurant tofu noodles are soft and tender. I also am looking for the sauce that goes over the cold tofu salad with thousand year old eggs. Is it oyster sauce soy soy sauce and sugar? I love your site and the details you give in making the sauces which make the dish.
Hi Carolyn, I think this is the tofu noodles salad recipe you’re looking for: http://omnivorescookbook.com/sliced-tofu-salad/
I do have a tofu with century egg recipe: https://omnivorescookbook.com/tofu-with-century-egg-salad/
I used a very simple sauce in this recipe, just a few drops of light soy sauce and sesame oil. But I do think some restaurants use a sauce that has a hint of sour and sweet. I think you can try using one part of light soy sauce and one party of Chinkiang vinegar, with a pinch of sugar and drizzle of sesame oil. That should work great in this dish 🙂
Let me know if you have further questions and happy cooking!
Maggie, thanks for nice beef recipe. My husband likes beef so much, but my ideas how to cook are finished already, I took it in my recipes book)
I made your recipe for Real Deal Beef Chow Yum! YUM is correct it was delicious. Can’t wait to make it again. Thank you for the recipe, it definitely is a keeper.
Made this tonight, my first attempt from your website. I did everything as described (including the sesame oil at the end: wow!), though we couldn’t find salt-free Shaoxing wine; I got the lowest salt content one I could find, and will probably order salt-free from somewhere in the future. It came out superb. My wife was shocked at how little oil was in it, and our super-picky kid ate it. That’s something.
Great recipe. However, the steps call for a total of 3 tablespoons of oil, but the ingredients only list two. Also, you mention to add onion in twice .
Thanks for letting me know Matt! I just updated the recipe and fixed the errors.
This recipe is BANG on…….this meal’s my ABSOLUTE favourite and the instructions are superb.
Hi I wish I could give more than 5 stars! I tried this recipe the other night and couldn’t believe how nice it tasted. I have never cooked meat like this and have missed out! I have been over-cooking it all these years! Thank you for your instructions. I am really enjoying your website and trying all the different recipes.
I often go to your site to read a new recipe, thanks for teaching me how to cook delicious and healthy food.
Hi. Just discovered your blog via my wife and I love it! I tried printing the Bef Chow Fun with Chinese Broccoli recipe but it said the page was not found.
This dish made me sweat, but I tried to do everything strictly according to the recipe, I used Chinese broccoli as you advised. I really liked it, although it was not easy, thanks for the recipe!
I love to cook and always looking for new interesting dishes, such as those served in the restaurant. Koneno, I made Beaw chow fun according to your recipe, and received many compliments from my relatives! Now this is one of our favorites, thank you!
This is my go-to recipe for beef chow fun! 🙂
A couple years ago I came to your website and chose this recipe because you mentioned the possibility of preparing without a wok and a crazy hot flame. That’s pretty much my situation everywhere I go, as I travel continuously so have additional challenges that many would not: Different kitchen, different equipment, different (or missing) ingredients and different conditions every time I make it. Sometimes I have dried noodles; sometimes the fresh/oiled ones from Asian markets. Sometimes they’re thin because I cannot find flat wide. I’ve managed somehow, and I want to thank you for your encouragement and notes.
The only tweaks I’ve made to this recipe are: a) I start with onions and go to noodles, then add garlic when the noodles look like they’re “fried.” Onions and garlic cook and are ready at quite different times, and the garlic has time enough to cook between then and the end. b) I add the sauce as the final step before mixing and serving. Why? Because once the sauce is added, everything begins to stick to the pan. And the sauce doesn’t need to be cooked. It’s flavoring and coloring and already done.
This was great! I feel so accomplished. Thanks Maggie!
This came out well.
Thank you Maggie.
Hello,
Thank you for posting this recipe.
Can I replace beef with any other meat.
Aastha
Yes! You can replace it with any other type of proteins (chicken, pork, shrimp etc).