Name: Beef stir-fry recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: asian
Ingredients: 2 beef fillet steaks; 2 tsp sesame oil; 2 tbs sherry; 1 tbs hoisin sauce; 2 tsp white sugar; 2 tsp cornflour; 2 tbs vegetable oil; 4 garlic cloves crushed; 5 cm ginger grated; 1/2 cup cashews roasted; 250 g snow peas thinly sliced; 1 tbs oyster sauce; 1 tbs soy sauce; 1 tbs sweet chilli sauce

by boomagoo Last updated on 01/06/2025

Busy people love a stir-fry go-to recipe. Fast to prep and fast to cook, this beef stir-fry is packed with protein and vegetables, so that you can feel good about eating it, whilst revelling in the fact that it takes almost no effort to prepare at all! Serve your bowl of goodness over steamed rice or rice noodles.

How to make a beef stir-fry: key tips

The most important thing to remember when cooking a stir-fry is to make sure the wok is hot before you start cooking. If the pan isn’t hot enough, the meat will stew in its juices, rather than quickly sear on the outside trapping in the juices. This will make it tough and chewy. The vegies will also stew and lose their crispness altogether. The ideal stir-fry has tender meat and tender-crisp vegetables.

You could also use a large frying pan for this recipe, but a wok will distribute the heat more evenly and cook the ingredients somewhat faster.

Key ingredients in this beef stir-fry recipe

Beef eye fillet steak has been used in this recipe, but you can choose any type of stir-fry beef you like. You can even buy pre-cut stir-fry beef from the supermarket to save time. If starting with a steak, slice the steak against the grain to shorten the muscle fibres, ensuring the beef strips are more tender and easier to chew after cooking. The beef is cooked in batches to further ensure the strips brown quickly and don’t leak their all-important juices into the wok.

Grated fresh ginger adds a wonderful peppery spice to this stir-fry. A very easy way to peel fresh ginger is to use a spoon – both a teaspoon and a tablespoon work for this job. Hold the spoon like you would a vegetable peeler and use the edge of the spoon to scrape the skin off the ginger. The skin should come away quite easily, and the spoon will be able to get around all those knobbly ginger rhizomes. You can then grate it with ease.

Make stir-fries your go-to weeknight dish with these 38 easy stir-fry recipes, and here are 22 cheap stir-fries that are full of budget-friendly ingredients, such as vegies, rice and mince, if you’re watching your hip pocket.

This recipe was originally submitted by boomagoo, a member of the Australia’s Best Recipe community. Introduction and additional recipe notes by Natasha Shaw.

- Australia's Best Recipes Team

Ingredients

2 beef fillet steaks
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbs sherry
1 tbs hoisin sauce
2 tsp white sugar
2 tsp cornflour
2 tbs vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves crushed
5 cm ginger grated
1/2 cup cashews roasted
250 g snow peas thinly sliced

Sauce

1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sweet chilli sauce

Method

Step 1

To make the stir fry sauce, pour all of the sauces into a bowl and whisk to combine really well.
Step 2

Thinly slice the beef across the grain.
Step 3

Combine the sesame oil, wine, hoisin sauce, sugar and cornflour into a bowl.
Step 4

Stir until the cornflour had dissolved.
Step 5

Add the beef and toss to coat evenly.
Step 6

Heat a wok until very hot.
Step 7

Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to the wok and swirl to coat.
Step 8

Add a quarter of the beef to the hot wok and stir fry for about 1 minute until browned.
Step 9

Remove the beef to a clean bowl and repeat with the next batch of beef, until all the beef is browned.
Step 10

Add the remaining oil, garlic and ginger to the wok and stir fry for 1 minute.
Step 11

Return the browned beef and any juices to the wok.
Step 12

Add the stir fry sauce, cashew nuts and snow peas.
Step 13

Stir fry until heated through.

Recipe Notes

from Australia’s Best Recipes team

Can I use different veg in this beef stir-fry?

You can use whatever stir-fry vegies you have on hand. Vegies – like green beans, button mushrooms, red capsicum and red onion – all work well.

Can I make any changes to this recipe?

Stir-fries are very adaptable. Leave out the nuts, if you can’t have them, and omit the alcohol, if you like. You could also swap the sugar for a drizzle of honey, and add chopped fresh red chilli for a hit of heat.