Pepper Steak — easy, saucy and quick beef meal with stir fried bell peppers, onions, ginger; seasoned with creole and paprika for that explosion of flavors. Perfect to whip up on any night of the week and comes together in just 20 minutes!
When I moved to Los Angeles , I was such a picky eater and highly critical of any cuisine that remotely didn’t resemble what I was accustomed to . Yes, that was more than a decade ago. Things changed when I started working at a restaurant – the foodie in me just couldn’t resist venturing out and trying out the menu. It was an adventure for me.
At home I would try cooking some of these meals , infusing in them my special touch and/or spices.
I am the boldest among my siblings when it comes to trying different flavors; which is kinda evident in my cooking escapade through the years.
In my quest to savor all beautiful cuisines around the world, I turned into a girl who gets into a party room and immediately checks out the dishes served on the table. Okay, not that I am not excited to get along with these people, but that is just me always on the lookout for new recipes to dig in and try at home.
I am that OBSESSED with food!
But I was a bit shocked though that in my 4 years of blogging, I haven’t shared this insanely tasty and quick beef recipe. I even posted first this Beef Broccoli Stir Fry which is closely related to this Pepper Steak.
If you want to throw in more veggies into this beef recipe, you can do the Beef Broccoli Stir Fry which is as easy as Pepper Steak, although, it requires you to marinate the beef overnight.
This Pepper Steak is actually a fusion of Chinese – American dish which is made of sliced beef steak (usually flank, sirloin or round), bell peppers and onions. But I prefer to use sirloin, or New York steak though as it is tender and the flavors from the sauce get seeped into the meat quickly. And it’s a pretty affordable cut, too. Check out this post on getting your meat really tender ( if you are using a less tender cut of meat) just like in the restaurants here Beef Broccoli Stir Fry
As with the sauce, you can adjust its thickness to your preference by controlling the amount of corn starch you put into it. I like mine a bit thick; good enough to cover the meat with sauce and the rest over my rice serving.
Heeeey, don’t you know you can even enjoy the sauce alone and pair it up with rice. Still a big win in the flavor department! Yeah, give it a try after you’re done cooking this and you’ll be good even without the meat.
Cover your rice with all the sauce, baby!
If there’s a quick family meal that I can recommend, I would say try this Pepper Steak at home instead of taking out from pricey restaurants. Once you do, you’ll never look back, for sure.
This popular delicious meal will surely be one of the most requested one in your weeknight menu. Not to mention how easy it is to prep especially now that tasks are slowly piling up due to back-to-school season.
Now don’t forget the rice and dig in heartily. Enjoy!
Tips and Notes:
- I use sirloin cut in this recipe due to its fine grade texture and beefy flavor. It’s also tender to eat and it’s budget-friendly, too. You may replace it with flank and round cut.
- You can use one color of bell peppers but a variety of it somehow yields to a more flavorful meat and pretty pleasing to the eyes too.
- Wok is a cooking vessel most commonly used in Chinese households. These woks are perfect for any meat stir fry recipes as it cooks the food fast enough and still yields perfectly cooked meat and vegetables in no time. If you don’t have woks at home, you may go with the usual cast iron skillet but definitely NOT a non-stick pan. Non-stick pans would yield to unevenly cooked meat an veggies. Heat science is a key player in this recipe.
Pepper Steak
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless sirloin tips
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 Large bell peppers ( red and green)
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1-2 teaspoons Paprika
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1-2 teaspoon creole cajun seasoning (salt free) (optional)
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1-2 green onions chopped
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce (adjust to taste)
Instructions
- In another bowl, combine the soy sauce, water, chicken stock, oyster sauce, and cornstarch. Set aside.
- Heat up the Wok or sauce-pan with about 1 tablespoon of oil, and then add meat let it rest for about 30 seconds before stirring. Cook for 2 minutes or until beef reaches desired doneness; remove and keep warm.
- Stir fry the peppers , hot sauce and onion for two minutes, then add garlic, ginger, creole seasoning - if using any - and continue stirring for another 2 -3 minutes.
- Add the combined sauce, cook and stir for about 2 minutes, followed by the beef.
- Remove and serve over rice.
Nutrition Information:
Amanda says
I was looking for a quick meal tonight. I surprisingly had all the ingredients in this recipe. It was very delicious and flavorful as well as quick and easy to make! Thanks for saving dinner tonight! I will be making this again.
imma africanbites says
Yaaay! So glad you like it. Thanks for stopping by.
Necole says
What did you season the meat with
ImmaculateBites says
Black pepper and soy sauce.
Kay says
Thanks Imma for the recipe. But I would like to know how healthy soy and oyster sauce are. I understand some of them contain MSG?
ImmaculateBites says
Yes it does contain msg – if avoiding msg this might not be just a great choice .
Kathleen says
This looks delicious. Is there a substitute for chicken broth?
ImmaculateBites says
Just use water , if it isn’t available .Thanks!
Ykay says
wow..thank you for this new recipe…I can’t wait to try it….looks yummy..
ImmaculateBites says
Awesome! Can’t wait to hear how it works out for you.
YoYo says
This recipe sounds yummy and easy! Two questions…how much brown sugar? Is there a substitute for oyster sauce?
ImmaculateBites says
I made this version without brown sugar and it works too. So need for brown sugar. Updated ! Thanks .
YoYo says
Ok! Thanks for the quick response! Can’t wait to try this! 🙂