Restaurant-style black pepper beef is loaded with juicy beef strips, tender veggies, and coated in a sticky ginger black pepper sauce. – Ready in less than an hour in only one pan!
Bringing a takeout classic to the comfort of your own home today! The beef version of the popular black pepper chicken is about to blow your mind.
One pan, handful of ingredients, and 45 minute prep time is what we’re all about today. Dinner’s coming together in the blink of an eye today!
Gotta keep the hot kitchen time to a minimum this time of year, but we’ve still gotta eat good, ya know?
Plus we’re keeping this stir fry about 40% beef, 60% veggies which, in my mind, is how a good stir fry ratio should be! Lots of room for summer veggies.
More room for the important summer treats afterwards like ice cream, pie, and let’s be honest, more ice cream.
This Black Pepper Beef features…
- Juicy marinated steak strips
- Tender green beans, sweet pepper, and scallion
- A rich, flavorful sticky ginger sauce coating every inch of the beef and vegetables
Making the Black Pepper Beef
(scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe!)
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Steak
- Soy sauce
- Rice wine vinegar
- Cornstarch
- Vegetable oil
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Scallion
- Vegetables
- Honey
- Oyster sauce
- Black pepper
Choosing Your Beef
We recommend a sirloin steak for this recipe, but flank steak also works very well!
Slice the beef into strips as thin as you can get them and make sure you trim off any extra fat on the outside.
Tip: freeze the steak for about 20 minutes to make slicing easier!
Choosing Your Vegetables
You can keep it simple and use our suggested vegetables which are green beans, sweet pepper, and onion or mix it up using these other delicious alternatives! (we recommend choosing three vegetables total)
- Zucchini/summer squash (thinly sliced)
- Mushrooms (thinly sliced)
- Snow peas
- Broccoli (cut into small florets)
- Carrots (shredded or finely julienned)
Tips for Perfect Stir Fry
- Slice beef thinly and marinate – a quick 20 minute marinade tenderizes the beef and adds tons of flavor!
- Cut vegetables into uniform size – uniformity is important here so the vegetables all finish cooking around the same time. Prep the beans by trimming ends and cutting in half lengthwise. Prep the onion + sweet pepper by thinly slicing into strips.
- Cook meat and vegetables separate – the beef and vegetables will cook at different time rates and it’s important to leave enough room in the pan for proper browning.
- Cook over a high temp – you will want your pan around medium high for both the beef and the vegetables.
- Use fresh ginger in sauce – you can’t beat the flavor fresh ginger gives this stir fry! Prep the ginger by grating or finely mincing.
- Use freshly-cracked pepper – a necessity for that signature black pepper flavor!
Make Ahead Instructions
- Cut veggies and store in refrigerator up to 4 days.
- Mix up stir fry sauce and store in refrigerator up to 4 days.
- Slice beef and marinate in refrigerator up to 24 hours.
- Proceed with recipe as it is written when you’re ready to cook.
- Store finished stir fry sealed in refrigerator up to 4 days. To reheat, microwave 2-3 minutes on high.
What to Serve with Black Pepper Beef
Our favorite way to serve this stir fry is heaped alongside a pile of hot jasmine rice and garnished with sesame seeds and sliced green onion.
Other rice such as basmati, brown, regular white, or even quinoa would be delicious options for serving with this beef as well!
This stir fry is just one for the takeout-at-home record books, y’all. The sauce is perfectly sweet + savory, bursting with flavorful ginger + garlic flavors, and is honestly a dream coating the tender beef and vegetables.
This beef makes BOMB leftovers and we’ve meal prepped the heck out of it before for dinners all week!
We do find it’s hard to hang onto leftovers though…it’s just too freaking delicious.
More takeout-style dinners to add to your menu next!
Sticky Ginger Black Pepper Beef
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Ingredients
Marinated Beef
- 1 lb sirloin steak, very thinly sliced against the grain into 1-in strips (flank steak also works)
- 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Vegetables
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 1 lb fresh green beans, trimmed and halved lengthwise
- 1 medium sweet pepper, thinly sliced
- 4 scallions ends trimmed and cut into 1-in pieces
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
Sauce
- 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce (or regular)
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons freshly-cracked black pepper (or more to taste)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon water
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Sesame seeds, sliced green onions, and hot rice for serving
Instructions
Marinated Beef
- Place beef in a large bowl and add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and cornstarch. Toss to evenly combine. Let beef marinade 20 minutes.
- Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok over medium-high heat until shimmery. Add beef and let cook undisturbed in a single layer on first side 3-4 minutes, then flip to opposite side and cook an additional 3-4 minutes until beef is golden brown. Transfer beef to a plate and set aside.
Vegetables
- Wipe pan clean with paper towels and heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmery. Add onion, beans, and sweet pepper. Saute vegetables 4-6 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are crisp-tender.
- Add scallions, ginger, and garlic to vegetables and cook an additional 3-4 minutes until fragrant and vegetables are tender. Remove from heat for a moment.
Sauce
- In a small bowl, whisk soy sauce, honey, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, and pepper. In a small separate bowl, whisk cornstarch and water. Whisk into soy sauce mixture until smooth.
- Pour sauce over vegetables and add beef. Cook over medium-high heat 3-4 minutes until sauce is slightly thickened and coats vegetables and beef.
- Season black pepper beef with salt and additional pepper to taste if desired. Garnish beef with sesame seeds and green onions and serve over hot rice if desired.
Barb says
Delicious. First bite we thought too sweet and needs more pepper. Second bite, better. Third bite, perfect. Not sure why, but that was our experience. The only change I might make is to cut back a tiny bit on the ginger, maybe two teaspoons. Otherwise, loved it and will make it again.
Sarah says
So glad to hear you enjoyed this beef, Barb! 🙂