Chinese Beef with Garlic Sauce

These notes are here to help make this recipe a success; they cover some but not all ingredients; for a complete ingredient list, check out the recipe card below.

Beef: Choose flank steak or skirt steak for a great value cut. Rump steak or sizzle steaks are also good choices. 
Baking Soda: This is used to tenderize the beef. It is also known as bicarb of soda, bicarbonate of soda, and sodium bicarbonate. Don't get it muddled with baking powder! 
Garlic: We are making a garlic sauce, and garlic is important, so it is well worth using fresh garlic and slicing it yourself. It will taste better. And as always, add more garlic if you like; I always say you should measure garlic with your heart.
Chicken Broth: Pick a low-sodium broth so your sauce isn't too salty. 
Chinese Cooking Wine: Chinese Cooking Wine is also known as Chinese Rice Wine, Shaohsing Rice Cooking Wine, Shaoxing Wine, or Shaoxing Cooking Wine. You can find it in most grocery stores in the Asian section, on Amazon, or in your local Asian grocery store. Use dry sherry or sake if you can't find Chinese Cooking Wine. 

We've tested this recipe at least 3 times to ensure it works well for you, have a look at our tips for getting the best dish you can!

• Make sure the broth is cold when you mix up the sauce. This ensures the cornstarch dissolves without lumps. Also, be sure to give it a good stir just before you add it to the stir-fry.
• After tenderizing the beef with the baking soda, ensure you rinse the meat well. Baking soda works magic when tenderizing but doesn't taste great, so you want to remove it all. Pat the beef dry before adding it to the stir fry. You can do this in advance and refrigerate the meat until needed.
• Cut the beef across the grain to give you the most tender meat. See below for more details.
• Have everything chopped and ready to go before you start cooking. This doesn't take long to cook, and things will burn or overcook if you have to stop to chop something.
• You don't need a wok to make this dish. If you have an electric stove top, a large heavy-based skillet is better for the job as it will get hotter.

The trick to cutting meat so it is melt-in-the-mouth tender is to find the direction of the grain and then cut across it. This clever cutting technique allows the meat to fall apart in your mouth.

You can see this cutting technique in the pictures below. The first picture shows the grains in the meat, and you can see the knife cutting through them in the second photo.

Why You'll Love This Chinese Beef with Garlic Sauce

• It cooks quickly so that you can have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes.
• It tastes like your favorite takeout. 
• It's easy to adapt and add more veg if you like.
• Perfect for the whole family; my kids love the tender beef.

These are all just suggestions and things that have worked in our test kitchen, but it is your dinner, so adapt it to suit your family. That is the beauty of cooking; we can all create our own delicious meals.

• Swap the broth: You can use beef or vegetable broth instead of chicken.
• Swap the beef: Replace the beef with the same quantity of chicken breast or pork fillet; they can both be tenderized with the baking soda in the same way as the beef. You can use prawns as well but skip the tenderizing steps. You can use a mixture of meats to make garlic sauce special stir-fry.
• Add extra veg: Boost the veg by adding carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, mushrooms, Asian greens, asparagus, or sugar snap peas to this recipe. Blanch harder vegetables in boiling water for 2-3 minutes before adding them to the stir-fry with the beef. Softer veg can be added straight to the stir-fry.
• Spice it up: Add a teaspoon of hot sauce or chili paste to the sauce. Or add chopped fresh chili when you add the sliced garlic.