Thai Beef Stir Fry: An Easy Entry Into Thai Food
Growing up in southern California, I have been so spoiled by the diversity of food. After visiting Thailand a few years ago and tasting the local cuisine, I realized that what we have in America is almost just as good. One of my favorite dishes in Thailand was a chicken curry noodle soup (khao soi)that hailed from the north. I will never forget the aromatic and slightly spicy broth, delicately kissed with sweetness from fresh coconut milk and palm sugar. I haven’t figured out how to recreate this dish. That will have to wait for another post. Instead, let’s start with something a little easier: Thai Beef Stir Fry.
When I was in Chiangmai, Thailand, I even took a cooking class with my husband, friend, and her boyfriend. We were dropped off in the middle of a rice field, with no buildings in sight except for one shack with no walls. All you could see was the green rice fields all around. It was breathtaking and stark at the same time.
During this cooking class, we made tom yum soup, pad Thai, cashew nut chicken, and mangoes with sticky rice in humongous woks, which lit on fire when swerved the right way. This was one of the best meals I have ever had in my life and would highly recommend folks to take a cooking class like this in Thailand.
Making Thai Food At Home
Thai food is really tricky to make at home because of its delicate balance of flavors. Many dishes have elements of sweet, savory, spicy, and tangy. Garlic, basil, lemongrass, bird chiles, and galangal, are the primary aromatics used. Having all flavors in perfect balance is the goal. So, stir fries are a great entry way to making Thai food. Why not start with this Thai beef stir fry?
How to Stir Fry
Stir fries are my go-to for meal prep throughout the week. They are quick and relatively easy to execute. That is why I love this Thai beef stir fry. Stir frying can also be a very healthy technique of preparing food. Just don’t use an excessive amount of oil.
An essential nuance in stir fries is to create “wok hei,” which is essentially smoke from a really hot pan.
Once you have a super hot pain, you just have to be careful with timing and knowing which ingredients to stir fry first, which to stir-fry together, and which must be separately stir-fried and then combined later on with the sauce.
Most stir fried veggie dishes start off with the browning of garlic in oil before adding the other ingredients. The problem is that the garlic will quickly burn if it is not given some liquid. To prevent burning of garlic, I usually add a splash of water to my stir-fry after adding the vegetables. Traditional Chinese cooking utilizes LOADS of oil to prevent garlic from burning, but that is a rather unhealthy approach, so I prefer my splash of water.
In stir-fries involving meat and veggies, I almost always stir-fry the meat first, remove it from the pan, and then stir fry the veggies separately. This allows proper cooking of each ingredient, as cooking them all at once will create a watery mess. They are later combined and stir-fried with the sauce, which is oftentimes soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, fermented bean sauce.
Stir-fried vegetables should always retain some level of crunch after cooking. When in doubt, slightly undercook your veggies. That way, the residual heat will do the rest of the softening of the veggies. For people who follow a meal prep life, undercooking the veggies is a good strategy to give your veggies the perfect texture after re-heating.
For more stir fries, please check out my tomato beef stir fry and soy sauce steak stir fry.
Basil Beef Stir-Fry
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb Flank steak cut into thin strips
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 bell pepper sliced
- 1/2 onion sliced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 red jalapeno thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 bunch basil
Instructions
- Marinate steak in soy sauce and corn starch. Allow to sit at least 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prep other ingredients.
- Turn on wok or skillet on high. When pan is hot, add oil. When oil is shimmery, add flank steak and stir fry for 3-5 minutes until beef is just cooked through. Then remove from heat.
- Add oil to the skillet/wok, and when oil is shimmery, add in garlic, bell pepper, onions, and red jalapeno. Stir fry for 3-5 minutes, until vegetables are slightly softened.
- Add in beef and stir fry together. Add in oyster sauce and sugar. Stir fry another minute. Taste for seasoning. Add in basil and stir fry until basil has just softened.
- Remove from heat and serve.
