When you need a tasty dinner in a hurry, this Ground Beef Stir Fry is just the thing! You can easily customize the add-ins and you can meal prep this too! It reheats well.
This Asian Ground Beef Stir Fry recipe is so full of flavor and easy to make. The tweens and teens can take the lead. The base is lean ground beef, the add ins are a few veggies, then the Asian stir fry sauce. Serves 2-4 depending on if you serve over rice as well as add-ins used.
Serve this Ground Beef Stir Fry recipe as-is or over rice. If you want to be extra, you can top it with a fried egg. Extra flavor and protein, a double win!! You could even make extra sauce and serve tossed into rice noodles or linguini.
For that umami flavor top this with a quick Asian Cucumber Salad which you can see pictured in some of the photos. It gives this crunch and a burst of extra flavors. Same goes for adding some peanuts overtop. Love that CRUNCH!
Table of Contents
Ingredients needed
- soy sauce, rice wine vinegar & sesame oil
- brown sugar
- hoisin sauce, Gochujang sauce or chili garlic sauce
- cornstarch
- onion, garlic
- ground beef
- shredded carrots, scallions
- red pepper flakes
- optional: Asian Cucumber Salad
- sticky rice (optional)
- Garnish options such as chopped peanuts, scallions, sesame seeds, sriracha, a fried egg, chili crisp, etc
Variations
- Keep this simple as pictured above or add in all the things you might enjoy.
- Feel free to swap ground beef for ground veal, lamb, pork or a mixture. You can also use ground chicken or or turkey, just be aware they cook faster. So do not overcook and dry those out.
- If you do not have hoisin sauce, you can omit it. The sauce will be just fine without it, it just adds a bit of depth.
- Use gochujang sauce or chili garlic sauce, they both work. Just a slight difference in flavor.
- Add in some fresh grated or chopped ginger if you have it for a bite and increased flavor.
- Top with pickled red onion instead of the suggested cucumbers or pickled ginger, it all goes well.
- Toss your peanuts in your gar to get them coated with any remnants of sauce for more flavor, yum!
Tip: When making this or any stir fry, get all ingredients prepped and ready so you can move efficiently. When you make a stir fry, things move quick.
Tips
- If using a fattier ground beef (which is fine), blot some of the grease out before adding in the first half of the sauce.
- Play around with your add-ins. Keep it simple with peanuts as an add-in (pictured above). You can add in sliced red or green peppers, diced zucchini, additional shredded carrots or like shown in the first photo as well as the below photo, add my Spicy Cucumber Salad, which gives it a fantastic fresh and flavorful crunch!.
Storage
- This keeps well in a container in the refrigerator for a few days.
- Storing the meat and the rice separately is my preference.
Have fun customizing this ground beef stir fry recipe to your liking! XO Colleen
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Colleen Kennedy is the author of 3 cookbooks and has appeared on QVC and other shows inspiring home cooks of all levels. She has a popular TikTok channel @ColleensCooking with hundreds of short recipe videos. Colleen lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and kids, she started the food blog, Soufflé Bombay in 2009. Read more about her here.
Ground Beef Stir Fry
Ingredients
Sauce Ingredients
- ½ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 ½ TBS rice wine vinegar
- 1 ½ TBS sesame oil
- 1 TBS brown sugar
- 1 TBS hoisin sauce
- 2 TBS Gochujang sauce or chili garlic sauce
- 1 TBS cornstarch
Beef Mixture
- 1 TBS sesame oil
- ¾ cup chopped onion
- 2 big cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 cup shredded carrots (heaping cup) or more
- ⅓ cup sliced scallions or more
- pinch red pepper flakes
- Optional Asian Cucumber Salad see recipe link in notes below
- serve over sticky rice (optional)
- garnish with chopped peanuts, scallions, sesame seeds, sriracha, a fried egg, chili crisp or whatever you dream up!
Instructions
- Grab a mason jar and combine marinade ingredients. Give it a good shake, taste and adjust. Set aside.
- In a large skillet / saute pan. Add sesame oil, once hot, add in onions and sauté for a couple minutes. Just until they begin to soften, add in garlic and sauté another minute. If you enjoy spicy, add in some red pepper flakes here as well.
- Add in your ground beef, breaking it up with a spatula or back of a spoon.
- As beef begins to cook, add in ½ of the sauce you made and continue cooking.
- Once you see beef is just about browned through add in your shredded carrots and scallions.
- If you did not use LEAN ground beef and your beef dropped a bunch of fat, quickly tilt pan and using paper towels, get the liquid out.
- Add remaining sauce, simmer for another minute or so, remove from heat and plate.
- Serve over sticky rice, your favorite rice, chopped lettuce as a salad or enjoy as is.
- I love to garnish this with chopped peanuts, more scallions, my Asian Cucumber Salad, sometimes sesame seeds and sometimes a fried egg with chili crisp or a Sriracha drizzle, you do whatever you will enjoy 🙂
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