Beef With Oyster Sauce
Learn to make this classic restaurant dish like an expert chef!
Cooking Summary
Ingredients: (detailed list)
- Main Ingredients: beef, snow pea, celery, seafood mushroom, brown button mushroom, carrot, green onion, garlic, ginger, oil, cooking wine, dark soy sauce, sesame oil
- Marinade Ingredients: oyster sauce, light soy sauce, cornstarch, water, white pepper, baking soda
- Sauce Ingredients: oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar
- Slurry Ingredients: potato starch, water
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Top 3 Mistakes
- Slicing meat with the grain:
Cut across the visible muscle fibers rather than along them. Following the recipe’s slicing direction makes the pieces easier to chew and helps keep the finished meat tender.
- Leaving ingredients too wet:
Drain and dry the ingredients as directed before they reach the pan. Extra water changes how they cook, making it harder to get the browning and texture the recipe calls for.
- Starting with a cool pan:
Heat the wok or pan as directed before adding the ingredients. Starting before it is ready changes the initial cooking stage and makes the intended browning harder to achieve.
Overview
Beef with Oyster Sauce (蠔油牛肉) is a classic restaurant dish that's surprisingly easy to replicate at home. The flavor comes from what's commonly known as a brown sauce. Its main ingredient is oyster sauce, with dark soy sauce and sugar to add color and balance out the flavor. Brown sauce is incredibly versatile and can be used in any kind of stir fry to add a rich, salty, umami flavor.
On velveting
The key to making this beef dish like an expert chef is a common Chinese technique known as velveting. If you've made other Made With Lau recipes like our Chicken Stir Fry or Beef Chow Fun, then you've heard us use that term before. The meat in oyster sauce beef is prepared in the same way. It's a two-step process that creates the silkiest, most tender meat. The first step starts with the marinade, which uses cornstarch, baking soda and oil to help seal in the beef's juices. Then, the beef is passed through a shallow fry during the cooking process.
Ingredients
Why this recipe
Most beef with oyster sauce recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 95.2K views, 2.4K likes on YouTube.
On oyster sauce
Oyster sauce is one of the most important pantry essentials in Chinese cooking. It's in countless recipes and the main flavoring in the brown sauce that's commonly used for stir fries.
Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce is my dad's go to, but there are many other brands to choose from, especially at your local Asian supermarket.
If you're vegetarian, there are alternatives that you can use in place of regular oyster sauce (which, as its name suggests, contains oyster extract). Wan Ja Shan Vegetarian Mushroom Oyster Sauce and Lee Kum Kee Vegetarian Stir Fry Sauce are two good substitutes.
For those who are gluten-free, Wok Mei has a gluten-free oyster sauce, but it still contains oyster extract and therefore isn't vegetarian.
Unfortunately, we have yet to find an oyster sauce alternative that caters to both dietary restrictions, so if you're both vegetarian and gluten free, you'll need to make it from scratch. Mix equal parts gluten-free soy sauce and gluten-free hoisin sauce. It's not exactly the same as oyster sauce, but it'll come pretty close.
These links are affiliate links, which means that if you use our links to purchase these ingredients, Amazon pays my family a small amount for the sale - at no extra cost to you. If you use these links, we really appreciate the support!
How to make Beef With Oyster Sauce
Slice the beef (11 oz) in half lengthwise. Holding your knife at an angle, cut each piece into thin slices, going against the grain.
(Chef's Tip: Slightly frozen meat will be easier to cut.)
Place the sliced beef in a bowl. Fill it with cold water and set aside.
Prep the marinade. To a separate large bowl, add the oyster sauce (1 tablespoon), light soy sauce (2 teaspoon), cornstarch (2 tablespoon), water (3 tablespoon), white pepper (0.25 teaspoon) and baking soda (0.50 teaspoon). Mix to thoroughly combine.
Drain the beef and squeeze out any excess water. Add the beef to the marinade, mix thoroughly and set aside.
Destring the snow peas (2 oz), if needed.
Cut the celery (2 oz) at a diagonal into 1/4-inch thick slices.
Cut off the roots of the seafood mushrooms (3 oz) and rinse.
Trim off the stems of the brown button mushrooms (3 oz) and cut into three slices.
Peel the carrot (3 oz) and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices. To make a flower pattern, cut notches around the carrot before slicing (optional).
Cut the green onion (1 oz) whites into chunks and slice the greens into 1-inch segments.
Peel the garlic (2 clove). Trim off the root ends and cut into thin slices.
Peel the ginger (0.50 oz). Cut into slices, then cut those slices in half.
To a small bowl, add the oyster sauce (0.50 tablespoon), dark soy sauce (0.50 tablespoon) and sugar (1 teaspoon). Mix to thoroughly combine.
To a small bowl, add the potato starch (0.50 teaspoon) and water (1 tablespoon).
Add the oil (1 tablespoon) to beef and mix to thoroughly combine.
Heat a clean wok on high. When it starts to smoke, lower the heat to medium, add the oil (2 tablespoon), then spread it all around the wok using a spatula.
Add a few slices of ginger.
Add the beef and spread out the pieces, but don’t flip for 30 to 35 seconds. Flip the beef and stir fry for another 50 seconds, until it’s about 80 percent cooked.
Turn off the heat and transfer the meat and ginger to a bowl, leaving the excess oil in the wok.
Keeping the excess oil in the wok, turn on the heat to medium.
Add the ginger, garlic and green onion whites and stir fry for 30 seconds until aromatic.
Add the brown button mushrooms and stir fry for 30 seconds.
Add the carrots and celery and stir fry for 20 seconds.
Add snow peas and beech mushrooms and stir fry for 20 seconds.
Add the cooking wine (1 tablespoon), pouring along the edge of the wok. Stir everything together briefly, then increase the heat to high.
Continue to stir fry the vegetables for 40 seconds to ensure they’re fully cooked.
Add the beef back to the wok and stir everything together.
Pour in the sauce and give it a taste. Add the additional dark soy sauce (1 teaspoon) and stir everything.
Stir the starch slurry and pour into the wok while stirring constantly.
Turn off the heat, drizzle in the sesame oil (1 teaspoon) and add the finishing dark soy sauce (1 teaspoon).
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do you add baking soda to the meat?
Baking soda works as a tenderizing ingredient, helping to make the beef smooth and tender. This simple and effective technique is called velveting and is commonly used in Chinese cooking, especially when stir frying.
Is oyster sauce the same as hoisin sauce?
Oyster sauce and hoisin sauce are two completely different ingredients. Traditionally, oyster sauce is a thick, umami condiment made from cooking oysters down until their juices caramelize, but many modern-day brands now use oyster extract with the addition of other ingredients such as salt and sugar.
Hoisin sauce, on the other hand, starts with soybeans that get combined with sugar, garlic and spices. It also a thick texture, but a far sweeter flavor profile than oyster sauce.
Can I substitute the oyster sauce with hoisin sauce?
Since the two condiments have different flavors, you cannot substitute them for one another here. The final dish will not taste the same.
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Made with love ❤️
We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.