Beef Fried Rice

This Beef Fried Rice is so freaking delicious. You could say that this recipe is adapted from one of The Woks of Life‘s recipes for fried rice because most of the what I’ve learned about making fried rice I did from their blog. They’re so damn interesting and educational, I highly recommend checking them out.

I love making this rice with the vegetables listed, but you can easily adapt this and add a bag of frozen peas, leftover green beans, a drained can of corn – the sky is the limit, really. One of the best things about Fried Rice is how versatile it is. You can do so much with it. Next up for me is recreating this Cajun Fried Rice I saw The Cast Iron Chef prepare on Instagram. If you haven’t already, check out my Vegetable Fried Rice recipe.

Beef Fried Rice Ingredients

Feel free to jump to the full recipe, but here are useful notes about the ingredients you will need to make this Beef Fried Rice recipe:

• Steak: I used beef tenderloin tips – filet mignons, basically – cut into bite sized pieces. Use whatever cut of tender, quick cooking steak you’d prefer. Flank and sirloin are good options.
• Cold cooked rice: I generally use basmati or a mixture of basmati and long-grain. For the rice pictured I used just basmati. I cooked it the traditional way, where you boil it in too much water like pasta, then drain it and let the excess moisture steam away. Then I refrigerated it overnight. It’s important to use cooked and completely cooled rice so the grains stay separate and are able to ‘fry’ for the Beef Fried Rice.
• Vegetable oil, garlic butter: Vegetable oil for searing the meat and aromatics, garlic butter for flavor and frying everything. I make my garlic butter with salted butter, pureed garlic, minced parsley, and minced chives.
• Soy sauce, garlic pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, mirin, Kosher salt: Flavor! Seasonings! We use them to marinate the meat and further flavor the rice and veggies.
• Eggs: I like my Beef Fried Rice pretty eggy, so I use three large eggs. You can reduce or increase as you prefer.
• Garlic, yellow onion, scallion: Our aromatics. You can sub garlic and onion powder if you’re not a fan of them or don’t feel like doing all that dicing and mincing.
• Bell pepper, carrot, broccoli florets, bean sprouts: My vegetables of choice. As mentioned above you can use whatever you want: a bag of frozen peas, some chopped up leftover green beans, a drained can of corn, etc. I use mung bean sprouts, but really any sprouts with a crunch are great.
• Water, toasted sesame oil, umami seasoning, granulated sugar: We mix all these together into a sauce and use it to help flavor and steam our broccoli. If you swap out the vegetables that don’t need to be steamed you can just use this deglaze the pan after the beef is seared, or omit the water and add the other ingredients to the recipe whenever.

How to Make Beef Fried Rice 

Full instructions are included in the recipe below, but here is a basic overview of what you’ll need to do, along with some important tidbits to help you make the most of this Beef Fried Rice recipe:

• Prepare everything. Half an hour before you’re ready to cook, add the beef to a bowl and stir in the soy sauce, garlic pepper, red pepper flakes, and mirin. Cover and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the water, sesame oil, sugar, and umami seasoning. Set that aside as well.
• Sear the beef. Place a wok or large, deep saute pan over medium-high heat. Let it heat for 2 minutes, then add one tablespoon of vegetable oil. Swirl it around to coat the surface of the pan. Add half of the beef to the pan and spread it out into a single layer. Allow it to cook undisturbed for 2 minutes, then stir and toss it around. 
• Saute the vegetables. Add the broccoli, onion, and bell pepper to the pan. Pour the water mixture in and stir. Toss the vegetables around, stirring frequently, until the onion is tender and starting to char. Remove to the plate with the beef while you prepare the next component of the Beef Fried Rice.
• Fry the rice. Add the garlic butter, garlic cloves, and carrots. When the butter begins to foam and the carrot has darkened in color, add the cooked rice, breaking it up. Drizzle the soy sauce over the rice, and gently toss everything together. Let the rice fry lightly for a few minutes, then taste and adjust with kosher salt if needed. 
• Assemble the Beef Fried Rice. Push the rice aside and add the remaining garlic butter to the bare space. Add the beaten eggs and scramble until just starting to form curds. Gently begin to stir the rice and the eggs together. When almost completely combined, stir the beef and vegetables back into the rice. Turn off the heat and toss in the bean sprouts and scallions. Serve hot. Dassit! 

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