Meal Bite: Stir Fry Mongolian Beef

Hi Busies!

I’m writing this on Sunday night, after a whirlwind of a weekend visiting Asheville, North Carolina (travel bite post coming soon!).  It was so much fun – quality time spent hiking to beautiful views of the mountains, with nights of brewery hopping and some seriously amazing food.  

Like all good weekends, it was over too soon, and the Sunday blues were on us from the minute we got in the car to head home.  The 2 silver linings were

  1. knowing that we’d get to cuddle our pups, and
  2. knowing that we didn’t have to get off the road to pick up any takeout – there was already this Mongolian beef waiting for us in the fridge!

 

Busy Girl Bites | Mongolian Beef Stir Fry | Part of the FREE meal prep guide!

 

In the crazy rush of after-work packing on Thursday night, I thought for a moment of Future Me – the one who would be getting home on Sunday, most likely hungry, tired, and not at all in the mood to figure out a dinner situation.  I grabbed this Mongolian beef from the freezer to let it thaw while we were gone, and Present Me is SO happy about having the dinner situation handled.  

Now the rest of the night is couch cuddling with the pups, watching Sunday Night Football.  That, I can handle!

Busy Girl Bites | Mongolian Beef Stir Fry | Part of the FREE meal prep guide!

This Mongolian Beef Stir Fry comes out tasting just like takeout, but you control what goes in!  I always try to use brown rice, and if broccoli isn’t your thing, any of your favorite stir fry veggies will work!  I like to buy prepackaged frozen stir fry veggie mixes and just throw them right in the wok after the steak is done cooking.  

Make sure to use good quality steak – ribeye or flank steak are my favorites here.  And keep an eye on the cook time, because stir frying steak can make it go from tender to tough really quickly!

Busy Girl Bites | Mongolian Beef Stir Fry | Part of the FREE meal prep guide!

I stir the whole sauce together in a measuring cup, to avoid dirtying another bowl during a busy meal prep session!

Busy Girl Bites | Mongolian Beef Stir Fry | Part of the FREE meal prep guide!

If you don’t have a big enough pan, you might have to stir fry the steak in 2 batches – it’s very important to keep the oil and the pan super hot to get that nice brown crust, and adding too much steak at a time will take the pan temp down too low.

 Busy Girl Bites | Mongolian Beef Stir Fry | Part of the FREE meal prep guide!

Who says takeout is better than homemade?!

Busy Girl Bites | Mongolian Beef Stir Fry | Part of the FREE meal prep guide!

Mongolian Beef Stir Fry

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings 4
Author Sam - Busy Girl Bites

Ingredients

  • 3 lb flank steak
  • 1/4 cup corn starch
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 T garlic (minced)
  • 3/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 4 servings roasted broccoli or other stir fry veggies (snap peas, peppers, green beans, carrots)
  • 4 servings cooked rice
  • optional: scallions (for garnish)
  • optional: sesame seeds (for garnish)

Instructions

Prepare steak

  1. Pat flank steak dry and slice into bite sized pieces, slicing across the grain first. Toss with cornstarch in a bowl, set aside.

Make the sauce

  1. Stir together ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and brown sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
  2. Heat 2 tsp sesame oil or vegetable oil to high heat. Slowly add steak, maintaining high heat. Stir occasionally until steak is browned and cooked to desired doneness ~5 minutes.
  3. Turn heat down to medium and add sauce to pan. Bring to a boil and simmer until slightly thickened. Stir in broccoli.
  4. Serve over rice, or freeze in appropriate meal prep container.
  5. Garnish with scallions and sesame seeds before serving.

Recipe Notes

To Freeze:
If you're freezing this, I recommend freezing the steak separate from veggies, so that the sauce doesn't turn the veggies mushy. I usually make the rice on the day of, but you can also prep it and throw it in with the steak!