A classic Cantonese Beef Chow Fun Noodles recipe (aka Gon Chow Ngo Ho) made with fresh flat ho fun rice noodles and tender flavourful beef slices that is simple and quick to throw together so you can enjoy this any day of the week!
Beef chow fun is addictive with its chewy noodles and flavourful tender beef slices and it's so easy to sit down and finish off the whole thing yourself without even knowing it. Even though it is easy to find these at takeout joints, you can easily make this at home for yourself as well, just make sure you have a good non-stick pan/well-seasoned wok on hand.
The hardest part about this beef chow fun at home is making the noodles just right so they are not shredded into tiny pieces or mushy. Fresh ho fun is a tricky ingredient to work with at first, but once you get used to using it, it can be an amazing noodle to use to get dinner on the table in minutes.
When I first started making beef chow fun at home, I used to buy whatever fresh ho fun I could find and thought they were all the same, boy was I wrong. The key to having long strands of chewy ho fun noodles that can withstand stir-frying is buying the right type of ho fun noodles.
INGREDIENTS FOR BEEF CHOW FUN
For this beef chow fun recipe, most of these ingredients can be found at your local Asian grocery store.
For the beef, you can use flank steak or any type of steak as long as you cut the beef into thin slices against the grain.
If you can find it, try to use white onion. White onion is a lot sweeter and has a milder onion flavor so that when you flash fry it quickly and it's still semi-raw it will have a nice sweet crunch without that strong raw onion bite. If you can't find white onions, yellow onions work as well but cook them a bit more to remove the strong onion flavor.
HOW TO PICK FRESH HO FUN
When you are looking for fresh ho fun, we want to look for the fresh ho fun called "SA" ho fun which is for stir-frying. Sometimes it is written in English (like in the picture below) and sometimes it isn't and it will just say "ho fun" in English. I marked the Chinese word "SA" in a circle in the photo so you know what that word would look like in Chinese so you can reference it if you need to. 🙂
For any kind of stir-frying, try to stay away from the fresh ho funs that is smushed into a tiny bags (these are usually used for soup noodles), attempting to break up a solid brick of fresh ho fun noodles up will usually produce a very shredded and broken up noodle dish. You want to find ho fun that is either a sheet (that you can cut yourself) or pre-cut and laid out in strands. If you can't find either of them you can use the dried flat rice noodles as well, just make sure it is wide and not the thin ones.
I personally find the pre-cut fresh ho fun works best - even though separating the noodles is a bit of a pain 🙂 I have not tried using dried rice noodles for this dish but it will be something I plan to test and will update this when I do!
PREPARE EVERYTHING AHEAD OF TIME BEFORE COOKING
For this beef chow fun recipe, it is crucial to have everything prepared and on hand before heating up the wok/pan to start cooking this dish, this is because you need to work fast so that the noodles are cooked enough but not too cooked that it melts into the pan into a gloopy mess.
PREPARING THE NOODLES FOR BEEF CHOW FUN
This preparation step is pretty crucial to achieving evenly cooked noodles. When you are making this dish, you will be cooking it fast over high heat and noodles that are not separated will stick together and break up into small broken pieces so it's definitely worth the effort to separate them before you start cooking.
To break up fresh ho fun, I use the microwave and nuke it for 1-2 minutes, at 30-second intervals. At the 1 minute mark, check if the noodles are soft and easy to separate by hand. Usually, the noodles on the outer edge of the plate will get soft first, move the soft noodles into the middle of the plate and nuke it for another 30-60 seconds until everything is soft. Let the noodles cool before completely before stir frying it.
An alternative to microwaving the noodles to separate them would be to steam them. Make sure the noodles have completely cooled before stir-frying.
NON-STICK PAN OR A WELL SEASONED WOK WORKS BEST
If you have ever made stir-fried fresh ho fun noodles, you will know that they can easily stick to frying pans and half your noodles will end up burnt and glued on to the bottom of the pan. The best way to avoid this is to make sure you use a non-stick frying pan or a very well seasoned wok.
LOOKING FOR MORE TAKEOUT RECIPES? TRY THESE!
- Japchae (Stir-Fried Korean Glass Noodles)
- Sweet and Sour Pork
- Singapore Noodles
- Crispy Cantonese Beef Chow Mein
Beef Chow Fun (Beef Ho Fun)
INGREDIENTS
- 300 g flank steak (or any type of steak, cut thinly against the grain)
- 2-3 stalks green onion
- ⅓ white onion
- 750 g fresh sa ho fun noodles (1 package)
- 2 handfuls bean sprouts (approx. 1 ¼ cups)
Beef Marinade
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon dark soy
- ½ tablespoon shaoxing cooking wine (or dry sherry)
- 2 tablespoons water
- ¼ teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
- ½ teaspoon corn starch (optional)
Sauce
- 5 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
Preparation
- Wash the bean sprouts and set aside
- Cut ⅓ of a white onion into slices and set aside
- Wash the green onions and cut off the root ends. Cut the green onions into 2-inch segments. For the thicker parts of the green onions (the white parts) cut those in half lengthwise as well so they are easier to cook and not chunky. Set aside
- Slice the beef against the grain, and place it in a bowl with the marinating sauce. Mix well and set aside to marinate for 15 minutes.
Prepare and Soften the Noodles
- Place the fresh noodles on a plate and microwave it for 1-2 minutes in 30-40 second intervals. At the 1 minute mark, try to loosen up the noodles with your hands. The noodles on the outer edge of the plate usually will soften up first. Loosen the soft ones first, and then put them in the middle of the plate so the non-softened ones can be on the outer edge of the plate to have a chance to get soft.
- Once the noodles are a little soft and separated, set them aside to cool completely before stir-frying.
Making the Sauce
- In a small bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients and set aside.
Putting It Together
- Set the stove to high heat and add a bit of oil to a non-stick frying pan or well-seasoned wok.
- Once the pan is hot, add in the beef and cook it for about 1-2 minutes (No more than 2 minutes) Once it is cooked (it's okay for it to be medium rare), remove the beef and set aside for later
- Clean out the frying pan/wok and add in a bit of oil. Once the oil is hot add in the white onion and cook for about 1 minute.
- Then add in the noodles and the sauce mix at the same time and stir the noodles with the sauce. Use the sauce to soften up the noodles more, and keep moving the noodles around so it doesn't sit too long against the pan (else it might stick to it). Cook it for about 1-2 minutes or until it looks soft.
- Throw in the bean sprouts and green onions and the cooked beef and quickly toss it into the noodles and turn off the heat.
- Continue to toss everything together and let the bean sprouts and green onions cook with the residual heat from the pan
- Remove from pan and enjoy! 🙂
NOTES
- Try to use chopsticks instead of a spatula to toss and push the food around in the pan. Chopsticks are a bit more gentle and will help with keeping the noodles intact and not breaking it up into small pieces.
- Non-stick pan or well seasoned wok is important for this recipe
- If you are having a hard time cutting thin slices of beef, stick the beef in the freezer for 30-40 minutes and then try again. The firmness from it being frozen will make it easier to cut.
- An alternative to microwaving the noodles to soften it, is to steam it.
NUTRITION
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Caitlin says
Hi Joyce! Looking forward to trying this recipe, but I'm having trouble finding fresh noodles-- have you tried this with dried noodles yet, and are there any tips you could spare?
Joyce says
Hi Caitlin!
I have tried using the dried rice noodles but I only tried it once and have not documented my results since I felt like it needed a bit more testing. 🙂
Here is what I did do and what I found so far.
- Make sure you soak the dried noodles in hot water before you use it. Once the noodles are pliable and bendy, you are good to use it in the stir fry.
- I usually don't like to recommend boiling the dried noodles ahead of time because I find that it makes the noodles very mushy especially for stir-frying, hence I always suggest soaking it in very hot water for at least 20 minutes.
- The noodles won't be as soft as fresh noodles and when I cooked it following the recipe I have posted, I found that it absorbed all the soy sauce. Normally I would think that would be fine, but I noticed that the noodles were a lot drier and less flavorful because all the sauce got absorbed by the noodles, so I felt like as a whole, the recipe was missing a bit of flavor. To address this, I would do more testing by either adding more water to the sauce to compensate for the noodles absorbing the sauce to soften up, or I would increase the sauce by 25%-50% (not sure exactly how much yet. 🙂 )
I hope my notes help! 🙂 Now that you have me thinking about this again, I'm craving this again heehee! So I think I might try to make this soon with dry noodle again and document it properly for the actual recipe! Stay tuned!
and Happy New Year! 🙂
Maggie says
Tasted Great! Thank you for the detailed instructions 🙂
Joyce says
Hi Maggie!
I am so happy you liked this! I am always happy to help and I'm happy the instructions were clear! 😀
hermsoven says
Made this recipe once with beef and once with shrimp. Very tasty both ways.
However, I reduced the sauce from 5 to 3 tablespoons since I find that large quantities of soy sauce tends to make every ingredient taste like soy sauce and adds enough sodium for an army.
I use my hottest gas burner to heat the oil to almost smoking. I keep adjusting the flame to high after each ingredient is added. Maybe not wok hei level but really good anyway.
My Cantonese wife and I really enjoyed this version over all the other versions I’ve cooked. We always use fresh ho fun. I stack the 2 noodles and cut them crosswise into 1 inch segments. They separate nicely before the stir fry begins.
Not sure, but I think a little oyster sauce would benefit the flavor.
Thanks for posting your recipe.
Herman
Joyce says
Hi Herman!
I am so happy you liked this and that you made it your own by tweaking the sodium! 🙂 I actually think you are right, I find a little oyster sauce always adds a bit of extra umami and gives dishes a wonderful boost!
I am always happy to share recipes and yums!
Rohan says
I cannot in good taste write what I think of this sad excuse for sa ho fun. Its flavour base is nothing but an overdose of soy sauce mixed with sugar. Not even a hint of wok hei in the result.
Joyce says
Hi Rohan,
I'm sorry to hear you didn't like this recipe.
Wok hei is very difficult to achieve at home and it cannot be achieved purely with ingredients, it is more of a technique.
That smoky wok hei flavor you get from eating Chinese takeout is achieved by cooking the food on really high heat in a searing hot wok and that flavor is actually the food being instantly seared from the intense heat (hence the smoky flavor). To achieve this at home, your stove must be able to go to very high temperatures to get that instant sear. You might be able to achieve this on a gas stove on high flame but it depends on your stove.
Alternatively, you can also use a blow torch and do a quick sear to the food to also achieve that flavor but I did not suggest this method because a blow torch is not something a normal household would have and it's a bit extreme to purchase unless you plan to use it often and if you know how to use it.
JAMES POTOCZEK says
Looks tempting.
Joyce says
Thanks James! 🙂
Steven A Spence says
Boy I wish I saw your recipe first! This is one of my favorite Chinese dishes so I decided to give it a go by using a different recipe and I suffered the pains of the tightly packed fresh noodles as you had warned about. This recipe also had me cooking the noodles before the meat and my wife (who I met in Xiamen and married her here in Boise) told me this was all wrong, also too much meat to noodles (almost 1:1). I just told her about your recipe and she said this must be from a Chinese person, this is the correct way. Anyway I will making your recipe for our next Chinese church potluck lunch in 2 weeks and will use dry noodles instead (we have 4 or 5 Asian markets here so a pretty good selection). I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Joyce says
Hi Steven,
This is one of my favorite dish as well! 🙂 So I completely understand what you mean, I have had many failed attempts with the tightly fresh noodles as well 🙂 With the fresh noodles, the only ones that worked for me were the ones that are packaged in a styrofoam plate and plastic wrapped, you just have to warm them up in the microwave to soften them before separating them. The fresh noodles packaged into plastic bag and bundled up into a big chunk are very difficult to work with for stir fries so definitely avoid those.
If you are using the dried noodles (which I find are the easiest ones to work with) make sure you soak them in warm water until they are soft before you stir fry it. I also find that the dry noodles need a bit more liquid when you are stir frying to reconstitute it, so you may need to add a few tablespoons of water to it while it is stir frying before adding the sauce.
Hope this helps and hope it turns out for your church potluck! 🙂 Let me know if you have any questions as well!
...and yes your wife is right! I am Chinese! 😀
Josie says
I love this Beef Chow Fun. Never get fed up. Easy to cook. I personally add extra more bean sprouts to bring out better eating texture in the mouth. Thank you.
Joyce says
I never get tired of this noodle either! Adding more bean sprouts is definitely an amazing way to make it a bit healthier too! 🙂