Simple Beef Marinade for Stir Fry

A simple and easy beef marinade that can be used for all types of beef, vegetable, or noodle stir-fry.

When it comes to Chinese stir fry, it doesn't take a lot to make it fantastic, but marinating beef in a marinade is definitely a must to keep the beef juicy and moist. Most beef marinades for stir-fries are simple and easy anyway, so you definitely don't want to skip the marinating step.

Whenever I make any type of beef stir fry recipes like my Beef Chow Fun, Cantonese Beef Chow Mein, Stir Fried Bitter Melon, or Beef Noodle Stir Fry, I always marinate the beef. It's a quick and easy step that adds a lot to your dishes and is definitely worth the effort.

To take your beef to another level you can also slice beef against the grain when you're cutting the beef and you can take it to another level by velveting the beef as well.

I won't go into too much detail here because this is meant to be a simple post for you to make an easy beef stir fry marinade fry but if you want to jump into the details of how to slice beef against the grain and velvet it, check out my post How to Make Beef Tender for Stir Fry.

Best Cuts of Beef for Stir Fry

Before you marinate beef, make sure you have a nice cut of beef that will stay tender for any type of quick-cooking Chinese stir fry.

When it comes to the type of beef I use for stir-fries, I'm not particularly too picky about it and usually use what is available at the time.

The most common and popular beef cuts I use for stir-fries are:

• Flank Steak
• Chuck (my personal favorite) - I buy big chunks of chuck at Costco and cut them into chunks and freeze them so I always have beef on hand for stir-fries. They stay tender and have a great beef flavor as well.
• Outside Skirt Steak
• Top Sirloin Steak - Or any type of steak such as ribeye or t-bone

Beef Marinade Ingredients

• Soy Sauce - For this Asian beef marinade recipe, you can use both light (regular) soy sauce or low sodium soy sauce.
• Dark Soy Sauce (Optional) - Dark soy sauce is only used to give beef a browner color once it has been cooked. It is completely optional.
• Shaoxing Cooking Wine - Any type of cooking wine will work for this beef marinade. I like to use Shaoxing wine, but rice wine and dry sherry will also work.
• Water - Water is a must, and is used to re-hydrate the beef, which will keep it moist and juicy once it has been stir-fried.
• Toasted Sesame Oil - Adding toasted sesame oil will give this beef marinade another dimension of flavor.
• Corn Starch - Adding starch to the marinade, seals in the beef juices, and keeps it tender and juicy. Any type of starch will work but I usually stick to corn starch and I will occasionally use tapioca or potato starch as well because it is what I always have on hand.
• Oyster Sauce - I don't usually add oyster sauce, but if you have it on hand, you definitely can add about 1 teaspoon to give the marinade a bit more flavor.
• Oil - For the neutral oil, I like to use avocado oil but any type of oil will work. The oil helps seal the cornstarch onto the beef to keep it moist.

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Chinese Recipes That Use Beef Marinade

Recipe Card

Marinade for Beef Stir Fry

A simple beef marinade for Asian stir fry

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Course: Sauce

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese

Prep Time: 1 minute minute

Cook Time: 0 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 minute minute

1

5 from 13 votes

Made with ♡ by Joyce

Joyce's Recipe Notes

• This beef marinade also works very well with chicken and pork.
• Adding water to any type of chicken, pork, or beef marinade not only rehydrates the meat so that it becomes juicier and moister but when combined with soy sauce it also makes it a mini brine which gives it another level of hydration so your beef always stays tender and juicy.
• Alternatively, if you don't want to use corn starch for velveting beef, you can also use tapioca starch or potato starch but any type of starch will actually do the trick.
• For the neutral oil, I like to use avocado oil but any type of oil will work as well.

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Ingredients

 

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• ▢ 300 g beef

Beef Marinade

• ▢ 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• ▢ ½ teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional, for color)
• ▢ ½ tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine (or dry sherry)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons water
• ▢ ½ tablespoon neutral oil
• ▢ ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• ▢ 1 teaspoon corn starch

Instructions

 

• Thinly slice the beef against the grain and put it in a small bowl.
• Add in all the ingredients from 'Beef Marinade' and mix it into the beef by hand.

Nutrition

Calories: 808kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 53g | Fat: 62g | Saturated Fat: 23g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 27g | Trans Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 213mg | Sodium: 869mg | Potassium: 877mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 0.1g | Calcium: 61mg | Iron: 6mg

*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*

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