Sweet and Sticky Crispy Beef

4.86 from 115 votes

Super crispy beef tossed with a sweet and sticky sauce - better than take out!

Prep Time20

Cook Time40

Total Time1

Course: Asian, Main, Takeout

Cuisine: American, Chinese

Servings: Servings

Calories: 684kcal

Ingredients

1.5 lbs top sirloin steak (any type of beef works - flank steak, skirt steak)
1 cup potato starch (divided in half, can be substituted with corn starch, but it won't be as crispy) *see notes
oil (for deep frying) (see notes, for type of oil)

Slice the steak into 1 cm wide strips and place it in a bowl. (If your steak is more than 1 cm thick, cut the strips in half again length-wise)
In a food processor, blitz the onion, garlic, and ginger until it is a paste. (If you do not have a food processor, you can grate them or chop it very finely by hand, just make sure the ginger bits are very tiny)
Add the marinade and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce to the beef and mix well and marinate it in the fridge for 1 hour (or 20-30 minutes at room temperature)

After the beef has marinated, dust ½ cup of potato starch (or corn starch) on the beef and use your fingers to loosely coat the beef with it. Let it sit for 10 minutes
While you are waiting for the meat to marinate, heat up a heavy bottom pot (or wok) and set the stove to medium heat. Add at least 1 inch of oil to the pot and wait for it to get hot. (It should reach a temperature of 375F). I like to poke a wooden chopstick, or the handle of a wooden spoon into the oil and wait for it to bubble. Once it bubbles, the oil is hot enough.
Once the beef has marinated for 10 minutes, dust the other ½ cup of potato starch (or corn starch) on the beef again to lightly re-coat the beef and lightly dust off any excess starch. Deep fry it immediately.
Using your fingers separate the beef if they are clumped together and deep fry it in the oil in small batches (make sure the oil is hot but not smoking - to test if the oil is hot enough, add 1 small piece of beef first and see if it instantly sizzles)
Deep fry the beef for 1-2 minutes, and remove it from the pot onto a plate with parchment paper or newspaper.
Once all the beef has been cooked once (first fry), add all of it back in for the second deep fry for 1 more minute.

Remove all the oil from the pot and set it back on the stove on medium low heat
Add in all the sauce ingredients, except the corn starch slurry ingredients.
Stir until everything is combined well and wait until it comes to a low rolling boil
In a small bowl, combine the corn starch and cold water to make a corn starch slurry and add it into the sauce and keep stirring until the sauce has thickened. Turn off the heat.
Add in the crispy beef and coat it with the sauce
Serve immediately! Goes amazing with plain rice. :)

For deep frying, I like to use oils that have a mild flavor and a high smoking temperature like peanut, canola, vegetable, sunflower or corn oil.
If you are using potato starch to deep fry the meat, make sure to not overcrowd the pan if you are using a shallow pan. Put the meat in one at a time fry them without touching each other. I find that potato starch likes to stick when you are initially frying it and if the pan is crowded (meat is all touching) you will end up with a giant ball of crispy meat instead of small crispy bite-sized meat.
You can double up the sauce ingredients to make more sauce if you love things super saucy. This stuff is amazing drizzled on plain white rice! :)
If you're pressed for time, shorten the marinating time to 30-40 minutes by leaving the beef at room temperature for 20-30 minutes - instead of in the fridge for an hour.
The key to a crispier beef is to make sure the oil is hot oil before you start to deep fry and double frying it! :)
No low sodium soy sauce? No problem! Cut back the amount of soy sauce by a few tablespoons and replace it with water to dilute it for a lighter and less salty soy sauce.
This is amazing with a bit of heat as well! Add a few chopped-up peppers while you are cooking the sauce or add a few teaspoons of cayenne pepper for a bit of a kick!