Stir-fried dishes are one of our favorite go-to meals. You can basically add whatever ingredients that suits your fancy—or in an effort to use up some fresh vegetables.
For a sophisticated Thai beef recipe using available ingredients and requiring minimal cooking time, you can use an inexpensive blade steak, which offers both tenderness and robust flavor. With a marinade made of fish sauce, white pepper, citrusy coriander, and a little light brown sugar, the beef needs to marinated for only 15 minutes to develop full flavor.
To add heat to this stir-fried Thai beef recipe, use an easily controlled heat source—Asian chili-garlic paste—that also adds toasty garlicky flavors along with heat.

If you cannot find blade steaks, use flank steak (our choice). To cut a flank steak into the proper-sized slices for stir-frying, first cut the steak with the grain into 1 1/2-inch strips, then cut the strips against the grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices (see photo below). White pepper lends this stir-fry a unique flavor (black pepper is not a good substitute). Serve the stir-fry with steamed jasmine rice.

Stir-Fried Thai-Style Beef with Chiles and Shallots
Ingredients
Beef and Marinade
- ¾ tsp. ground coriander
- ⅛ tsp. ground white pepper
- 1 tsp. light brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp. fish sauce
- 2 lbs. blade or flank steak, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips
Stir-Fry
- 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
- 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. water
- 1 Tbsp. light brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp. Asian chili-garlic paste
- 3 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 Tbsp.)
- 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 3 Serrano chiles or jalapeño chiles, halved, seeds and ribs removed, chiles cut crosswise ⅛ inch thick
- 3 medium shallots, trimmed of ends, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and layers separated
- ½ cup fresh mint leaves, large leaves torn into bite-sized pieces
- ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
- ⅓ cup chopped unsalted roasted peanuts and lime wedges for serving









Directions
- FOR THE BEEF AND MARINADE: Combine coriander, white pepper, brown sugar, and fish sauce in large bowl. Add beef, toss well to combine; marinate 15 minutes.
- FOR THE STIR-FRY: In small bowl, stir together fish sauce, vinegar, water, brown sugar, and chili-garlic paste until sugar dissolves; set aside.
- In small bowl, mix garlic with 1 teaspoon oil; set aside. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet (or use a wok like we did) over high heat until smoking; add one-third of beef to skillet in even layer. Cook, without stirring, until well browned, about 2 minutes, then stir and continue cooking until beef is browned around edges and no longer pink in the center, about 30 seconds.
- Transfer beef to medium bowl. Repeat with additional oil and remaining meat in 2 more batches.
- After transferring last batch of beef to bowl, reduce heat to medium; add remaining 2 teaspoons oil to now-empty skillet and swirl to coat. Add chiles and shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to soften, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Push chile-shallot mixture to sides of skillet to clear center; add garlic to clearing and cook, mashing mixture with spoon, until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Stir to combine garlic with chile-shallot mixture.
- Add fish sauce mixture to skillet; increase heat to high and cook until slightly reduced and thickened, about 30 seconds.
- Return beef and any accumulated juices to skillet, toss well to combine and coat with sauce, stir in half of mint and cilantro; serve immediately, sprinkling individual servings with portion of peanuts and remaining herbs, and passing lime wedges separately.
Adapted from a recipe in Cook’s Illustrated