Steak Fried Rice is a bit special because it’s rare to see fried rice made with chunks of beef! With marinated, tenderised beef pieces “sizzled” until golden, this is an excellent recipe to make with economical cuts like sizzle steak, minute steak, and pre-cut stir fry strips.
“Sizzling Beef” Steak Fried Rice
This is not the first time I’ve done a beef fried rice. But it’s the first time I’ve shared any rice dish with steak pieces rather than mince (ground beef) jumbled throughout the rice. In fact, it might be the first time I’ve ever eaten a fried rice with pieces of beef in it!
Mind you, I’m not claiming this as an original invention. I’m just saying it’s different from the usual fried rice made with chicken or prawns/shrimp. It’s a bit special. And it is really tasty. It scored highly with the team at RecipeTin Meals, regular recipients of my trials (and errors) in the kitchen. Those tasty little marinated bits of beef “sizzled” until caramelised really makes it!
Keeping little bits of steak tender
Little bits of steak overcook in a flash – as in, less than 90 seconds. So the only way to make this truly enjoyable so we bite into beef that’s caramelised on the surface but tender inside is to marinate and tenderise it. Otherwise, it’s dry cardboard for dinner tonight!!
While marinating adds flavor, regular marinades won’t keep the beef soft. To achieve that velvety texture you get in Chinese restaurant beef stir fries, we need to velvet the beef.
There’s various ways to do it, but the method I find the easiest for home cooking is to use baking soda (bi-carbonate soda), a tried-and-true technique I’ve shared that many readers love! It’s easy, cheap, and if you’ve never done it before, it’s a game-changer.
Read more about it here – How to Velvet Beef for Stir Fries.
Ingredients for Sizzling Beef Fried Rice
Here’s what you need for this fried rice. This dish is Thai flavoured, using fish sauce and oyster sauce as shortcut flavour bumps like in classic Thai Fried Rice.
Beef and marinade
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Beef – I like to use rump steak (US: top sirloin) because it’s easy to cut into small rectangles that I want for this recipe so you get nice little bites, it’s got good beef flavour and texture for a dish like this. There’s no need to splurge on expensive beef, the marinade does wonders tenderising.
Porterhouse/sirloin (called New York Strip in the US, among other names) is similar but it’s a little pricier so I tend to stick with rump.
For other beef cuts – see box below. And yes, you can use chicken! See FAQ.
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Baking soda (bi-carbonate soda) – The magic ingredient to “velvet” the beef which keeps it nice and tender, fast becoming the world’s worst kept Chinese restaurant secret! Without, the small thin bites of beef would overcook and dry in 90 seconds. We only use a tiny amount so you can’t taste it. See Velveting Beef recipe for more information on this technique.
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Dark soy sauce – stains the beef a rich mahogany colour and adds soy flavour. Substitute with light or all-purpose soy sauce, though the flavour and colour is not as intense.
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Oyster sauce – shortcut sauce for instant flavour, adding savoury, sweetness and thickens the sauce. Substitute with vegetarian oyster sauce (for shell-fish free, available in Asian and large grocery stores these days) or Hoisin sauce (alters flavour but plays similar role).
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Water – To thin the marinade enough to coat all the beef, and also to dilute the marinade a bit (I found the beef too salty in first iterations of this recipe).
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Garlic – Like bacon, it just makes everything better!
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Sugar – Just a smidge, for flavour and wonderful caramelisation. White or brown is fine.
Other beef cuts and marinating time
This recipe is an excellent one to use for just about any cut of beef because the tenderising marinade will transform even the most economical cuts into soft, velvety, flavour infused beef bites. Here’s a list of other common cuts that can be used, and the recommended marinating time.
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Other steaks – Sirloin/porterhouse (New York strip), t-bone, flank, skirt, hanger, bavette – excellent! 1 hour marinade.
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Pricey steaks: Scotch (rib-eye) and tenderloin – pricier, so seems to be a waste to use it in a recipe like this, but it absolutely works. 1 hour marinade.
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Thin and cheap sizzle steak / minute steak / schnitzel – excellent! Marinade for 4 hours minimum.
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Pre-cut “beef stir fry strips”, round steak – 4 hour marinade.
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Slow cooking cuts like chuck, brisket, oyster blade, beef short rib (boneless) – marinade 24 hours, be sure to slice thin. The texture of tenderised slow cooking cuts of beef is not quite the same as steak cuts, but it is still soft and tender, many of them have excellent beefy flavour (like short rib) and I would not hesitate to use any of them if that’s all I had!
DAY-OLD COLD RICE
You will need 4 cups of day-old cooked rice. You’ll need 1 1/2 cups of uncooked rice (1 cup uncooked rice = 3 cups cooked). I use long-grain rice.
Rice for fried rice FAQ
Because rice left in the fridge overnight = dries out = legit crumbly fried rice texture. Fresh cooked rice = sticky fried rice = just not the same!
I use long grain rice because it’s the least sticky out of all the white rice types. However, you can make this with any white rice, though with basmati you’ll end up with an interesting Chinese/Indian/Middle Eastern fusion undertone. Could be a ground breaking discovery!! 🙂 Brown rice is fine too.
Avoid fancy rice rice like wild rice, black rice etc, those earthy flavours might not work here. Also avoid faux rice (cauliflower rice, quinoa and other “low-cal” fake rice you might stumble across in health food aisles).
Got a fried rice emergency? I get it! Cook rice, fluff, spread out on tray, mostly cool on counter then fridge to fully cool as long as you can.
I have bags of frozen rice in the freezer, always. For handy meals (reheat in the microwave from frozen with a sprinkle of water to moisten) and for fried rice (skip the water = nice and dry = perfect for fried rice!).
Beef fried rice sauce
Here are the ingredients for the sauce. Only three – because the fish sauce and oyster sauce are full flavoured, plus we get flavour in the rice from the beef too!.
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Fish sauce – Has more depth of flavour than soy sauce, but can be substituted with regular or light soy sauce. Doesn’t taste fishy once cooked!
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Oyster sauce – See above beef marinade for description and substitutions.
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Sugar – To balance the flavour of the saltiness you get from the fish sauce. Any type of sugar is fine here.
💡This fried rice sauce is intentionally more bold flavoured than a typical Chinese Fried Rice because I think it suits the beef better as beef has a stronger flavour than chicken and prawns/shrimp which are the usual proteins used in fried rice.
THE ADD-INS
I used green onion and green beans because I was deliberately going for a green-add-ins fried rice in this recipe. Just to do something different from the typical kaleidoscope of colours you see in fried rice (carrots, corn, peas!). So feel free to substitute the green beans for other vegetables, and the green onion for a regular onion.
How to make Beef Fried Rice
The beef needs 1 hour minimum to marinate but you can leave it overnight. Note: some alternative cuts of beef suggested need a minimum of 4 hours marinating time (ie slow cooking cuts and some of the more economical cuts). See the beef section above or recipe notes for marinating times.
1. MARINATING THE BEEF
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Cut the beef into 1.5cm / 0.6″ strips
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Small squares – Then cut those strips into square(ish) pieces about 3-5mm / 0.2″ thick, so you have lots of thin square(ish) bits of beef.
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Mix the beef marinade ingredients in a bowl.
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Marinade – Then add the beef and toss to coat. Marinade for 1 hour minimum, up to 24 hours. I find the extra time doesn’t add anything, it doesn’t make the beef any more tender nor does it add more flavour because the pieces are so thin, the flavour fully penetrates in an hour.
⚠️ Remember – If you are not using rump / top sirloin, check the recommended marinating time. See Note 1 of the recipe card or the blue box above in the beef section.
2. PREPARING OTHER INGREDIENTS
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Green onion – Cut it into 1.5cm / 0.2″ lengths and separate the firmer white parts from the green parts. We add them into the pan at different times as the white part takes much longer to cook than the green part.
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Fried rice sauce – Put the ingredients in a small bowl and mix.
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Cutting green beans – Trim the green beans then cut into 1.25cm / 1/2″ pieces.
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Scrambled egg – Whisk the ingredients then set aside.
OK! Prep done, the cook part is nice and quick. Just wait until that beef hits the pan, it smells soooo good!
3. COOKING THE FRIED RICE IS FAST!
This fried rice is cooked in a large pan instead of a wok because it’s a big-batch of fried rice (enough to serve 4 as a meal) that is too much to fit in a wok. If you try to cook this in a wok, the rice and beef will just “stew” and get sweaty instead of caramelised and toasty. 🙂
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Large pan – Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large non-stick pan over high heat. Mine is 30cm / 12″ wide, and is one of the most frequently used cookware in my kitchen (it’s a Pyrolux, no that is not an affiliate link, and sadly not very available outside of the Australia).
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Caramelised beef – Add the beef and cook until the surface seals, about 1 1/2 minutes. Then add the white part of the green onion and beans and cook for about 1 minute until the beef is caramelised. Add the garlic just before the end (if you add it earlier, it will burn).
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Rice and sauce – Add the rice then pour the sauce over. Toss for about 1 1/2 minutes to disperse the sauce through the rice and give it a chance to get nice and toasty.
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Clear space in the pan for the egg. This is actually the traditional way egg is cooked for fried rice in Thailand, so it’s not just me being lazy! 🙂
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Scramble egg – Add and swirl 1/2 tablespoon of oil in the cleared space. It will heat almost instantly. Then pour the egg in and once it sets a bit, lazily scrape and swirl through it to scramble the egg.
Don’t worry if some of it gets stuck (like mine does), just scrape it off and enjoy crispy little egg bits in your rice!
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Finish and serve – As soon as the egg is almost cooked, toss it through the rice with the green part of the green onion, which wilts very quickly. Then transferring into a serving bowl or divide between bowls, and get stuck into it!
Serving as a meal
I want to tell you that this can be dinner by itself. But to me, it’s too light on the vegetables to be considered a completely meal. My mother did such a good job of brain washing me as a kid! 😖
For a quick option, just add wedges of tomato and hunks of cucumber on the side, no dressing required. Before you dismiss that as boring, it’s not! This fried rice is quite full flavoured so the freshness of plain vegetables is welcome. Also, it’s legit Thai street food style! Plain tomato and cucumbers is a common addition to plates of noodles and rice in Thailand, and as noted above the sauce used in today’s recipe is from my Thai Fried Rice.
However, if you want something a little more interesting (and I get it), here are a few simple Asian salads that you could add on the side:
The Spicy Asian Zucchini gets a special mention – such a delicious way to get a massive vegetable fix – and the Asian Slaw is a personal favourite as it’s a great standby to have in the fridge. If you’re really pressed for time, just buy a pre-cut slaw mix then toss with the dressing in the Asian Slaw recipe.
Or – by pass all that and just enjoy a big steamy bowl of the fried rice for dinner. Those juicy beef bits are the best! Try to resist picking out more than your fair sharing and sneaking it into your bowl. (Who me?😇) – Nagi x
Sizzling Beef Fried Rice FAQ
Yes you can. Use chicken breast or boneless thighs. You could also use my Chicken Fried Rice recipe! The sauce is different and it has more “stuff” in it, including more vegetables so it can be served as a complete meal.
If you’ve velveted beef before, you will notice that in this recipe I don’t rinse the baking soda off like I do in most of my beef stir fry recipes. This is because sometimes, I use a little more baking soda for less beef to tenderise thin strips faster (20 minutes), then rinse it off before using. Other times (like in this recipe), I use less baking soda in a marinade and either marinade for longer and/or use smaller thinner pieces, which is what I do here. It varies from recipe to recipe!
3 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer. See below for freezing directions!
Yes! Fried rice freezes very well. Let it cool completely then freeze in portion sizes in air tight containers for up to 3 months. Thaw then microwave to reheat.
You don’t HAVE to, it works just fine with freshly cooked rice. But the rice will be wetter and stickier and won’t tumble like “real” fried rice. See the Rice FAQ in the ingredients section above for more information.
Absolutely! Anything that can be cooked. Dice it if needed. Think – zucchini, carrots, cabbage, asparagus, peas, capsicum, mushrooms, or a big handful of baby spinach. If using broccoli or cauliflower, chop it finely and steam it first, or pan fry it before adding the beef with a splash of water (pan-steam it).
You can even use frozen vegetables!
Watch how to make it
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“Sizzling Beef” Steak Fried Rice
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Marinating: 1 hour
Total: 1 hour 25 minutes
Main, Side Dish
Asian, Chinese, Thai-ish
Servings4 as a meal, 6 to 8 as a side
Tap or hover to scale
Ingredients
Tenderising beef marinade:
Instructions
ABBREVIATED RECIPE:
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Marinate beef 1 hour. Cook beef in 2 tbsp oil on high in a large pan until lightly seared, add white part of green onion and beans, cook until beef is caramelised, adding garlic towards the end. Add rice and sauce, toss well. Scramble egg on side of pan, toss through green part of green onion. Eat!
FULL RECIPE:
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Marinade & tenderise beef – Mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl then add the beef and toss well. Set aside for 1 hour (up to 24 hours), or the time specified in Note 1.
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Sauce – Mix the Sauce ingredients. Set aside.
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Whisk the Scrambled Egg ingredients. Set aside.
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Sizzle beef – Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large non-stick pan over high heat (mine is 30cm/12″, see Note 8 for why no wok). Add the beef and cook for 2 minutes until the surface is sealed. Add the garlic, white part of the green onion and beans. Cook for another 1 minute until the beef is caramelised, stirring constantly so it doesn’t catch and burn.
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Rice and sauce – Add the rice and sauce. Toss for a good 1 1/2 – 2 minutes to give the rice a chance to get toasty.
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Scramble egg – shove all the rice to one side and shif the pan so the empty space is set over the flame. Add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil and spread. Pour the egg, swirl, give it 10 seconds to partially set then do lazy swirls with your spatula to scramble it softly. Once mostly cooked, quickly (but gently!) toss it though the rice.
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Serve – Add the green part of the green onion and toss through. Divide between bowls and enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
Other beef (just cut similar sizes, might not be able to cut shape I do):
- Thin sizzle steak / minute steak / schnitzel – excellent! But marinade for 4 hrs minimum.
- Pre-cut “beef stir fry strips”, round steak – 4 hr marinade
- Sirloin/porterhouse (New York strip), t-bone, flank, skirt, hanger, bavette – excellent! 1 hour marinade
- Scotch (rib-eye) and tenderloin – pricier, so unnecessary, but you can if you want. 1 hr marinade.
- Slow cooking cuts like chuck, brisket, oyster blade, beef short rib – marinade 24 hrs, be sure to slice thing. Won’t be quite as tender as rump but it’s still excellent!
2. Dark soy sauce – Sold in bottles labelled “dark soy sauce” and gives colour to the beef. Substitute with regular or light soy sauce.
3. Oyster sauce – substitute with vegetarian oyster sauce (for shellfish-free) or hoisin sauce (different flavour but similar thickness, sweetness, flavour depth).
4. Baking soda – Chinese restaurant trick to tenderise beef, if you’ve never tried it, this will blow your mind! I know 3/8 teaspoon is an odd measurement (see in post for explanation), you don’t need to be exact so just use a heaped 1/4 teaspoon (if you don’t have a 1/8 teaspoon measure).
5. Cold cooked rice left in fridge overnight = dries it out = legit crumbly fried rice texture. Fresh cooked rice = sticky fried rice = just not the same!
Long grain rice is my first choice because it’s the least sticky of rice types, though any type of white or brown rice will work here. I’d avoid designer rice and faux rice (wild rice, black rice, cauliflower rice).
Fried rice emergency? I get it. 🙂 Cook rice, fluff, spread out on tray, mostly cool on counter then fridge to fully cool as long as you can.
6. Vegetables – Greens beans can be substituted with any veg that can be pan-cooked in a couple of minutes, like carrots, zucchini, corn (mixed frozen diced veg suitable too). Green onion can be switched with half regular onion, diced.
7. Fish sauce has more flavour than soy sauce, but can be substituted with regular or light soy sauce. Doesn’t taste fishy once cooked!
8. Pan rather than wok – Yes! Reason is that this is a big-batch of fried rice that will serve 4 as a meal. Too much to cook in a wok in one go, the rice and beef will just “stew” and get sweaty instead of caramelised and toasty. 🙂
Leftovers will keep for 3 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer (fully cool then freeze).
Nutrition per serving assuming 4 servings.
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 509cal (25%)Carbohydrates: 63g (21%)Protein: 27g (54%)Fat: 16g (25%)Saturated Fat: 4g (25%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 128mg (43%)Sodium: 1198mg (52%)Potassium: 536mg (15%)Fiber: 3g (13%)Sugar: 3g (3%)Vitamin A: 585IU (12%)Vitamin C: 9mg (11%)Calcium: 85mg (9%)Iron: 3mg (17%)
Life of Dozer
And today, we have Dozer Maehashi modelling a vibrant green High Performance Life Jacket. This is designed for experienced swimmers to provide a wide range of motion and comes equipped with double handles to restrain your dog from lunging at an ice cream cone held by a 5 year old child.
Though the Ice Cream Lunge was not captured on camera, here we have the model demonstrating the freedom of movement this life jacket is designed for:
Very different when compared to the sizeable bulk of the extra buoyancy life jacket the model was previously sporting while during his rehabilitation phase:
Though much less bulky, the High Performance Life Jacket still provides sufficient buoyancy to give the models’ owner a peace of mind as the model is well into his golden years (12!) and showing early signs of mobility issues that come with old-age-creaky-bones.
While the model misses the days of romping around naked on the beach, no life jacket, no matter how bulky, is going to dampen his spirits!
On a serious note: I originally got the High Performance Life Jacket several months ago when Dozer was still mid-rehabilitation, but ended up returning it because I didn’t think it provided enough buoyancy for him. But he’s come such a long away, even being praised by the Magic Dog Doctor for his progress (it’s like getting a gold star at school!), that I decided to give the High Performance Jacket a go again.
He’s so much happier with more freedom of movement!
