Beef in black bean sauce

This incredible Beef in Black Bean Sauce recipe is from Hannah, a chef at RecipeTin Meals (my food bank). It’s the best I’ve ever had. She comes from a family of Chinese chefs, so she has extremely high standards when it comes to Chinese food!!

Beef in black bean sauce is finally here!

Beef in black bean sauce has been one of the most requested reader recipes for years, but I haven’t been brave enough to share it because I never felt my sauce was quite right. This is a beloved Chinese restaurant classic that needs to be done properly!

As it turns out though, we have a brilliant Chinese chef at our food bank – Chef Hannah – and we’ve been using her Beef in black bean sauce recipe at RecipeTin Meals for almost year, making meals for the vulnerable. Her recipe is a dead ringer for gold standard Chinese restaurants – but better, because you can taste the ingredients more.

This is Chef Hannah, making the Beef in Black Bean at RTM. Just 600 servings!

70% cheaper – and counting

The other big thing this homemade version has going for it is that you’ll also save a bomb – almost 70% of the cost. Higher end Chinese restaurants charge over $30 for a serving about one-third of the size of what this recipe makes. The ingredients to make this at home will cost you less than $25. Closer to $15 if you use the economical beef option which, hand on heart, is 95% as good. I was blown away by how good it was! More on this in the ingredients section below.

Ingredients in beef in black bean sauce

We are making the black bean sauce from scratch today because it tastes way better than the jarred stuff which, to be honest, barely resembles the real deal. So the key ingredient in today’s recipe is the black beans, and yes you will need to go to an Asian store. But they’re cheap ($2.50 for small packs), common and will last *forever* (though I’ll wager you use them all up making this recipe over and over – try it with chicken next!).

Once you get the black beans though, you’ll be happy to know that all the other ingredients are basic Asian sauce essentials. 🙂

1. PRESERVED black beans for Chinese black beans sauce

This is what preserved black beans looks like – shrivelled up raisins:

What Chinese salted black beans are – black soy beans that have been fermented in salt which add savouriness and salt into the dish. They are a little squishy – like extra firm raisins.

Other names – Preserved black beans are also called:

• Salted or fermented black beans

• Any combination of the above: eg salted preserved black beans

• Black beans (in an Asian grocer, not a Western grocer – see note above!)

• Douchi (dòu chǐ in Mandarin or dau6si6 in Cantonese, 豆豉 – thank you for the language lesson Woks of Life!)

Find them at Asian grocery stores alongside pickled and vac packed vegetables. They cost around $2.70 for the smallest packs.

No suitable substitute that I can think of.

Not to be confused with Western dried black beans which are rock hard. Canned black beans (ie regular Western ones) cannot be used, they are not the same thing (see above – salted black beans are actually soy beans!).

2. BEEF AND MARINADE

Here’s what you need for the beef and marinade.

• Beef (rump steak) – The base recipe calls for rump steak (US: top sirloin) – for flavour, value and texture. Scotch/rib eye and porterhouse/sirloin (strip) are also great but more expensive.

  Economical cuts (65% cheaper) – blade roast (brilliant!) and chuck work extremely well, however, the recipe needs to be alternated for a longer marinade time (24 hours instead of 1 hour). See expandable accordion below for more information.

Marinade

• Baking soda (bicarbonate) – A small amount (just 1/4 teaspoons) mixed into the marinade tenderises the beef beautiful so it stays soft. Without, the beef will overcook and become tough. I tried and proven tenderising method used liberally in my Asian recipes!

• Light soy sauce – You can substitute with an all purpose soy sauce. But not dark soy sauce – flavour is too strong and the colour is too intense! More on which soy sauce to use when here.

• Dark soy sauce – Stains the beef and adds more intense soy flavour than light soy. You can substitute with more light soy sauce but the beef colour will not be the same and the flavour will be a little lighter.

• Oyster sauce – A staple Asian sauce that adds complexity, flavour and umami all at once. Made from oyster extract that is sweet, salty, thick and pungent, but doesn’t tasty oyster-y or fishy at all once cooked. Can be substituted with shellfish free alternative – vegetarian “oyster” sauce, even found at regular grocery stores these days.

• Cornflour / cornstarch – This makes the beef cook so it has a thin film-like coating on it which makes it sort of slippery, just like you get at Chinese restaurants.

Beef cuts not recommended

• Beef tenderloin / fillet – feel this pricey cut is wasted for this recipe. It’s already so tender, but you still have to tenderise it because thin beef slices overcook in this stir fry, so you’re paying for quality you don’t get to appreciate. Also, the slices don’t colour as nicely (it stays kind of grey) and because tenderloin doesn’t have strong beefy flavour, it gets overwhelmed by the sauce).

• Skirt, hanger, bavette and similar cuts “butcher’s cuts” popular in South American cooking.

• Short rib, cheek and other very gelatinous slow cooking cuts of beef, or beef hard to cut into slices for slow cooking (like shank – osso bucco).

3. THE STIR FRY AND SAUCE

Here’s what you need for the sauce and the vegetables in the stir fry. The sauce is very simple and only uses 1 tablespoon of soy sauce because this dish gets most of its flavour from the black beans.

• Light soy – see notes in the above section. Don’t use dark soy sauce, it’s too intense!

• Cornflour / cornstarch – thickens the sauce and makes it shiny.

• Sugar – to get the right sweetness in the sauce

• Water – quite a lot, a whole cup! There’s a lot of stir fry. We need plenty of sauce!

• Oil – for cooking. Peanut oil, canola, vegetable oil – anything with a neutral flavour.

• Green capsicum / bell pepper – the traditional colour for beef in black bean here in Australia. Feel free to go wild and use red or yellow if you want. 😳 (I’m not rebellious enough).

• Onion and garlic – Try to find a stir fry recipe on my website that doesn’t have these. (You won’t!). The onion is cut into squares which is the traditional shape used for this dish in Chinese restaurants.

How to make Beef in black bean sauce

The beef needs 1 hour to marinade to infuse with flavour and tenderise. Use this time to soak the black beans and prepare the other ingredients. The cooking part itself takes barely 10 minutes!

1. Marinade

1. Slice – Finely slice the beef into 3mm / 0.1″ thick pieces.

   Pro tip (optional): If you just slice steak, the beef pieces are quite skinny. For nice large pieces aka restaurant style, cut 2.5 x 4cm pieces (1 x 1.5″) pieces out of the steak, stand on its side then slice finely so you get larger 2.5 x 4cm pieces (1 x 1.5″) slices.

2. Marinade – Mix all the marinade ingredients except the sesame oil. Then toss to coat the beef, then add the sesame oil and toss. Marinade for 1 hour in the fridge.

2. SOAKING the preserved black BEANS

1. Soak black beans in water for 30 minutes to 1 hour. They will plump up and soften so they’re pleasant to bite into and release more flavour into the sauce.

2. Drain – Then drain in a colander and just put it aside until ready to cook.

3. HOW TO COOK BEEF IN BLACK BEAN SAUCE

For real restaurant style, the beef needs to be shallow fried which makes the surface of the beef slippery and softer than sautéing. However, I promise you are still going to love this if you opt to just sauté in a little oil instead!

1. Shallow fry beef – Heat the oil over high heat in a wok then cook the beef for 30 seconds until it changes from red to brown. If opting for the less oil option, just heat 2 tablespoons of oil then stir the beef for 45 seconds like you’re making a regular beef stir fry, until the surface of all the beef is cooked.

   Cooking vessel – Wok works best because you get more oil depth though it works well in a pan too. Use a large deep one as this recipe makes a fairly generous amount!

2. Remove the beef using a slotted spoon onto a plate.

3. Discard most of the oil but keep 3 tablespoons for cooking.

4. Aromatics first – Cook the black beans first for 20 seconds, then add the garlic and stir for 10 seconds. Add the onions and capsicum first and stir for 1 minute until the edges of the onion starts to soften.

5. Beef and Chinese cooking wine – Add the beef and toss for 30 seconds. Then pour the Chinese cooking wine around the rim of the wok so it runs down the side into the beef. This is a classic Chinese cooking technique that “cooks” the sauce before mixing with everything else. (It’s not a big deal if you miss though and the wine goes straight into the beef!).

6. Add the sauce and cook for another minute or until the sauce thickens, becomes shiny and thick enough to coat the beef.

   Pour it all into a serving bowl and serve with rice!

Look at this saucy perfection with those little pops of black beans and that beef, that unbelievably tender beef!!

And a nice close up rice soakage shot for you:

Wow. Just wow.

Thank you Chef Hannah, for this incredible recipe. While we’ve been using this at RTM for a while, the recipe is slightly different because we cook at scale there (600x), we use commercial equipment and the food is designed to be reheated.

So Hannah altered the recipe to make it suitable for home kitchens, and tweaked it to aim for gold-standard Chinese restaurant quality.

She absolutely nailed it. I really hope you give this a go! Hand on heart, I’ve never had better. – Nagi x

Watch how to make it

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Beef in black bean sauce

Author: Nagi

Prep: 20 minutes mins

Cook: 10 minutes mins

Marinating: 1 hour hr

Total: 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Mains

Chinese

Servings4 – 5 people

Tap or hover to scale

Recipe video above. This incredible Beef in Black Bean Sauce recipe is from Hannah, a chef at our food bank RecipeTin Meals who was born into a family of Chinese chefs. I’ll wager it beats any Chinese restaurant you’ve tried – even “fancy” city ones – and it is far, far cheaper. Made from scratch, it leaves jarred sauces in the dust. Shockingly easy!

Ingredients

CupsMetric

Tenderising beef marinade:

Cook ModePrevent screen from sleeping

Instructions

Abbreviated recipe:

• Marinade beef 1 hour, soak beans, mix sauce. Shallow fry beef 30 seconds, remove. Discard all but 3 tbsp oil. Add and cook in this order: black beans 20 seconds, garlic 10 seconds, onion + capsicum 1 minute, beef 1 minute, cooking wine 30 seconds, sauce 1 minute or until thickened. Serve!

Marinade beef:

• Mix the marinade ingredients EXCEPT sesame oil in a bowl. Add beef, mix to coat. Add sesame oil, mix again.

• Marinade – Refrigerate to marinade for 1 hour.

Preparation:

• Soak beans – Put the salted black beans in a medium bowl and cover with water. Set aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour to soak, then drain.

• Mix sauce – Put the cornflour, soy sauce and sugar in a jug or small bowl. Mix until lump free then mix in the water. Set aside.

Cooking:

• Cook beef – Heat the oil in a wok (or non stick pan) over high heat. Add the beef and cook, tossing, for 30 seconds until it changes from red to brown. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a plate.

• Discard most of the oil in the wok, keep just 3 tablespoons.

• Aromatics – Return the wok to high heat. Add the black beans and stir for 20 seconds, then add the garlic and stir for 10 seconds. Add the capsicum and onion, cook for 1 minute.

• Beef – Add beef and any juices pooled on the plate, toss for 1 minute. Pour the Chinese cooking wine around the sides of the wok so it runs down into the beef then toss for 30 seconds (Note 8)

• Sauce – Pour the sauce in, then stir and let it bubble for 1 minute or until the sauce thickens, is shiny and coats the beef beautifully.

• Serve – Pour into a serving bowl and serve with rice!

Recipe Notes:

1. Preserved black beans – Also called salted or fermented black beans, find it in Asian stores in the pickled/vac packed vegetable aisle, $2.70 a pack (long shelf life, or freeze). Wrinkled and a little squishy, not rock hard. Adds savouriness and salt, the key flavour in this dish. No substitute, sorry! 
Note: don’t confuse with regular Western dried back beans which are rock hard.
2. Beef – Can also use scotch fillet/boneless rib eye or porterhouse/sirloin (US: New York strip).
Best economical option – blade roast beef (65% cheaper). Excellent results! Use one of these methods:
a) longer marinade: 24 hrs (instead of 1 hr); or
b) fast marinade: sprinkle and toss plain beef slices with 1 1/4 tsp baking soda, fridge 40 minute. Rinse well in colander. Marinade beef 30 min using recipe but EXCLUDE baking soda. Proceed with recipe.
Chuck also great (same directions) but blade is easier to cut. See Ingredients box in post for more beef options.
3. Garlic – Knife best. If using a garlic crusher, add the garlic towards end of onion cooking time (else it will burn).
4. Oil quantity – To truly replicate restaurant silky soft beef, it needs to be shallow fried rather than sautéed. To reduce, use 3 tbsp and sauté the beef instead.
5. Chinese cooking wine (“Shaoxing wine”)– essential ingredient for making truly “restaurant standard” Chinese dishes. Substitute with cooking sake or dry sherry. Non alcoholic sub – substitute half the water with low sodium chicken stock/broth.
6. Soy sauces – Light soy sauce: you can use any all purpose soy sauce but do not use dark soy or sweet soy. Dark soy: can substitute with light or all purpose soy but will lose colour and a bit of soy flavour. More information on soy sauces here.
7. Baking soda is a magic meat tenderiser! More in post or here.
8. Pouring Shaoxing wine around the side of the wok – traditional Chinese cooking technique so it “cooks” the sauce before it reaches the ingredients.
Leftovers will keep for 3 days in the fridge, keeps very well. Not suitable for freezing (sauce thins).
Nutrition per serving, assuming 5 servings, excluding rice. I feel like the sodium is higher than it actually is because salt gets extracted during the soaking step.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 421cal (21%)Carbohydrates: 16g (5%)Protein: 24g (48%)Fat: 22g (34%)Saturated Fat: 5g (31%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 6gMonounsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 61mg (20%)Sodium: 1740mg (76%)Potassium: 476mg (14%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 4g (4%)Vitamin A: 111IU (2%)Vitamin C: 27mg (33%)Calcium: 47mg (5%)Iron: 2mg (11%)

Keywords: beef in black bean sauce

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