Beef Chow Fun Recipe (with Video)

Marinating the beef + Prepping ingredients
1. Slice the flank steak against the grain into thin pieces (about 1/4 inch thick). Put the sliced steak into a bowl with the ingredients for the marinade: 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp cornstarch, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp of neutral oil, and 1 tbsp water. Mix well and set aside while you prep the other ingredients.
2. Use this down time to get all your other ingredients sliced and ready: slice the onions and ginger, crush the garlic, chop green onions into 2-3 inch pieces, and wash your bean sprouts.
3. Prepare your noodles by taking them out of the package and separating them by hand — be careful, they’re fragile :)
4. In a bowl, prepare the sauce for the noodles: mix together 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, and 1.5 tbsp oyster sauce.
Cooking
1. (Optional) Some people may be sensitive to the taste of baking soda in the beef marinade. If you’re concerned, you can rinse off the marinade before cooking the beef. Make sure to pat dry so that they can still get nicely caramelized. I personally have never tasted the cornstarch, but I make sure to sear the meat well!
2. Heat up a big skillet (or wok if you have one) to medium-high heat. Add 1 tbsp of oil. Once the pan is hot, add your marinated slices of beef in one layer. After 1-2 minutes, flip each slice. Cook until both sides are brown and slightly charred (shouldn’t be more than a few minutes). Remove the beef from the pan.
3. Add a bit more oil to the pan, then add your aromatics: garlic, green onion (white parts only), ginger, and half of the sliced onions (we’re adding half now to flavor the oil and to develop caramelization — save the rest for the end). Cook for 1 minute or until slightly charred.
4. It’s time to add your noodles! I recommend using chopsticks and/or a wooden spatula to stir fry the noodles (instead of any sharp or metal utensils) and with a gentle scooping motion, lift the noodles from the bottom up to stir — this keeps the noodles in tact.
5. Cook noodles for a minute, then add Shaoxing wine (this should deglaze the bottom of the pan), and mix everything together. Then add the sauce for the noodles. Mix gently with the same lifting motion, and make sure every noodle is coated in the sauce. This should only take a minute or less.
6. At this point, taste the noodles! Is it salty enough? If not, add more soy sauce. Is it too salty? Add a bit more sugar. If you like the color of your noodles darker, increase the ratio of dark soy sauce to soy sauce.
7. Now the final steps: add the cooked beef, green parts of the green onion, bean sprouts, rest of the onion (we’re adding the rest now to get the flavor from fresh onion — slightly raw and pungent, which contrasts against the rest of the dish), and the sesame oil. Mix well, without breaking up too much of the noodles. Once the green onions and sprouts have softened a bit, it’s done!