Beef Chow Fun is a popular Chinese noodle dish with thinly sliced beef, extra wide rice noodles, sweetened sesame soy sauce, and green onions.
Chinese Noodle Recipes like Chicken Lo Mein, Classic Chow Mein and Pad See Ew are among the most popular recipes on this site, but when you try this Beef Chow Fun, you may just vote this one the most popular! Why? It may just be the easiest one of them all!
AUTHENTIC CANTONESE BEEF CHOW FUN
This Cantonese (Chinese) Chow Fun Noodles recipe is a more authentic Chinese recipe than you’ll find in your local Chinese mall food court but don’t be nervous about these flavors. It is delicious, easy and kid friendly.
Cantonese dishes are more authentic to China than your classic favorites like Chinese Lemon Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Mongolian Beef and more, but that doesn’t mean the recipe has to be hard.
In fact if you’re looking for more Chinese recipes you’ll enjoy over 100 recipes of them in our Chinese recipe index. I’ve spent over 10 years perfecting Chinese cooking through taking classes from master Chinese chefs and I can tell you, you won’t regret a single recipe.
Some of my favorite Chinese Recipes:
- Sesame Chicken – The crispiest Sesame Chicken, EVER.
- General Tso’s Chicken – the most popular Chinese restaurant order in America
- Sweet and Sour Pork – A classic (I have a chicken version too)
- Hunan Chicken – Healthy chicken stir-fry
- Orange Chicken – This one is actually a Panda copycat with over 250 reviews!
Important Ingredients in Beef Chow Fun
Soy Sauce
In this recipe I call for low sodium soy sauce. In most authentic recipes they call for half dark soy sauce and half regular soy sauce. In my classic chow mein recipe I call for a homemade dark soy sauce recipe but I’ve found in more testing the flavors are so similar you can just use a classic, easy to find soy sauce with only a small difference in flavor.
If you are local to an Asian market and have access to dark soy sauce easily here is the substitution with dark soy sauce:
For authentic Beef Chow Fun flavors, use 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce and 2 tablespoons soy sauce in place of the ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce.
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Extra Wide Rice Noodles:
For the Rice Noodles (these are also referred to as Hor Fun, He Fen or Ho Fun if you are searching for them in stores) I’ve used a VERY wide flat rice noodles but you can use a half width just as easily. The important thing is to use rice noodles in this recipe.
Do not substitute flour noodles for the fun noodles or the flavors of this recipe will be lost. The flavors of the noodles are that of a classic Pad Thai Recipe. If you substitute egg and flour noodles it will taste more like a Chow Mein Recipe.
Rice Wine:
For this Beef Chow Fun Recipe I use rice wine, but in the absence of it you can also use dry sherry. In a pinch you can also use white wine but remember with any substitutions there will be a difference in flavor. Rice wine is a great ingredient to keep on hand if you are making Asian recipes often, I use this ingredient in my viral Orange Chicken recipe too.
Stir-Fried Recipes and High Heat
Most of the “cook time” of the noodles will be in the soaking, so be sure to have everything set aside once you are ready to start cooking as you will be using high heat.
What to serve with this Chow Fun Recipe?
We love Fried Rice, Hot and Sour Soup, Egg Rolls, Crab Rangoon, steamed vegetables (you should try my Panda Express Steamed Vegetables made with chicken broth – the flavors are so good) and of course who doesn’t love fortune cookies.
Ingredients
- 16 ounces extra wide rice noodles
- 1 pound flank steak , sliced paper thin against the grain
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 2 teaspoons ginger , minced
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 bunch green onions , green parts cut into 2 inch sections
- 1/2 cup bean sprouts , mung bean preferred
Instructions
- Soak the noodles for 30 minutes in cold water or boil them for one minute and steep them in the hot water for five minutes before draining.
- Mix the beef with the cornstarch and soy sauce and let sit for 30 minutes while the noodles are soaking.
- Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil to the wok or large skillet on high heat and add the beef slices individually searing them 30 seconds on each side.
- Lower the heat to medium and add in the remaining oil, garlic and ginger, cooking for 15 seconds.
- Add in the wine, sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar, mixing well, then add in the mung bean sprouts, noodles and beef and toss, then garnish with green onions and serve (you can toss in the green onions if you want too but the heat will wilt them).
Love topping my beef chow fun with lots of green onions! It smells so good and taste incredibly delicious!
This beef chow fun is delicious and a must-try! We love to pair this with dumplings! A perfect combination!
This was a really delicious change of pace for us! I typically don’t make Chinese food at home. I loved the flavors and will be making it again.
I don’t have a wok. Is a wok necessary for getting the Asian flavour? Can a deep frying pan work? Or does the flavour change too much. I’ve had this in a restaurant and love this dish. I’d probably increase the flavours cause I love strong flavours.. but thanks for the tips here and what noodles to buy for sure! I will be trying this!
That should still work. You really want the widest and flattest pan to give the ingredients with the most contact of heat. I hope you enjoy it!
I have eaten chow fun hundreds of times. This had no flavor.
Add about 3 times the soy sauce, sugar and garlic.
What brand of wide rice noodle is best? I have a large Asian market near me but I am having trouble finding anything that looks extra wide to me.
If you’re looking in you Asian market, look for noodles referred to as Hor Fun, He Fen or Ho Fun. Hope this helps!
I followed the recipe carefully and was hoping for a great family meal. This was tasteless. There is something missing in this recipe for sure. Anyone else tried it?
In the serving and nutrition facts, it says that each of the 4 servings only has 6g carbs. With the corn starch, sugar, wine, and wide rice noodles, this only has 24g carbs in the entire batch? If so, what kind of rice noodles are you getting that has such low carbs?
Thanks for letting me know there was a glitch in the recipe card. I’ve updated to read correctly now.
I’m a little confused because of the first comment. Step 3, searing the meat. Are you supposed to sear it and then take it out while you add step 4 into the empty pan? Then add the meat again after mixing in the step 5 ingredients?
The comment said you forgot to take out meat so its thrown me off. At the end when you put the noodles in do you cook more or does the cold water soak basically cook them?
Thanks
Yes, you would sear the meat and then remove.
Do you remove the beef after searing? Then add back in? Not clear in the recipe
Yes, remove the beef after searing so it doesn’t overcook.
Thank you for the recipe. I think it would be very helpful to those of us reading the instructions for the beef chow fun recipe if you added that we should take the beef out of the pan after the initial one minute of cooking.
So sorry that instruction wasn’t clear 🙁 Thank you for leaving a comment, it will definitely help others if they get tripped up in the searing step. I’m glad you enjoyed!
Individually sear each piece of beef? Like a pound of beef sliced paper thin seared a piece at a time? That won’t take forever? My Asian market only had rice flake, I got that, dark soy and rice wine, will try this out, hoping it’s great
You don’t put one piece at a time. Just make sure there’s room in the pan so they individually sear evenly. Let me know how it turns out!
I want to use the fresh wide fun. I notice it is usually always very greasy which I can accept and the noodles seem to be marinated in the soy to give it colour and taste. Do you add the noodles to heated oil, stir to coat and then add the soy , etc.?
You’ll want to add the wine, sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar and mix before adding mung bean sprouts, noodles and beef. Then toss to mix. Hope this helps!
This sounds absolutely LOVELY! Can I substitute a different wine?
We make a lot of Asian dishes so we use rice wine a lot. You can also substitute with dry sherry or in a pinch a white wine though both will adjust the flavor of the dish from the original a bit. I hope you enjoy it!
This looks delicious and easy enough for a weeknight dinner. I do have a local Asian market I will be checking them out for the dark Soy Sauce and the rice noodles. Thank you for this!
It’s so fun trying new dishes. I hope you enjoy it!
This looks like a meal that my family will love! I can’t wait to try it!
Yay!!
Chinese food always surprises me! looks delicious, thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Yeriel!
Mmm, I love making this type of dish at home, it’s so delicious fresh, and you made it so easy!
Thanks, Mikayla. Thanks for the 5 stars.
I love the taste of rice noodles; I haven’t had them in a while! I will save this recipe for dinner this week!
Enjoy!