
Beef Chow Fun
干炒牛河
Classic Cantonese stir-fried rice noodles with tender beef, bean sprouts, and "wok hei" smokiness. An iconic dish featuring silky wide noodles, succulent beef, and vegetables with perfect sear flavors.
Servings
2-3 people
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
10 minutes
Spice Level
Not Spicy
Ingredients
Instructions
Cut beef tenderloin against the grain into slices.
Add 2 large tablespoons of water in 2-3 batches, each time stir until the beef fully absorbs the water.
Then add light soy sauce, white sugar, white pepper powder, baking soda and oyster sauce for seasoning.
Add rice wine and egg white from half an egg, stir until the beef fully absorbs.
Adding egg white makes the beef more tender and smooth.
Add 1 small spoon of starch and mix well, finally add 1 large tablespoon of cooking oil to seal the seasoning, marinate for 15-20 minutes.
Tip: Starch has a water-locking effect, sealing with oil is to isolate the beef from air, letting the seasonings better penetrate into the beef muscle fibers.
Remove the ends of bean sprouts, cut carrot into strips, cut yellow chives and green onions into segments, only keep the green part of green onions.
Add 1 large tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 small spoon of dark soy sauce, 1/2 small spoon of salt to a small bowl, mix into stir-fry sauce and set aside.
Take an iron pan, heat on high heat until it smokes, then heat for 30 more seconds, add 100-150g of oil.
Ordinary home stoves generally don't have enough heat, if you want to make wok hei stir-fried beef rice noodles, you must fully heat the pan.
Add beef to the pan, stir-fry on high heat until color changes, then immediately remove and drain oil.
Tip: Remove beef immediately when color changes, otherwise it will be overcooked and become tough. The drained oil can be kept for stir-frying later.
Heat another pan until it smokes, then heat for 30 more seconds, add cold oil to coat the pan, drain excess oil, keep base oil. Add bean sprouts to the pan, quickly stir-fry until 50% cooked, remove and set aside.
First stir-fry bean sprouts on high heat until 50% cooked, this can avoid the sprouts from releasing water after being overheated, losing their crisp texture.
Heat the pan again until it smokes, continue heating for about 30 seconds. Add cold oil to coat the pan, rotate the wok to heat evenly, then pour out excess oil, keep base oil to pan-fry the rice noodles.
Add rice noodles to the pan, first use chopsticks to separate and loosen the rice noodles, then use a spatula to flip the rice noodles, pan-fry the rice noodles until both sides are charred and fragrant.
Add the stir-fry sauce while using chopsticks to mix the sauce with the rice noodles.
Add the stir-fry sauce slowly, in small amounts multiple times, otherwise it's easy to stick to the pan.
Add bean sprouts, use chopsticks to mix well.
Finally add the stir-fried beef, sprinkle a handful of green onions and yellow chives, stir-fry evenly then turn off heat and serve.
After the beef is returned to the pan, the water content in the pan will increase, at this time you need to quickly stir-fry all ingredients evenly, otherwise it's easy to stick to the pan.
Sprinkle with White Sesame for aroma.

The most important and difficult point in Beef Chow Fun is the wok hei (breath of the wok)!
- To have wok hei when stir-frying, first, you need a cast iron wok. Trying to achieve wok hei with a non-stick pan is absolutely impossible. Non-stick pans cannot be heated empty, and high temperature also affects their lifespan.
- The second secret to achieving wok hei is hand speed. If you've noticed the chef stir-frying Beef Chow Fun at street food stalls, you'll find that the chef tosses the wok more times than stir-frying.
Because tossing the wok can quickly and thoroughly turn the rice noodles, making the heating more even. However, wok tossing is a skill that's not easy to learn, so there's also a lazy trick: use a pair of long chopsticks. They're more flexible than a spatula, can easily separate the Beef Chow Fun, and won't break the noodles into pieces.