Simple Beef Stir Fry – A Quick Weeknight Meal To Replace Takeout

If you are looking for a quick, easy, yet delicious weeknight meal, then this simple beef stir fry is a great recipe to try! It is one of our favorites and is a great replacement for takeout restaurant meals. Plus, it’s totally customizable using what ingredients you have on hand!

This Simple Beef Stir Fry recipe is one of my teenage daughter’s top 5 meals that I make. She requests it almost every time I ask for recipe ideas before I go grocery shopping.

She likes it because of how it tastes. I like it because it is simple to make and a great way for me to use up the vegetables I already have on hand in our refrigerator. (And because it tastes delicious, of course!)

You can use about any type of vegetables you like for this recipe. The three that we use most often are broccoli, carrots, and bell peppers. We’ve also made it plenty of times by swapping out some of the vegetables for zucchini, sugar snap peas, and/or even mushrooms. All work really well and add a nice variety to the base recipe.

Make meal time even easier by prepping the vegetables and beef the day before or earlier in the day. The actual cooking time is around 15 minutes. Serve it over precooked rice or noodles, and you have a warm and tasty meal that is on the table in no time at all!

How To Make Simple Beef Stir Fry

*Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the full recipe, including exact measurements and amounts. You can also print out the instructions. I go into a bit more detail about the recipe here first, just in case you need it.

Ingredients

• Oil – You need some sort of oil in your pan to help cook the beef and vegetables. You can use pretty much any type of oil you prefer as long as it has a high smoke point. My favorite oil to use for the simple beef stir fry is sesame oil. It provides a subtle nutty flavor that goes well with Chinese foods. You can also use vegetable oil or a different oil of your choice.
• Beef Sirloin – My favorite cut of beef to use is sirloin. It is lean and tender and cooks up quickly. You can substitute it for other cuts like flank steak, round steak, or ribeye.
• Vegetables – You can really use any combination of vegetables you prefer for this recipe. Aim for around 3 cups of chopped vegetables. Some great options are broccoli, bell pepper, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, and/or sugar snap peas.
• Garlic – Fresh or jarred garlic both work fine for this recipe. (Did you know that you can freeze minced garlic to grab and use whenever a recipe calls for it? It’s super easy to do and one of my favorite cooking shortcuts! Read about that here: “Freezing Sprouted Garlic For Long-Term Storage And Easy Use”.)
• Soy Sauce – We use full-sodium soy sauce for this stir fry, but you can try using low-sodium if you prefer. Adjust the amount as needed. We often add in a little bit more after cooking, depending on whether I added a few extra veggies or if our cut of beef was a bit more than what the recipe calls for.
  
  Want to jazz the recipe up even more? Try your hand at using a homemade stir fry sauce or even a store-bought one instead of just soy sauce. (Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone if you use store-bought!)

Instructions For Simple Beef Stir Fry

Prep The Beef

First, I like to prepare all of my ingredients before I start cooking. The prep work is really where most of the time for this recipe goes. If you know you are going to be short on time when you want to make this recipe, cut up and prep the ingredients earlier. Just keep them separately in your fridge until you are ready to cook.

If you are serving the simple beef stir fry with rice, get that cooking now. I like to use my Instant Pot to make rice. Two cups of dry rice is about perfect to pair with this recipe. You can also serve the stir fry over noodles if you prefer. Whichever you use, start cooking it now so it will be ready around the same time as the stir fry.

Start by cutting up the beef sirloin into thin, evenly-sized strips. Each strip should measure about 2 inches long about about 1/4 inch thick. Remove any fat or gristle as you go along and cut across the grain. This will help you end up with more tender beef.

If you are having issues cutting the beef, stick it in your freezer for about 30 minutes. It should slice a lot easier with it slightly frozen. Also, use a very sharp knife that is designed for slicing meat. (We like to use boning knives when cutting our meat products – Product Link: Mercer Culinary Ultimate White Boning Knife)

Prep The Veggies & Make The Rice

Next, cut up the vegetables into similar-sized pieces. If using broccoli, cut it into about 1-inch sized pieces. For carrots and peppers, thinly slice them, leaving pieces about 2 inches long. Remove the pepper seeds and pith (the white part inside the pepper).

For zucchini, cut the pieces into 1-inch sized cubes. For mushrooms, thinly slice them or leave them whole if they are about 1 inch in size. You can leave sugar snap peas whole.

If needed, mince the garlic at this time as well. (Again, try my trick that I linked in the ingredients about mincing garlic in bulk and then freezing it to use later on. It’s such a great time saver!)

Set the vegetables aside for now.

Start Cooking

Now that the prep work is done, it’s time to actually cook the simple beef stir fry. Start to heat your choice of oil in a wok, cast iron skillet, or other heavy-based skillet over medium heat. I like to use a large, 12-inch cast iron skillet for this recipe. (We used to have a wok, but I prefer using cast iron instead since I can use that for more diverse recipes.)

Once the oil is hot, carefully add the pre-cut beef. Cook the beef just until it is evenly browned. It should only take about 5 minutes, depending on how thinly you sliced the beef. It will cook for a few more minutes at the end, so you don’t want to overcook the beef and end up with chewy, dry meat. Remove the beef from the skillet and set it aside for now.

If needed, add more oil to the skillet. There should be enough liquid left behind from cooking the beef, so you shouldn’t have to add much, if any at all.

Add in all of the prepared vegetables minus the garlic and any soft vegetables like zucchini or mushrooms. Cook the vegetables until they are nice and soft or to your preferred texture. Some people like their stir-fry veggies to still have a bit of crunch left in them. We prefer softer veggies.

Next, add in the minced garlic and any softer vegetables. Stir and cook those for about 2 to 4 minutes.

The Final Heat-Through

When all of the vegetables and the garlic are cooked through to your liking, add the beef back to the skillet. Mix and season with the soy sauce. Cook for 2 more minutes to help heat everything through.

Taste after the two minutes are up and add more soy sauce if needed. It’s a lot easier to add more soy sauce as opposed to figuring out what to do if it is too strong!

Serve the simple beef stir fry over the cooked rice or noodles. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator. (I also like to enjoy the leftovers cold!) Enjoy!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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