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Our copycat P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef is pan fried and coated in a delicious sweet and savory sauce. It tastes just like the Mongolianbeef entrée at the restaurant, but at a fraction of the price!
Featured with this recipe
- Ingredients in Mongolian Beef
- Best Meat to use for Mongolian Beef
- Cut Some Calories with these Tricks
- Add Veggies to the Dish
- Frequently Asked Questions about this Mongolian Beef Recipe
- What to Serve with Mongolian Beef
- How to Make P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef
- P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef Copycat Recipe
Mongolian Beef is one of my favorite dishes in the world! And with this easy Mongolian beef recipe you can make five times the amount for the same prices as one order from P.F. Chang’s. I love the restaurant, but it can be a little pricey for what you actually get.
Don’t get me wrong, I will be the first to tell you that I LOVE dining out at fun restaurants or getting Chinese takeout from my favorite places. It’s nice to have someone else do the cooking for me once in a while. But this dish is so easy to make from home and it’s one that the whole family enjoys. Most people who have it say they actually like it MORE than P.F. Chang’s. It really does taste just like P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef!
Ingredients in Mongolian Beef
You start with simple, grocery store ingredients, and end up with a tasty, restaurant-quality meal! Here’s what you need for this recipe:
- Vegetable oil – four teaspoons. You will use more for frying down below.
- Ginger– fresh ginger lasts forever in the freezer! Mince or grate the ginger and save the rest for another recipe.
- Garlic– about two tablespoons of freshly minced garlic.
- Soy sauce – feel free to use regular or low sodium soy sauce, whatever you have on hand.
- One cup of water
- Brown sugar – one cuppacked brown sugar. Use light or dark brown.
- Vegetable oilfor frying – this is what you’ll use to sear the sliced beef.
- 2 pounds flank steaks – You can use strip sirloin steak, flank steak, skirt steak, etc.
- Cornstarch – for thickening
- 3largegreen onions – sliced
Best Meat to use for Mongolian Beef
Flank steak is the best type of meat to use for this recipe, because it’s thin, it cooks up quickly and it stays tender in the sauce. However, you can use thinly sliced skirt steak or sirloin steak if that’s what you have on hand. The marinated beef is thin sliced and pan fried over medium-high heat in batches, so the outside is crisp and the inside is nice and tender. So yummy!
Cut Some Calories with these Tricks
P.F. Chang’s Mongolian beef is thin sliced and pan fried, as is the beef in this copycat recipe. But for a lighter version we have marinated the beef in the sauce and skipped the cornstarch coating. Then just cook the beef in the sauce in a pan over the stove. It still tastes wonderful, but won’t have that crisp coating on the outside. Skipping the frying process is also a time saver.
Add Veggies to the Dish
Add some veggies to the pan. Oftentimes after the beef is cooked, I will remove the beef from the pan, wipe clean, then sauté up some broccoli, pea pods, red bell pepper, shredded carrots, onions or baby corn and throw the beef back in. Then I will stir the sauce in with the beef and the veggies. This is a great way to get some added vitamins and increase your vegetable intake for the day.
Frequently Asked Questions about this Mongolian Beef Recipe
What is Mongolian beef sauce made of?
Mongolian beef sauce is a mixture of oil, soy sauce, ginger, brown sugar, and garlic. This tenderizes the meat and gives it a sweet, salty flavor.
What should I do with all the extra sauce?
You can serve this dish how P.F. Chang’s does by draining the excess sauce and serving it just coated in the sauce. Or you can reserve the excess sauce and spoon it over some rice.
Can I freeze leftovers?
Mongolian Beef freezes beautifully! I like to freeze it in the sauce, then thaw completely in the refrigerator before heating. Just heat it in a pan on the stove until hot, but not simmering, as you don’t want to risk your meat getting tough.
Is Mongolian Beef Gluten Free?
Yes. The marinade consisting of sugar, soy sauce (if using gluten-free soy sauce) and other ingredients do not contain gluten so this and other typical Mongolian beef recipes are gluten-free.
READ MORE: 10+ Date Night In Dinner Recipe
What to Serve with Mongolian Beef
Serve Mongolian beef alone with our Restaurant-Style Fried Rice or Panda Express Chow Mein or pair it with one or more of our favorite Asian style recipes for a huge Asian feast.
Side Dishes
Ham Fried Rice
Side Dishes
Panda Express Chow Mein
Dinner
Orange Chicken
Appetizers
PF Chang's Lettuce Wraps
How to Make P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef
P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef Copycat
4.81 from 41 votes
Our copycat P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef is pan fried and coated in a delicious sweet and savory sauce. It tastes just like the restaurant at a fraction of the price!
PrintPinRate
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 20 minutes mins
Total Time 35 minutes mins
Course Dinner, Main Course
Cuisine Asian
Servings 8
Video
Equipment
Stove Top
Fry Pan/Skillet
Ingredients
- 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons ginger minced
- 2 tablespoons garlic minced
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 cup vegetable oil for frying *see notes above
- 2 pounds flank steaks
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 3 large green onions
Instructions
Make the sauce by heating 4 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. Don’t get the oil too hot. Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to medium and boil the sauce 2-3 minutes or until sauce thickens a little bit. Remove sauce from heat.
Slice the flank steak against the grain into ¼ inch slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a 45 degree angle to the top of the steak so you get wider cuts. Dip the steak pieces into cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef. Let the beef sit about 10 minutes so the cornstarch sticks.
As the beef sits, heat up 1 cup oil in a wok (or skillet). Heat the oil over medium heat until it's hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and saute for just 2 minutes, or until beef just begins to darken on the edges. Stir the meat around a little bit so that it cooks evenly. After a few minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour most of the oil out of the skillet. Put the pan back over the heat, add the meat back into it and stir-fry for 1 more minute. Add the sauce to the pan and stir the meat around in the sauce until it is fully coated
Remove the beef from the sauce with a slotted spoon or tongs onto a plate for serving and sprinkle on some sliced green onions. You can discard the sauce (this is what P.F. Chang's does) or save the extra sauce and serve it over rice with the beef.
Notes
- Recipe adapted from Top Secret Recipes
- Mongolian Beef freezes beautifully! I like to freeze it in the sauce, then thaw completely in the refrigerator before heating. Just heat it in a pan on the stove until hot, but not simmering, as you don’t want to risk your meat getting tough.
- For an extra kick of heat, add a pinch of red pepper flakes to the sauce.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 536kcalCarbohydrates: 38gProtein: 28gFat: 31gSaturated Fat: 8gPolyunsaturated Fat: 7gMonounsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 68mgSodium: 1983mgPotassium: 534mgFiber: 1gSugar: 27gVitamin A: 1198IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 73mgIron: 3mg
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Recipe adapted from Top Secret Recipes.
