How to Make Pepper Steak
This easy Pepper Steak recipe is so delicious and the leftovers are great for lunch the next day. I call that a win!
When life is hectic, the last thing I want to do is make dinner from scratch. With this recipe, your prep time is just five minutes followed by ten minutes of cooking time. 15 minutes total time is my kind of dinner recipe!
That’s less time than it takes to pick up from your local Chinese restaurant and this homemade version is so much better! Sound good?
If you love Asian food, too, you’ll want to try this Chinese Mandarin Chicken, Thai Chicken Curry, and these Vietnamese Spring Rolls. So good!
Looking for more super easy dinner ideas? Check out our list of the most popular casserole recipes.
Why We Love This Recipe
- Turns out delicious every time: Besides the quick and easy preparation, this recipe turns out absolutely delicious every time.
- Incredibly simple savory sauce: Made of just three ingredients you probably have on hand right now, it’s light with just the right amount of sweetness to pair with the beef and veggies.
- Easy to batch-make and freeze: Make a double batch so you can pull a meal right out of the freezer on a busy school night!
What You Need to Make It
- Steak, sliced into strips
- Medium yellow bell pepper, sliced
- Medium red bell pepper, sliced
- Large red onion, quartered
- Garlic cloves, minced
- Minced ginger
See the recipe card for the full list of ingredients to take to the grocery store as well as complete instructions for this dish.
Substitutions and Additions
We like to use a tenderloin for this recipe. We often buy a whole tenderloin and cut it into steaks. The leftover steak is perfect for dishes like this or you can cube it for beef stroganoff and freeze it until you’re ready to make it.
If you use flank steak or skirt steak, you’ll want to simmer this recipe for longer to get the steak more tender. You could also marinate the flank steak in the sauce overnight before making this dish.
Sesame oil can also be used to sear the steak.
If the sauce is too sweet when you taste test, add a splash of rice vinegar until it’s to your liking.
If you love veggies, there are so many you could add to this dish! Green peppers would be delicious and colorful combined with the yellow and red bell peppers.
Zucchini or yellow squash would be good, too, though I would add them at the last minute so they are still tender crisp. Fresh tomatoes would also be good.
For a little heat, add a dash of red pepper flakes.
If you are looking for different ways of watching carbs, these are also delicious made as lettuce wraps. Simply fill large butter lettuce or romaine leaves with pepper steak and onions. Wrap up and enjoy!
You could also serve this over cauliflower rice. Yum!
How to Make Pepper Steak and Onions
In a medium non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium high heat. Sear steak for 1 minute in hot pan.
Reduce heat to medium. Add bell peppers, onion, garlic, and ginger to the steak. Stir all together and cook for 3 minutes until fragrant.
In a small bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients of soy sauce, brown sugar, and cornstarch.
Pour in the skillet. Stir all together.
Turn the heat to medium high and simmer until the sauce starts to thicken and veggies are softened. About 5 minutes.
Remove from heat. Garnish with sesame seeds and chopped spring onions.
Feel free to add salt and black pepper to taste or let people add it at the table.
Serve this delicious dinner over a bed of rice. Either white rice or brown rice works well with this dish.
This really is such a delicious dish! You could also make it with pork if you’re not a steak fan. Make sure to try this braised pork in brown sauce, too.
Crab fried rice would make a nice side dish in place of the white rice.
Store this recipe in an airtight container for up to 5 days. You can also freeze it for up to two months. For the best flavor, thaw in fridge before reheating.
People often use flank steak, sirloin steak, or top round steak for pepper steak, but we prefer tenderloin. It’s more expensive but you can occasionally find it on sale. We buy a whole tenderloin and get several meals from it.
Worcestershire sauce also has an umami flavor, but has a stronger flavor than soy. Combine six tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce with two tablespoons of water to make a half-cup substitute for soy sauce.
Top Tips
You can easily double this using a large skillet.
The only thing about using a less expensive cut of meat is that you’ll want to marinate it in the sauce overnight or at least for several hours to get tender steak. You can also use a meat mallet to tenderize before marinating.
If the pepper steak is dry when heating leftovers, add some beef broth or water to the skillet to increase the sauce.
Let us know what you think of this Chinese Pepper Steak recipe!
More Delicious Dinner Recipes
Cheesy Potato and Smoked Sausage Casserole
Oven Baked Greek Chicken Thighs
Green Bean Casserole without Mushroom Soup
Pepper Steak and Onions
Equipment
- 1 Non stick skillet medium sized
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil divided
- 1 lb | 453 g steak sliced in strips
- 1 medium yellow bell pepper sliced (0.31 lb | 5.07 oz | 144 g)
- 1 medium red bell pepper sliced (0.31 lb | 5.07 oz | 144 g)
- 1 large red onion quartered
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- ⅓ cup soy sauce 2.70 fluid oz | 80 ml
- ¼ cup brown sugar 2.02 fluid oz | 60 ml
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- Green onions optional garnish
- Sesame seeds optional garnish
Instructions
- In a medium non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Sear steak for 1 minute.
- Add bell peppers, onion, garlic and ginger to the steak. Stir all together and cook for 3 minutes until fragrant.
- In a small bowl, whisk soy sauce, brown sugar and cornstarch together. Pour in the skillet. Stir all together.
- Turn the heat to medium high and simmer until the sauce starts to thicken and veggies are softened. About 5 minutes.
- Remove. Garnish with green onions and sesame. Serve with rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that we’re having technical difficulties with the nutrition information and will update it as soon as the issue is fixed. Thanks for your patience.
