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Our Asian Pepper Steak Bites combine tender, flavorful steak with red and green bell peppers in an amazingly delicious sauce.
I’ve always thought that steak and bell peppers are a great flavor combination – and tossed with a super delicious Asian-inspired sauce…I’m in heaven!
This time of year – with back-to-school homework and after school activities starting up again – we’re always looking for quick and delicious dinner ideas. These incredible Asian Pepper Steak Bites fit the bill 100%!
How do you make Asian Pepper Steak Bites?
The great thing is – you can do lots of the prep ahead of time, so when time is tight, you can cook these Asian Pepper Steak Bites in minutes.
You’ll start by making a thick and very delicious sauce by simmering together hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and chili sauce. Remove from the heat, and stir in fish sauce and corn starch which finishes the sauce. (This sauce can be made a day ahead and refrigerated.)
Also, prepare some white rice for serving. (This too can be cooked a day ahead, then reheated before serving.)
Cut strip steak or ribeye steak into small, bite-sized slices and season with salt.
Then in a sizzling hot wok, saute onions, garlic, and both red and green bell peppers until a little char forms on the skins, but the vegetables are still a little crunchy. Set aside on a platter while you cook the steak.
Now, the key to ensuring that your Asian Pepper Steak Bites caramelize, is to cook your steak in small batches. If you cook too much of the beef all at once, the steak will end up steaming rather than getting crispy and caramelized.
Take your time and cook the beef in batches – making sure that your wok is sizzling hot before adding the meat of each batch.
After the last batch of beef has cooked, add everything back to the wok and pour in the sauce. Use a long-handled wok spatula to toss the beef and peppers in the sauce. Then, when your Asian Pepper Steak Bites come back up to temperature, spoon over a bed of fluffy rice. sprinkle some sesame seeds on top, then serve.
What cuts of beef should I use to make Asian Pepper Steak Bites?
We suggest either strip steak or ribeye for these Asian Pepper Steak Bites. They are tender and flavorful cuts of beef – and you just can’t go wrong with them.
Alternately, a lot of other similar Asian-inspired recipes will call for flank steak, and you can use that as well if you prefer – it is also a flavorful cut of beef. But in our experience, many supermarkets only sell pre-packaged flank steak, not any that are freshly butchered. So for the money – we’ll choose (and recommend) a strip or ribeye any day of the week.
Enjoy!
You enjoy these other Stir-Fry meals:
- Beef Teriyaki and Vegetables
- Sweet and Sour Key Lime Pork
- Healthier Beef Lo Mein
- Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Healthier Chicken Chow Mein
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Asian Pepper Steak Bites
Ingredients
White rice, to serve with the finished dish
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon corn starch
3 pounds strip steak or ribeye steak or flank steak, trimmed and cut against grain into 1-2-inch slices (About 2 pounds once trimmed) *
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup peanut oil, divided
Half a large onion, cut into one-inch chunks (about 8 ounces in weight)
1 large red bell pepper cut into one-inch squares
1 large green bell pepper cut into one-inch squares
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, chopped
Sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
If serving with white rice, start cooking that now.
While rice is cooking make the sauce by combining hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and chili garlic sauce in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.
Mix the fish sauce with the remaining tablespoon of soy sauce and the corn starch and add to the hot liquid to form a thick sauce. Set aside.
After the meat is trimmed and cut into short slices, pat dry with paper towels and sprinkle on the salt.
Heat a wok to the highest heat your stove will produce and once the wok is smoking hot, add a tablespoon of the oil and once shimmering, add the onions.
Cook the onions for three minutes then add all of the peppers and cook until charred on the outside but still a little crunchy, about five or so more minutes.
Add the garlic and cook one minute then remove all to a waiting large bowl.
Once the wok is back to smoking hot, add a little oil and cook the beef in several batches (just enough pieces at a time so they don’t touch each other and sear, not steam). Let them sit in the hot oil for a minute or two without touching to get a nice char, then flip and cook just for a few seconds on the other side and pour into the bowl with the vegetables.
Repeat with the remaining oil and beef, cooking in very small batches. Once the last batch is flipped, pour the contents of the bowl into the wok along with the sauce and toss to combine. Remove from heat.
Serve over cooked rice, and garnish with sesame seeds if desired.
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Martha, I feel weird asking someone with your expertise this question. Your Asian pepper steak bites turned out great, and we loved it. But I had an issue when I mixed the ratio of 1 tsp. of fish sauce to 1 tbsp. of cornstarch before adding it to the sauce. It turned hard as a rock almost instantly before I could add it to the simmering sauce. I kinda panicked and added a little water to make it thin enough to add. Not knowing much about the taste of fish sauce I was afraid to add more of it. Thinking it might make the sauce taste different. But it turned out wonderful even in my blunder. So did I do something wrong or is the ratio a misprint? Thanks so much for always answering back and for the great recipes.
Hi Linda – Thank you for writing what is probably the nicest “is your recipe incorrect?” comment we’ve ever received! We appreciate hearing from readers when they have issues with our recipes so please don’t feel weird about it. (We’d rather know about it and fix it, than having a bad or wrong recipe out on our site.) I went to the kitchen and mixed the fish sauce and corn starch together – and see exactly what you described. After chatting with Jack, we both think the amount of corn starch is correct, but it (and the fish sauce) should be added with the other sauces to make it easier to combine. Jack is in the process of fixing the recipe as I write this. Adding the water, as you did, to thin it out so you could add it in was totally the right thing to do, and it wouldn’t hurt the end results at all. Thanks again for writing to us – we really do appreciate it when our readers give us their feedback! Martha