I was a little behind this week and didn’t get to photographing today’s recipe until yesterday late afternoon. As I went to make a yummy vegetarian dinner starring black beans, I was shocked and surprised to find my black beans were a funny shade of red. Probably because the giant Costco case I just bought was actually kidney beans. Looks like I have a lot of chili in my future. It reminded me of the time I first made Kate’s Red Beans and Rice and thought they were horrible. That was until I realized I accidentally made them with pinto beans (tuns out the real recipe is awesome and amazing and delicious.) Apparently I need to look more closely when I’m shopping for beans. Anyway, since my family observes the Sabbath, we don’t shop on Sundays, so that meant my procrastination and lack of black beans led to a quick change in plans. I had a flank steak that needed cooking, and I had been thinking all week about my Asian Orange Chicken recipe from our cook book and remembered I wanted to try this beef recipe, which was really similar. It was a happy change of plans because we absolutely devoured this Orange Beef. It boasts perfectly balanced flavors and can be whipped up in less than 30 minutes on the stove top with pretty normal ingredients. Can’t beat that! It’s a great week-night dinner that’s faster, healthier, and better tasting that its take-out counterpart.
The base for this bright, flavorful sauce comes from fresh oranges. I’d grab 2 just to be sure you have enough. First zest an orange into a bowl, and then add some of the fresh juice.
It’s no secret that we’re citrus junkies around here. Fresh zest adds ridiculous flavor and it’s one of the best ways to brighten up a dish.
The rest of the ingredients are really simple. A little dark brown sugar, ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and Asian chili sauce. We’ll also put in a little cornstarch to thicken it.
These are all things that will last forever in your fridge and pantry, so buy them once and use them for a while. Rice vinegar can be found with all of the other vinegars at the grocery store, and look in the Asian Foods aisle for the Sweet Chili Sauce (sometimes called “Asian Chili Garlic Sauce” or “Thai Sweet Chili Sauce”). I can often find it in bottles like this:
Or sometimes small glass jars, but it’s something that should be pretty available in most grocery stores. It’s got a little kick to it, but it’s not super spicy. It adds sweetness and flavor and little flecks of color, too.
You’ll also need a little fresh ginger. If the looks of that scares you off, just read this post all about using fresh ginger. It tastes amazing, and keeps for a long time in the freezer if you don’t use it all.
Once that quick sauce is whisked up, just set it aside and bust out the beef. We’re using flank steak here and since we need it cut super thin, it really helps to pop it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes before you cut it. You don’t want it completely frozen through, just firm enough to add some resistance so you can slice it as thin as possible.
Make sure you cut it across the grain. You’ll notice the lines or “grain” in flank steak run horizontally, the long way. See the little lines in my photo from left to right? Cutting “against the grain” means to cut perpendicular to those lines. If you don’t do that, you’ll get a horribly chewy piece of meat. Cut the steak as thin as you possibly can- cutting it thick with also result in chewy steak and we don’t want that.
Give your sliced steak a very light sprinkling of salt and pepper
And then toss it in a hot oiled skillet. You’ll want to do half of the steak at a time so you don’t crowd the pan and boil the meat instead. Let it cook for about a minute without turning it at all.
Then toss it around for another couple of minutes until it’s cooked through. It’s super thin so it only takes a couple of minutes- avoid overcooking so it stays nice and tender.
When the meat is done cooking, remove it from the pan and add the sauce in there. Bring it to a simmer and use a spatula to help get all of those browned bits off the bottom of the pan. When the sauce simmers for a minute or two it will become nice and thick.
And then you can add the steak back in and toss to coat.
Slice up some green onions,
And serve it over brown or white rice.
It’s sweet and savory and bright and flavorful. This sauce is spot on, and it perfectly clings to the tender steak. It’s loads better than take-out, and faster too!
Chinese Orange Beef
Recipe slightly adapted from ATK Quick Family Cook Book
Ingredients
2-3 teaspoons grated orange zest (I just zest 1 whole orange)
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons Asian chili sauce
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons cornstarch
vegetable oil for pan
1-1/2 pounds flank steak, trimmed and sliced thin across grain and lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper (to clarify: that’s one steak, that weighs about 1.5 pounds)
3-4 green onions, sliced
hot white or brown rice for serving
Instructions
Whisk orange zest and orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, chili sauce, ginger, and cornstarch together in a bowl.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Drizzle pan with oil and tilt to coat. Add half of beef, breaking up any clumps and let cook without stirring for one minute. Stir beef and continue to cook until browned, about 2 minutes; transfer to a bowl and cover. Repeat with remaining beef and transfer to bowl.
Whisk sauce to recombine, add to now-empty skillet, and cook over medium heat until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Return cooked beef, with any accumulated juices, to skillet and toss to combine. Serve over rice and garnish with green onions.
Serves 4 main dish servings (Feeds my husband and I and 3 smaller kids just fine.)
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I may just be blind but I think the brown sugar is missing from the ingredients list…I’m assuming it’s 1/4 cup since that’s what you have in your pictures, but I just wanted to let you know. The recipe looks amazing, can’t wait to try this out this week. Thanks for sharing!!
Yes, thank you!
This looks delicious! We love Chinese food, so this will be a good new recipe to try.
This sounds delicious! I have a question about “boiling the meat.” Does that happen just from trying to cook too much at once? I have never been able to figure out why it happens sometimes and not other times. We have 8 people in our family so I am usually cooking a lot at once. Will cooking half at a time prevent the problem or are there other contributing factors?
I also meant to ask whether clementines will work or if they need to be big oranges. Other than needing to use more of them, does it matter?
I think the “oranges” I used were actually something like tangelos and it was fine. The flavor was just a little more intense. :)
I’ve totally done that in a pinch! They’ll work, although the flavor will be a little different and you’ll need a bunch! I’d use oranges if you can, but in a pinch, something like clementines will work just fine.
There’s a few factors. First you want to make sure your meat is defrosted and patted dry. Then make sure your pan is properly heated up before you add meat to it (hot, not warm) but biggest factor is when you crowd a pan. The meat needs surface area to give off moisture and then let it evaporate to facilitate browning. If you crowd lots of meat in the pan, some of it won’t have direct contact with the heat surface. The large quantity of meat will then release a lot of moisture and have no place to go, so it just creates a pool where the meal “boils”. If you’re cooking a lot at once, it’s worth it to use a large pan and cook it in batches. Hope that helps!
I’ve had the same problem cooking quite a bit at once. I generally just drain off most of the excess liquid so that it fries rather than boiling, but cooking it half at a time might work as well.
I made this for dinner tonight (I am many time zones ahead of you). DELICIOUS. I loved the zing of the real orange flavor. Thanks for the great recipe!
This looks good! I love creating dishes at home that you usually get for take out. They are always much better, healthier and cheaper. I will be adding this to my list of recipes to try.
This recipe looks great. Is there a substitute you recommend for zest? I get really sick if I eat anything with zest, lemon and orange. The juice is fine, but for some odd reason, zest does not sit well. I tend to leave out the zest and make recipes with just the juice, but I hear how the zest intensifies the flavor and wondered if there were any options for me that are zest less.
Honestly, while there’s some things that could intensify the citrus flavor (dried zest, flavored oils, etc.) there’s really no great substitute for the flavor and brightness that fresh zest adds to a recipe.
Thanks for this. Orange beef is my favorite Chinese dish and not always easy to find. It’s good to know there is a healthier homemade option that I can actually cook (read: not so complicated it’s off-putting). Thanks again!
This looks so good! I’ve been looking for more recipes without garlic and onions because they make me nauseous right now. Thanks for adding another to my list! :)
This looks great! Can’t wait to try it.
Dang! I have everything to make this except the Asian Chili Sauce. I’m guessing there is no substitute for that. This looks amazing though.
Make it anyway! Throw a pinch of red pepper flakes in there (or a dash of hot sauce or sprinkle of cayanne) and a little garlic powder. It will still be yummy!
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it!
Really want to try, it looks so tasty! Question, will there be a big difference in taste if I use light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar?
Nah, go ahead and use light if that’s what you’ve got- it will be just as good. The dark just adds a little more depth of flavor.
Can’t wait to try this. What kind of knife do you use to cute your meat? Serrated? I seem to have a hard time getting my meat cut super thin. Thank you!
I use a big long serrated knife, almost like a bread knife, it works really well!
Could you substitute skirt steak? That’s what I have in my freezer right now. :)
Yep- totally!
You guys seriously are too much of a good thing. On the spot dinner and photograph and post about it? I dont know how you do it
I’m finding that I don’t love the taste of fresh ginger. I think it is because I always expect a sweet taste but it is more salty. If I leave ginger out of this recipe…would it still be yummy or would it be way too sweet? Thanks!
Ginger isn’t salty, at all. It’s more of a citrus flavor, bright and fresh. I personally wouldn’t leave it out of this recipe!
I’ll give it another try! Thanks!
Try the tubes of fresh ginger in the produce section. They are SUPER easy (no grating necessary!), super tasty, and you can pop them in the freezer and save for later. :) You also won’t get any “woody”ness that you sometimes find if the ginger isn’t really fresh.
How delicious!! Pinned! :)
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I am looking forward to trying this recipe. I am always looking for something quick, interesting, and tasty. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve noticed y’all use dark brown sugar in a lot of your recipes, I’m guessing it is to add a deeper flavor, yes? Do you keep light brown sugar on hand for anything or should I just always use the dark stuff? I’m just wondering about containers…get an extra one for dark brown or scrap the light stuff and use that container….important stuff, ya know!
Yep, you’re right. Dark brown sugar just has more molasses in it, giving it a deeper, richer flavor. Most recipes call for light brown sugar, so that’s what I usually use, but if a recipe specifically calls for dark brown it’s nice to have on hand. When it comes down to it, you can easily get away with using either/or in a recipe. I sometimes swap them just depending on what I have.
I only keep dark…haven’t found a recipe yet that I like better with light. :)
Funny, I had Chinese on the mind too. I just finished posting a spicy Chinese Green Bean Beef last week. :) Now I’ll have to make this too! My Chinese kick continues…http://burntapple.com/2013/02/21/chinese-green-bean-and-beef/
Oh my. What beautiful measuring spoons! (Ok, weirdest thing I’ve said all day…) No, but really… Where did you get them? :) This looks delicious!
Both the spoons and the cups are from World Market- here’s a link!
http://www.worldmarket.com/product/porcelain-measuring-spoons-set.do
They’re porcelain, so I usually only use them when I’m cooking to photograph and don’t want to use my ugly half-melted plastic ones, haha.
Okay, I am apparently a totally clueless cook, but I can’t figure out if you mean 1 flank steak that is 1/2 lb. or 1.5 lbs of flank steak… Could you clarify for those really special people out there? :)
Haha, no it’s tricky! I actually re-worded the way I wrote that multiple times! You want to use one flank steak, that weighs about 1.5 pounds. Does that make sense?
Totally! Thank you!!!
So yummy! Does/did your husband work for ATK? Do you use All Clad pans? Or what brand are they?
No, my husband has never worked for ATK- why do you ask? Lol. I’m just a big fan so I use their recipes a lot! That is an All-Clad pan, I have a couple of them, but I don’t use them exclusively.
Love all your recipes! I cannot wait to try making this chinese orange beef!Can you PLEASE tell me what kind of pans you use (not just for this recipe)? I have been shopping for new cookware (pan set)…it is so overwhelming! I LOVE to cook & bake so I need a good set of cookware! Thanks for any input!
We had everything on hand for this and made it for dinner tonight. Yummy! Thanks OBB for yet another winner.
seasoned or natural rice vinegar
Either, or :)
My hubby and I have 14 wonderful grandchildren. So we would definitely use the prize money and have a great time with the gang! This is one grandma who loves your recipes!
This was a total lifesaver. I found myself at 5:00 wondering what I was going to make for dinner. I had everything on hand and threw it together. Delicious!
Love this site. Just got both cookbooks and right now am chowing down on the cheesy enchiladds (pg 29?) Anyway, so good. This website helps fuel my love for cooking, and of course eating. I literally fell asleep on my couch reading one of the books cover to cover-that’s how excited I was. You have some great healthy recipes included in your other books, would be neat to see a cookbook focused on all healthy recipes (ironic to mention after eating the cheesy enchiladas. But anyway…) Big fan of you guys :)
I’m trying to add more veggies to my family’s diet. Do you have a side dish that you recommend serving with this? It looks wonderful.
It’s perfect with a simple roasted, steamed, or sauteed broccoli or green beans.
Hmm, I hate to ask this since the name of the recipe IS Chinese *Orange* beef, BUT – do you think anything else would do the trick besides orange? Would lemon just be wrong?
Ha! You’d have to experiment with anything other than orange- I think that’s the best option!
Yes, I definitely think orange would be best, but my poor hubby had to go and be all allergic to orange on me…. haha.
The recipe does look amazing though!
I just made the Quick and Easy Chinese Orange Beef for dinner and it is the best I have ever tasted, my husband loved it as well. As stated, it was very easy. We will surely make it again and again.
This was AWESOME! We really enjoyed it. Recommend adding a healthy dose of siracha (to taste) to the sauce if you like spicy like us.
any holiday BUT christmas thyme means lots of sweets to make
I made this for dinner last night and it was DELICIOUS! I’m a busy lady so the easy to follow pictures and the instructions on the blog made this a breeze. Thanks so much!
Wow–this was amazing and so easy to make! We liked it so much, I am going to make it again next week! :) The only changes I made were: I added minced garlic and I reduced the amount of chili sauce.
Oh I so want to get the ATK Quick Family Cookbook. Have you liked it? If the recipes in it are all like this delicious looking one, I’ll have to get it soon.
Yep- one of my favorite books!
This was a total hit for me and my hubby! Thanks!
I was so excited about this recipe because I had no idea what i was making for dinner then I saw this and was thrilled that I already had all of the ingredients. I have never found a recipe of yours that I didn’t like (I have tried a ton of them) and I especially love Asian chili sauce so I thought for sure this recipe would be amazing. Unfortunately however, this was not a hit with me. My husband loved it so obviously there is just something wrong with my taste buds. I’m not sure what it was maybe something about the orange flavor?
Sweet Chili sauce….FREAKING YUM!!!! I use that for my salad dressing quite a bit. There’s only one kind I really like that is a different kind but similar.
This looks absolutely amazing!
That’s great you don’t shop on Sundays-we’re Catholic and don’t shop then either. :) This recipe looks great!
This was delicious and super easy. I used a Cara-cara orange and it’s juice, and 1 Tbsp of sriracha for some kick, also no fresh ginger, I used dried. Perfect balance of sweet and spicy. I used flank steak, but this could easily be adapted for chicken, pork or shrimp. Thanks for a new recipe for my rotation.
Made this tonight and it was delicious! Thanks!
I love your measuring spoons! Do you remember where you bought them?
Yep, they’re from World Market :)
Oh, my goodness! This was divine! And miracle of miracles, my children liked it. SO much, in fact, that my oldest (9yrs) asked me to make it for his birthday dinner! And pretty easy to make, too.
So I made this last night and it ended up being ridiculously spicy. Now granted the hubs and I are spice wimps but did I do something wrong? I don’t get it? I used the asian chili garlic sauce. I put in two tablespoons because that is what it said however I noticed in your pic you used a teaspoon so was it supposed to be 2 teaspoons? Help! : (
That’s so weird. It IS 2 teaspoons, but I have a page printed off from this very post and mine says teaspoons. Maybe it somehow got changed?? Only one other person commented on it being too spicy, so I’m not sure what happened! Asian chili sauces really vary in heat levels too. The one I use isn’t spicy at all so I could use a ton without a problem. I made sure the printable version is correct now, I’m sorry yours turned out so hot!
Loved it! I walked in the door from work at 5:10 and had it on the table by 5:45. I used some random steak that was in the freezer (defrosted just a bit in the microwave so I could slice it) and served it with a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies and some grilled pineapple on the side (yeah, that was a treat). Next time I think I’ll do it with chicken. I love recipes that I can whip up using my pantry and freezer items!
Love that you’re doing a lot of Asian inspired dishes.
My Fiance and I made this for dinner last night and it was great! He asked me to add it to our regular rotation. Thanks so much for the recipe!
I made this tonight and it was delicious but WAY too HOT! We had to pull all traces of the steak and sauce out of our kids rice before they tried it! I am thinking next time I go shopping for Asian Chili Sauce, I won’t be buying the one that says “hot”. Just a word of warning for all you who are putting it on your shopping list (I usually like spicy foods but this was intense!)
Oh no! Yeah, most chili sauces (like the one pictured) aren’t very spicy, they’re more sweet and tangy. That’s a good word of warning though; you never know!
I made this with some thinly sliced leftover roast beef, and wow was it ever good! That sauce is amazing, and my husband agreed it was way better than any takeout!
This looks yummy and I’m going to try it this weekend but can you substite chicken breast or thighs for the steak?
I’m sure you could, you’ll just have to experiment, but either one should work. Enjoy!
Made this a couple weeks ago and the hubby LOVED it…today I was wanting a crock pot recipe to throw in before church and decided to give this a shot. SO DELICIOUS! I doubled the sauce to make sure it didn’t dry out, cooked it on low all day, threw in the orange peels for extra flavor, and the beef was melt in your mouth amazing!! Plus, the whole house had an awesome orange scent all day :)
Can you make this as a freezer meal? I try to see which ones of ya’lls meals can be freezer mea;s but only a couple have directions to freeze. I am in a meal swap group for freezer meals and your website come up alot in my head to get ideas from. but i wish they all had directions for freeing them! I never know whether or not to cook the meat then freeze or leave it raw..etc.
I made this last night and it was delicious! It tasted better than take-out, and much healthier. I served it with rice and broccoli. My entire family loved it – even my three-year-old. It was so quick and easy to put together too!