Orange Beef

The recipe was delicious and I will make it again -- but what does the "30 minutes" refer to? The whole process? If I had a sous chef doing all the prep while I cooked, perhaps! It took me about and hour and a quarter, but hopefully familiarity with the steps will cut that next time I make it. I'd like to see a prep time and an actual cooking time on recipes.

I read the notes before making this and added a tablespoon of cornstarch mixed in with more orange juice. I used sirloin, cut in 1/4 strips across the grain. I cooked the meat. but removed it from the pan. I poured off some of the oil and added sesame oil, in which I stir-fried red pepper with the scallions and chilies. Before serving I sprinkled a few tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds.
I will make this again and again!

This was terrific. Here's an idea: after u cook the meat, throw in some veggies and cook them for 3-5 min in hot wok. I did snap peas, red and yellow peppers and some mushrooms. It balances out the meal for us. Also, this is a busy recipe the first time you make it. Lots of steps but manageable. Worth your time.

You can also use ground beef, it's much quicker and also tasty.
Stirfry 1 to 1.5 lb. lean ground beef. Pour off extra drippings. Set cooked beef aside and then follow Step 5. If you want to get an extra take-out vibe, add Asian noodles (cooked as directed) and stir fry them for a minute or two with the beef in sauce.

If you don't want to go through the trouble of cracking/separating an egg (and figuring out what to do with the yolk to avoid waste!), you can also combine a 1/2 tsp of baking soda with the cornstarch and a bit of water (just enough to combine). This has a similar effect as 'velveting' with egg white and yields beautifully tender beef when seared quickly.

Flank steak works perfectly well. I worked in an American-Chinese restaurant and flank was used for the vast majority of dishes (i.e. Mongolian beef, beef with broccoli, etc.) Skirt steak, flatiron steak and other similar cuts are also good, and have better flavor than tenderloin. Cut the beef across to grain to minimize toughness. The key is cooking a short time over high heat.

Based on others' notes, I let the orange sauce cook down and thicken a bit longer than directed. It tasted great at that point. But when poured into the screeching hot pan it burned -- orange zest became quite bitter. Maybe let the pan cool down some BEFORE adding the orange sauce. BTW, do use good fish sauce, and consider tossing in a bit more than the recipe suggests.

It's critical that the pan be really hot, the meat go down in a single layer (cook in batches), and that it's left alone so it can brown. I cooked my scallions separately so as to not interfere with they meat (I add a lot of scallions) Also, let the sauce really cook down and the let it cook a little further when it's added to the meat. This way, it turns into a delicious glaze on crispy, but tender, meat. I added extra OJ to the sauce, as I found it heavy with soy. Delicious!

delicious! made this twice.. the first time as written, the second I didn't have fish sauce or an orange in the pantry so I used a couple of tablespoons of orange marmalade and a tablespoon of hoisin , and a tablespoon of chili garlic sauce... even better!

Based on peoples' comments about the longish prep time I made the sauce the night before while cooking something else, then through it in the fridge. This worked really well, and brought the cooking time down to the 20 minutes it took to cook the rice. No complaints on this recipe.

There is so much wrong with this post. Why even bother to cook, when take-out is always going to be faster than anything you start from scratch at home? I mean, really...

I made this for dinner. From start to serving was 1 hour, 14 minutes and I'm pretty efficient in the kitchen. It was wonderful, although the orange flavor was not very strong. Next time I'll double up on the orange and zest. Otherwise, it was beautiful and tasty. Unlike some commenters, I could not have driven to restaurant and picked up take out and got home again in less time. Plus, the fresh ingredients were so tasty. I added 1 cup of asparagus chopped in 1" pieces.

This is my new go-to recipe for beef stir-fry. Next time I might try with sherry or port instead of rice vinegar, because I like that flavor in my other stir-fries. But this is just excellent as is!

When I make orange chicken l always add about a teaspoonful oh frozen orange concentrate. It intensifies the orange flavor which I love

You might want to seek out the recipe given by Michael Tong of the Shun Lee in NYC where the original Orange Beef recipe was devised in the 1970s. Its the super crispy, deep fried version made with flank steak marinated with baking soda for the special texture. The recipe is in Michael Tong's Shun Lee Cookbook and it
also appeared in one of Food & Wine's "Best of the Best" cookbooks (Volume 11). His instructions are a little off for the meat coating technique, but otherwise it's "the" recipe.