A Chinese-American stir-fry of thin-sliced beef and green bell peppers (often with onion) in a glossy, savory soy-based sauce, served over rice. It is one of the standard hot-line dishes on American Cantonese menus.
Pepper steak grew out of Cantonese stir-fry technique as Chinese immigrants adapted to American tastes and ingredients through the 20th century. Its likely ancestor is the southern Chinese dish of beef stir-fried with peppers and black bean; in the United States the black bean was often dropped and the dish built on soy sauce and bell pepper to suit a broad audience. It became a menu staple in the chop-suey and Cantonese-American era and remains a takeout standard.
The beef is tender and silky from velveting, the peppers still crisp and a little sweet with a touch of bite. The sauce is savory and slightly sweet, clinging in a thin glaze rather than a heavy gravy, with a warm note of black pepper running through. Everything is hot, juicy, and meant to be spooned over rice that soaks up the sauce.
The beef is sliced thin across the grain and velveted — marinated with soy, a little cornstarch and oil — so it stays tender and seals quickly over high heat. Everything is cooked fast in a hot wok so the peppers keep their crunch and color. A cornstarch slurry stirred in at the end thickens the soy-based sauce into a glossy glaze that coats each piece without pooling.
Variations
Cooks add oyster sauce for depth, a splash of Shaoxing wine, or fermented black beans to nod to the original. Common variants swap in red and green peppers together for color, use flank or sirloin, or serve it as 'pepper steak with onion' on tomato-tinged versions found in some regional takeout spots.
On the Palate
Where Pepper Steak sits in the American-Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 3
How it's made
6 steps · 33 min active + 2 min waiting
- 115 min
Slice the beef thinly across the grain and marinate with soy sauce, cornstarch, a little oil and a pinch of sugar; let it sit while you prep the vegetables.
Watch outCut across the grain — with the grain turns the beef chewy.
- 28 min
Cut the bell peppers and onion into bite-size squares; mince the garlic and ginger and mix the sauce of soy, oyster sauce, black pepper and water.
Watch outKeep pepper pieces even so they cook at the same rate.
- 34 min
Heat a wok until smoking, add oil, and sear the beef in a single layer over high heat just until browned but not fully cooked through; remove and set aside.
Watch outDon't crowd the wok or the beef steams grey instead of searing.
- 43 min
In the same wok, stir-fry the garlic and ginger for a few seconds, then add the peppers and onion and toss over high heat until crisp-tender and still bright.
Watch outKeep the peppers crisp — overcooking makes them limp and dull.
- 52 min
Return the beef, pour in the sauce, and bring to a quick boil; stir in a cornstarch slurry and toss until the sauce thickens into a glossy glaze coating everything.
Watch outAdd the slurry gradually — too much turns the sauce gluey.
- 61 min
Serve immediately over steamed white rice.
Watch outServe hot — the glaze dulls as it cools.
