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Vietnamese Shaking Beef (Bo Luc Lac)

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Shaking beef or bo luc lac is a popular Vietnamese dish. Easy shaking beef recipe that is delicious and simple to make. | rasamalaysia.com

Shaking beef or bo luc lac is a popular Vietnamese dish. Easy shaking beef recipe that is delicious and simple to make. | rasamalaysia.com

Ravenous Couple: Cooking Up Life is one of the new blogs I discovered recently. Authored by Hong and Kim, Ravenous Couple is a chronicle of the authors’ cooking and eating adventures, with an emphasis on Vietnamese cuisine.

As a Vietnamese food lover, I often refer to great blogs such as White on Rice Couple and Vietworld Kitchen for inspirations, and Ravenous Couple is a great addition to that space. Please welcome Hong and Kim as they share with us the popular Vietnamese Shaking Beef or Bo Luc Lac recipe.

Shaking beef or bo luc lac is a popular Vietnamese dish. Easy shaking beef recipe that is delicious and simple to make. | rasamalaysia.com

It’s been four months since we started Ravenous Couple and not much longer that we first discovered the world of blogging. Several blogs got us hooked and planted the seed, but if we were forced to single one out on a police line up, Rasa Malaysia would be the guilty one.

Yes, Bee you didn’t know it then but now you do–your blog really inspired us to enthusiastically share our love of Vietnamese cuisine but to also learn about others as well.

Shaking beef or bo luc lac is a popular Vietnamese dish. Easy shaking beef recipe that is delicious and simple to make. | rasamalaysia.com

So when Bee asked us to write a guest post on Bo luc lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef), we were surprised and flattered–you mean us newbies? But we gladly accepted as it’s one of our favorite dishes.

Shaking beef or bo luc lac is a popular Vietnamese dish. Easy shaking beef recipe that is delicious and simple to make. | rasamalaysia.com

Not completely lost in translation, the “luc lac” is merely a description for the “shaking” or tossing of the beef back and forth in the wok after it’s quickly seared. 

It’s a widely popular Vietnamese dish and as such, has many variations on how it’s served. Some restaurants serve it with sauteed onions, lettuce, and rice (white or tomato paste rice) while others may present it more like a steak salad served on a bed of watercress and tomatoes, topped with pickled onions. Dipping sauces might vary from a lime/salt/pepper sauce to a soy chili sauce…

Regardless of how you serve bo luc lac, it’s an easy and fantastic dish to make for a dinner for two or a party of ten. You can use any cut of steak you like such as filet or ribeye, but we prefer sirloin.

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Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef)

Shaking beef or bo luc lac is a popular Vietnamese dish. Easy shaking beef recipe that is delicious and simple to make. | rasamalaysia.com

Course Side Dish
Cuisine Vietnamese
Keyword Bo Luc Lac
Author

Ingredients

Beef Marinade:

Vinaigrette:

Dipping Sauce:

  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1/2 ts kosher salt
  • 1/2 ts fresh cracked pepper
  • 1 red onion thinly sliced
  • 2 bunches of watercress long stems trimmed
  • 2 to matoes thinly sliced
  • Cooking oil for frying
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Instructions

  1. Prepare marinade by combining garlic, oyster sauce, sugar, fish sauce, thick soy sauce and sesame oil with the beef for at least half an hour, preferably 1-2 hrs.
  2. Prepare vinaigrette by mixing rice vinegar with salt and sugar. It should be a balance of sour, salty and sweet.
  3. Thinly slice the red onion and use about 3-4 tbs of the vinaigrette to pickle and set aside covered in fridge for about 10 minutes. Prepare bed of watercress and tomatoes in a serving platter and set aside.
  4. Heat a large wok or pan over high heat. Add about 2 tbs cooking oil and when it begins to smoke, add an even layer of beef and allow to sear for about 2 minutes, before "shaking" to sear the opposite sides for about another 1-2 minute more to brown all the sides. Do this in batches to cook all the beef if necessary.
  5. Transfer beef to bed of watercress and tomatoes. Drizzle another 3-4 tbs of vinaigrette over the beef and greens and top with pickled red onions. Lastly, squeeze lime juice over salt and pepper in a small ramekin.

Recipe Notes

We like our beef medium rare and test the meat by touch and sight--it will plump up slightly and be bouncy to the touch with a spatula.

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90 COMMENTS... read them below or add one

  3. Wow, this looks awesome. I think this shaking beef is mostly served on a hot plate, yes, or is that black pepper steak???

    Anyway, this looks great. Good site you have there.

    Reply

  5. This dish is one of my favorites, especially if I want something quick, simple, yet delicious for a weeknight meal. Absolutely love the mouthwatering picture too!!!
    Thanks for posting and for sharing!

    Reply

  7. Ravenous Couple, I have two questions:

    1. Could you explain what the thick soy sauce is? I have seen and used light, dark and sweet soy sauces but not thick soy sauce. Sweet soy sauce tends to be quick thick so it that the one you mean?

    2. What is kosher salt?

    Can’t wait to shake the beef after your kind clarifications! Thanks.

    Reply

    • Hi Sylvia: Thick soy sauce is sweeter because it’s typically has molasses/sugar to add color and heighten flavor. So you may already have it. Kosher salt has larger grains and doesn’t dissolve as fast and tends to be less salty then regular table salt–it’s widely available in the salt section. You can certainly use table salt if you like. Thank you for the questions and let us know how it goes!

      Reply

  11. This is a recipe that was given to me nearly 15 years ago by a cook in a Vietnamese bar/lounge here in Hawaii. His name was Duc and he became a good friend. And later the “shaking beef” phenomena emerged. Seems like one in the same, it really is a traditional Vietnamese dish.

    FLANK STEAK w/ GARLIC
    Nate | AlohaWorld Ono Recipes

    1/2 lbs. flank steak, 3/4″~ 1″ cubes
    1 Tbs. oyster sauce
    1 Tbs. Maggi Liquid Seasoning
    1 tsp. sugar
    1 tsp. cornstarch
    5~6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
    oil
    lettuce, coarsely chopped large pieces
    Chinese parsley, chopped
    black pepper
    limes

    1. Put beef in bowl, add oyster sauce, Maggi, sugar & cornstarch.
    2. Hand mix for a bit, marinate in refrigerator few hrs., preferably over night.
    3. Heat ~1 Tbs. oil in wok over high until very hot.
    4. Add beef, stir-fry to well browned & starting to caramelize, 4~5 min.
    5. Add garlic slices, stir-fry another minute or so.
    6. Serve over coarsely chopped lettuce, garnish w/ Chinese parsley.
    7. Serve w/ dipping sauce made from ~1 tsp. black pepper & juice of 1 lime for ea. diner.
    8. Wrap meat cube & some garlic slices w/ piece lettuce, dip in sauce.

    Reply

    • Trying right now! Sounds perfect! Adding a few things from my Vietnam travels, but will let you know. Great eats for low carbers…

      Reply

  12. wonderful and delicioussss

    I’ve tried many recipes from internet as well as home cook but had not achieved the taste and texture of Bo Luc Lac (shaking beef) until this one.

    Very juicy and tasty

    thanks again

    Reply

  13. I was very surprised when reading some Vietnamese recipes in your blog, they are exactly the same with how we cook in our country. I was surprised because they were introduced by a foreigner, thank you for this. I’ve also tried some of the other recipes from China and Thailand. All of them were really tasty. Thanks a lot. Your site is really really wonderful :)

    About the name of this dish, many people explain that “luc lac” is the description of how beefs move to and from in the pan, so they translate the word into English as “shaking”. However, they maybe don’t know that the word “luc lac” has another meaning, which is “cubes”. This is to describe the shape of the beefs, which makes this dish different from the very popular Vietnamese stir fried beef. And I think the latter is more reasonable because in Vietnamese, “luc lac” is not a verb, it’s quite ridiculous to understand it as “shaking” or “shaky”.

    Just wanna share something from my knowledge :) Hope you’ll find it interesting. Looking forward to other Vietnamese recipes from you. Thanks.

    Reply

    • Trang – thanks for your comment, this recipe is actually from a Ravenous Couple, they are Vietnamese, but other Viet recipes I made them on my own. I think I have pretty much have the fundamentals down for Viet cuisine. :)

      Reply

    • Actually, I believe that “luc lac” is a verb meaning to shake. See the Vietnamese online dictionary definition: here It’s rather “quite ridiculous” to think of “luc lac” as cube. Look it up.

      Reply

      • Hi Trang and Betke: Thanks for your thoughtful insights regarding bo luc lac… literal translations of Vietnamese words can be problematic but for better or for worse shaking beef is one of the most common English name that this dish goes by and so that’s why used it.

        Reply

      • “Luc Lac” in Vietnamese is both a verb and a noun meaning to shake or swing as a verb and a dice as a noun. Trang is right about this. Lúc lắc as a noun is called “xí ngầu” in South Vietnam but Northern Vietnamese calls lúc lắc or súc sắc.

        Reply

  14. YUM! I’m making this dish tonight along with tomato paste fried rice! I don’t have watercrest but will use baby spinach instead!
    I love your website and the photos are just AMAZING!! I must have spent 2 hours lastnight reading your recipes. Keep up the great cooking!!

    Reply

  15. Hi, I just found your webpage and totally loving. For this recipe, I was wondering is it ok if i substitute dark soy sauce for the thick soy sauce?

    Reply

  16. My mom had asked me to cook her some beef that she defrosted, so I asked her what type of flavor she wanted American or Asian? & of course she said Asian so I tried to think of something I could whip up, with no luck I resorted to the internet lol! I made this last night and my parents loved it! Thanks for sharing, it was dee-licious. I actually ran out of thick soy and sesame oil so I just used olive oil and “stir fry” sauce. I can’t wait to try it this way though!

    Reply

  17. I made this twice with two different cuts of meat (rib eye/filet). It was absolutely delicious! Great pics too.

    Reply

  19. Thank you Rasa Malaysia for posting this and to Ravenous Couple for sharing your delicious Bo Luc Lac recipe! It’s one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes, having grown up as a Vietnamese American in San Jose and while living in Los Angeles temporarily – two cities with thriving Vietnamese communities. I really appreciate how your blogs make traditional Asian cuisine so accessible to people. It’s nostalgic and empowering for me to connect to my culture and family history by being able to replicate these dishes. I look forward to reading more of both of your blogs and trying out the recipes, particularly the Vietnamese dishes.

    Reply

  21. it’s not my first time to try this recipe , but i loved your presentation as well as the onion vinigraite
    thank you for the share.

    Reply

  22. I can’t forget the smile on a vietnamese colleague’s face when I mention “bo luc lac”, she was like “heey, you know asian food.”. This dish is extremely tasty, I tried this dish for the first time in Sydney australia. It was such a delicious treat. The marinated beef was like comfort food, but the vegetables was also so fresh, tasty and healthy.

    I’m nearly hooked on vietnamese food. But it’s just so difficult to express how rasamalaysia, whiteonricecouple, martin yan, Luke nguyen and asians friends have inspired me even more to cook asian treats. Vietnamese cuisine is just extremely exciting ranging from the french style Banh mi to Banh Xeo and Bo luc lac. Vietnam certainly is a mystery of it’s own in the world of cuisine.

    Reply

  23. halloooo bee!

    thanks so much for sharing your wonderful recipe! i just love this shaking beef :) i didnt had red onion when i made it, so i just used white onion but still it was so nice! this is definitely a keeper!

    more power to you!

    Reply

  26. i made this lastnight. it was great! thank you! my beef was a little tough what can i do to make it more tender?

    Reply

  27. They have to know which this is an issue. I’m thinking that if they currently hvn’t addressed that , they will in the close future. Facebook has carried out with with the Fan pages.

    Reply

  28. Im sorry for this silly question, but what brand of thick soy sauce do you use? I don’t have any experience with soy sauce =x

    Reply

  31. Thank you for the wonderful recipe! The flavors are JUST like my moms! If I tried to ask her fora recipe, she would say “a little of this and a little of that” which makes it impossible to replicate! Thank goodness for Vietnamese bloggers! Bless you!

    Reply

  32. hi there,

    do you think I could marinate veggies in the vinegar sauce and use this recipe for a steak kabob?? do you think it would taste great?

    Reply

  33. Sorry for the stupid question. New at this just curious what exactly are we suppose to do with the Vinaigrette that we made. Does that go with the marinating of the beef as well?

    Reply

  34. Hi Rasa Malaysia. First of all thanks for your recipes. I live in Argentina and I love to try new dishes. I cook a lot of things just right from your page. The recipes are very well explained and clear. My only recommendation it’s to put the servings along the recipe. I want to cook Bo Luc Lac tomorrow for three people. It’s ok or I should use more amount of ingredients? Thank you very much Rasa and keep this way :D

    Reply

  36. Hi! I am making this tonight and I do not understand what you do with the dipping sauce…there is such a small amount of ingredients (jc of one lime, 1/2 ts slt, 1/2 ts cracked pepper) do you sprinkle it over the top? thanks.

    Reply

  37. I made this dish twice using your recipe and I’ve concluded with my family that the taste is nowhere near close to the viet restaurants in NYC Chinatown. Granted each restaurant makes it differently but it seems to be missing a certain ingredient of something. The recipe is still good and it tastes great but it’s not the same.

    Reply

  38. Made this tonight and the hubby and I absolutley loved it! Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe… all the flavours came together perfectly! And as well as that it was easy to make which is a huge plus for me! Thanks RC and Bee!

    Reply

  39. First of all, I LOVE Rasa Malaysia – my cook book is full of recipes printed from this site.

    I cooked this for the husband last night and he RAVED about it! He couldn’t get over the presentation, and then the flavours and the interaction between the beef and salad – this has gone straight onto our dinner party repertoire! Thank you so much to Ravenous Couple for sharing this recipe and thank you for posting it!

    Reply

  41. In the past 2 weeks that I’ve known of this recipe, I’ve used it countless times. The marinade is wonderful and I’ve used it for so many other “dishes.” Thanks for the recipe and thanks to Hong and Kim!

    Reply

  45. wow, it looks so nice here :x
    and in Hanoi, for this dish, we also add pineapple and paprika (bell pepper
    they will make “bo luc lac” more delicious :)

    Reply

  48. I made this tonight using this recipe and it was DELICIOUS! My boyfriend said it tasted exactly like the ones we get at the restaurant. Thanks! :)

    Reply

  49. Bee, for this recipe, do you pre-tenderize the beef with the baking-soda treatment (as explained in your Easy Chinese Recipes book) ? Thanks!

    Reply

  50. Look forward to trying this but I can’t use oyster sauce, should I substitute anything or just leave it out?

    thanks

    Reply

  51. I am a beginner cook. Used this recipe exactly. My husband said it was better than a restaurant. I used filet and I think the key is using a high quality meat! Thank you so much for posting !!

    Reply

  52. Just made this and it is by far my boyfriend and my favourite meal – EVER. I ate it with rice (mixed my rice in the leftover beef marinade juice). Thank you Bee for this amazing recipe!

    Reply

  53. The first time I eat it, 5 years ago. At that time I had to learn how to cook. When I read your post, I want to cook again. Formula is nearly identical to what I had learned.
    Thanks!

    Reply

  54. I shared this recipe with a friend because it’s one of my favs and I make it quite often. However, his girlfriend doesn’t eat red meat and he asked if you could make it with chicken or seafood. Is there a similar recipe using chicken or shrimp? Not sure the pickled onions would go very well with either …

    Reply

  55. I’ve lately developed an appetite for Vietnamese food and shaking beef tops the list. I love mine served with sauteed onions and pepper sauce. Shaking beef is something everyone should give a try. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  56. The recipe calls for 1.5 pounds a beef but does not say how many servings this might be. I am guessing about 4. Is that close?

    Reply

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