My son has a completely different palate than us. While I cook mostly chicken as the main protein for dinners, little G dislikes chicken and will try to avoid eating chicken every time I try to sneak in some in his rice.
He loves beef, and his favorite beef dish is Korean Kalbi. So naturally he prefers beef stir-fries instead of chicken stir-fries.
Other Recipes You Might Like
Other than everyone’s favorite Mongolian beef, sometimes I changed my recipe a little bit to incorporate onion into the beef stir-fry to make this super yummy onion scallion beef.
I just think that it makes the overall dish so much tastier. As we all know, onion imparts a sweet flavor once it’s cooked and caramelized, plus it adds extra texture to this onion scallion beef recipe.
For Chinese recipes, it’s very important to velvet the protein so every bite is silky smooth and the meat is tender.
There is no exception with this recipe as a simple cornstarch would seal in the “juice” of the meat so every bite is pleasing and so inviting.
Onion scallion beef is a super easy recipe to make at home and it practically takes 20 minutes from prep to dinner table.
What Dishes to Serve with this Recipe?
This meal is best served with steamed rice.
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
Pairs well with:
Onion Scallion Beef Recipe
Onion scallion beef – tender beef stir-fry in yummy Chinese brown sauce. Super easy recipe that takes only 20 mins.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 10 oz beef tenderloin, thinly sliced
- 2 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 3 stalks scallion, cut into 2-inch strips
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Marinade:
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon Chinese Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
Sauce:
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 3 dashes white pepper powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon sugar or to taste
- salt to taste
Directions
-
1Marinate the beef slices with all the ingredients in Marinade for 10 minutes.
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2Heat up a wok with 1 tablespoon of oil and stir-fry the marinated beef until they are half-done. Dish out and set aside. Drain the bloody water from the beef.
-
3Heat up the remaining oil and stir-fry the garlic and onion until aromatic. Add the beef back into the wok and do a few quick stirs before adding the Sauce. Continue to stir-fry until the beef slices are completely cooked, then add the scallions into the wok. Do a few quick stirs, add salt and more sugar to taste, dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.
Annabelle
I made this for lunch today and it is delicious! My husband loves it. We are both Malaysians living in London and it reminds us of flavours back home. We added some broccoli as well. Yum. Keep up the good work!
Rasa Malaysia
Awesome please try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
Chrissie Baker
I made this last night and both my husband and I enjoyed it immensely. The instructions and photos in all of your recipes are excellent and my Chinese style cooking has improved since I’ve been visiting your website. Thank you all so much!
Mani
My family loves this recipe!! Thanks for sharing!
Rasa Malaysia
Awesome thanks for trying this onion scallion beef.
karen
hi i am wanting to make this recipe but before i do i was wanting to know if i can marinate the beef for 24 to 48 hours first.
thank you
karen
Rasa Malaysia
I don’t really need to marinate for so long. Overnight is fine, but 24-48 is way too long.
Neil Young
Yum, yum, yum. What a winner. Simple, quick, nutritious and delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipie.
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Neil for trying this onion scallion beef.
Jo Zaninović
Just made this for dinner and it is amazing, i would defo say to use fillet steak as it was so tender and the sauce so tasty.
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Jo.
Jeremy Meiners
Dear Rasa Malaysia,
This is the first time I have EVER posted a comment on a recipe. For this recipe, and really, for all the recipes I have used that are yours, I felt it necessary.
Simply put, you are amazing! You see, my family and I moved a few months back and lost our Asian-American cookbooks in the move. My wife and I cook Asian-American once a week, and when we couldn’t find our books, we went to the internet. First, we tried All-Recipes. We were not satisfied. It really just wasn’t right.
Then we decided to try this recipe for Scallions and Beef. Having cooked Chinese-American for years, we thought what you said to do was wrong. But, we (as is my wife and my tradition) followed the recipe entirely as written the first time. You were right. It was wonderful. We then for the last several months tried a number of your other recipes (more with beef but mostly the ones with chicken). We always disagreed with your method (particularly your batter), but again it turned out wonderful every single time.
Thank you for your hard work and recipes. They simply are the best. Thank you also for teaching us more on Asian-American cooking. You have a loyal fan, and I hope that we never find our old Asian-American cookbooks ever again. We now are dedicated to your recipes. Thank you!
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Jeremy, awww, your comment just made my day (or night actually). I was worried when I saw the long comment but it was a very good comment about my recipes and cooking techniques and skills. Thank you. I am basically teaching Americans the “right” way of cooking Asian food because you guys are taught all the wrong ways on all the American websites and cookbooks. The cooking sequences are all wrong, the ratio of sauces to protein wrong, and through my blog, I wanted to teach you the right way to make Asian food and they are easy! Once you know the right sequence and the techniques, you can make any Asian foods. Thanks for being a loyal fan. Please make sure you buy a copy of my Chinese cookbook on Amazon called Easy Chinese Recipes and my e-Book Easy Asian Takeout here: https://rasamalaysia.com/easy-asian-takeout/. Yes you don’t ever need another cookbook again! :)
Jeremy Meiners
You are very welcome. It makes my night when my children love the dinners I make with your recipes, so maybe we are even :) . I just put your cookbook on my Amazon wish list. Thanks again!
Jan
Made it yesterday YUMMY!! My husband loves sauce so I quadrupled it. Got a bit salty so think next time I may add a bit of unsalted chic stock to dilute. I also added a bunch of veggies (broccoli, sugar snap peas, and carrots. REALLY DELICIOUS. THANKS FOR POSTING.
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Jan, that’s awesome. Yes, you can’t actually quadruple the sauce by adding 4x the ingredients. Chicken stock sounds like a good idea.
Maria Odjimer
I made this with chicken and it was absolutely delicious too!!
Al Down Under
I made this for dinner tonight. It was a hit with the family who consist of an 8 month old, 4 year old and wife who was previous a vegetarian. Devoured by all!
I would suggest scotch fillet sliced across the grain if tenderloin hard to find, swapping out green beans for brocolini and adding toasted cashews at the end.
Great recipe. Good work.
Nina
Hai! I want to know what can I do to replace the Dry Sherry or Chinese wine? I would love to try this. I couldnt find the dry sherry in the supermarket here
Rasa Malaysia
You can skip.
Nik
Hi .l am a muslim, so we cant use wine or sherry..is there a substitute for this?
Rasa Malaysia
Just skip it.
Lilian
Lilian
I maked on my birthday and it was soooooooooo sweeeettttttt
Diane
I can’t find the method how to cook
Mehandi
This is tasty & easy to make!
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks for trying my onion scallion beef.
Monica
Cooked this meal using shaved beef and fish sauce and some thick brown geavy, because I didn’t have tenderloin or oyster sauce it was quick and delicious. It tasted just like a meal I ate at a restaurant earlier this month.
Victoria
Hi Rasa! I love you recipes and this one I am going to try tonight?
I was wondering if you could marinate the meat longer, or would that negatively affect the texture of the beef?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, you can marinate longer and the beef will be more tender. :)
Yao
Hi,
Can I use Chinese Rice Wine/Cooking Wine instead?
Thank you
Rasa Malaysia
Yes you can.
Josephine C
I stumbled onto this recipe while searching for mung bean recipe (had to use it up).
And since the bean and tofu dish was purely vegetarian I wanted to add a meat dish. This dish was selected purely for the fact I had all the ingredients on hand (well, maybe the filet mignon, only had New York strip steak that I had tendorized).
It tasted better than I thought it would, which means two things 1) the dish is simply good, 2) I correctly made the recipe as it was meant to be made. You made the recipe easy to follow do I could make a mistake. Either way, my family was very pleased with the results. I did add bamboo shoots and mushrooms since I also had those on hand.
I’m curious, however, how you know how to prepare all these other ethnic dishes???
I’m Korean and, of course, hands down, I agree with your son G, that Korean garbi (this is how it’s really pronounced), is the best beef dish around!
Surprisingly, my (10 year old) son happened to like the mung bean and tofu dish better than the onion scallion beef, go figure!
I’m definitely making your other dishes!
Thank you for sharing. I’m marking your website into my favorites!!
SinisterThimble
This is the first recipe I’ve ever made that came out (almost) pretty as the the picture (no epic lighting or camera skills on my dinner table, haha). I’m so used to the disconnect between the art and reality that it really took me by surprise! And it tastes even better than it looks. Thanks for sharing this and giving me a go to show off dish.
Rasa Malaysia
Hi SinisterThimble, I am so happy that you had great success with my onion scallion beef. Do try out more recipes on my site! :)
Caroline
Absolutely fantastically delicious! Sometimes when I cook this I can’t believe I’m making my own take-away meal. I’ve made this a few times now and your instruction is fantastic – I just can’t get over how simple this dish is to make. All I can say is a big, big Thank You! :)
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Caroline, that’s great. Thanks for trying my recipe.
Angie
Is it possible to cook this dish with chicken instead of beef?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes.
Angit
What about pork? Which part shall I use? Pork loin?
Rasa Malaysia
You can use pork loin for this recipe.
lily
hey hru . well i wasnt a fan of thai cuisine much but after going through ur recipes and after trying them as well , now am kind of liking the thai cuisine and its all jus coz of you. thankyou so much . i love ur recipes and ur style of cooking suits my palate so so so much . thanks again .
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks for trying the recipe.
Diane
Hi rasa. Do you have a recipe for salmon that floats in sauce. It’s an Asian dish I can’t remember what it’s called. It’s more a broth Rather than sauce
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Diane, hmmm hard to say what is the dish without looking at a picture or know its name.
fiona mak
I love your recipe. I used to cook recipe with chicken breast meat and the meat always turns out dry. Please provide recipe for young kids. Thank you for sharing.
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Fiona, thanks for trying my recipes. Please subscribe to my email here as I have recipes that are both kids and grown up friendly.
shel
I made the beef with onion and scallion my employer they like it ..thank you for sharing..
Karen
I have this recipe saved! It’s a family favorite! Thank you for sharing. ;)
Kayla
What part of the chicken would you recommend to use as a substitute to the sirloin?
Rasa Malaysia
Chicken breast.
Jay
Ok, this is the real deal! Right when I saw the picture for this dish I knew it was the right recipe that I have been searching for. The picture looks exactly like how this meal is prepared at my favorite Chinese restaurant. Make that, my favorite no longer in business Chinese restaurant. The key to this dish for me, is the sugar. It has to have the right amount of sugar. I like it on the sweeter side. Not a lot, but just enough. Also the root part of the green onion has to be on the raw side so it’s still crunchy.
I am grateful for seeing this recipe here. Thanks a lot! I love it!
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Jay!
Jay
This is the recipe I was looking for. There’s a take out place that has something just like this recipe.
Other similar recipes online are close but this one I think is right on. I like using both regular onion and green onion. I like that this doesn’t use ginger. I like that is uses the Chinese rice wine because I have that in my pantry. And I like that this calls for sugar because the recipe needs sugar for it to taste like how I like it.
Thumbs up!
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Jay.
Tess Karsevar
Can I substitute chicken instead of beef?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes!
Martha
This has become the special occasion meal at my house, which turns out about once a week.. Tried it first months ago, we all love it. Thanks loads love you recipes and the pictures want me to sit down and eat..
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Martha, thanks so much for trying my recipe. :)
Big Al
from NYC, just made it, took the liberty of adding mushrooms. WOW!!! Better than any Asian restaurant. Had it with white rice and Spanish black beans. Thank you. Found you on Yummly.
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Big Al glad you liked this recipe!!
joanne shaw
I am so glad I found your wed site and absolutely love all your recipes, just wish your comps were in Australia lol thank you for such great eating
Sue
This turned my little ones into Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twists — it had them asking for more. Yet because my family has a lot of food intolerances and sensitivities, I skipped the marinades and many of the sauces. It was still very delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Sue for trying my onion scallion beef recipe. :)
Christine
This was very good. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes. Thank you!
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Christine! :)
Paula
We normally have salmon patties for my pre-chemo day treat. This week we are trying this! Looks yummy! Reminds me of Great Wall Steak served in Council Bluffs, Iowa Great Wall Restaurant! Thanks!
Lorietta
How much more beef do I need to make this for 5 people?
Rasa Malaysia
Double the recipe. :)
DeNorah allen
Entire family loved this. Great dish and easy!
Jason
I just made this for dinner this evening and it was a smash hit! The only changes I made was to double the recipe and substitute in white cooking wine (what I had on hand). My wife requested that I make this again for friends and family very soon.
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Jason, that’s great that your family is loving this onion scallion beef. You have to try out some other recipes on my site, they are all good. :)
Happy New Year. :)
Rae
Rasa, I have been looking for Tamarind Juice and Goma Shabu Sauce and I can’t find it anywhere… I have an order ready to go on AsianSuppermarket365… I can’t find these anywhere on this site… :-( can you please tell me where I can purchase these…… Thanks, Rae
Rasa Malaysia
I think you can buy them from Amazon too.
Magublacook
Those pictures look so great!
Thank you for sharing this recipe
Paulina
Hi, I’ve made this tonight and it was delicious. Love your book and website. Thank you
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Paulina. :)
Anitra
Is there something that can be substituted for oyster sauce? Looks delicious!
Rasa Malaysia
Fish sauce or soy sauce, or sweet soy sauce.
Irina Stiles
The photography is so beautiful! Made me want to learn it. What lense did you use? Love your site.
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Irina, thanks so much, I use Canon 5D Mark II with a 50mm f2.5 lens. :)
Tuty
Yummy. The only thing I did slightly different is that I sear the meat on the wok with high heat (by not crowding the wok with meat). This way, I don’t have to drain the “blood” that keeps the meat juicy.
Thanks for sharing, Bee.
Grant @ The Sushi Knife Store
This does look delicious, it may be onion scallion beef for dinner tonight!
Jenni
I made this last night for supper and it was delicious! My husband wants me to make it again soon!
BTW, in my town, been tenderloin sells for $30 a pound! I substituted sirloin….
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks for trying the Onion Scallion Beef recipe. :)
Jenni
Oh, thanks for sharing!
JC
Is there a non alcoholic substitute I can use for Chinese Shaoxing wine/dry sherry? This looks delicious.
Rasa Malaysia
You can skip it.
Lee Lindsay
Or you can get it through Amazon.com
I order all hard to find ingredients from them and it usually arrives within 3-5 days. Just a thought if you live, as we do, where certain spices or condiments are not available.
Fred
The alcohol evaporates during the cooking (at least 1-2 min at full high heat) and only the taste remains. No alcohol is left at all after evaporation.
Adina
That is a myth.
https://www.finedininglovers.com/stories/does-alcohol-cook-out/
https://www.oasas.ny.gov/admed/fyi/fyi-cooking.cfm
Sharon
So easy, and sooooooooooo good!!
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Sharon.
Adina
your favorite vinegar :) that’s what I always do in recipes that need only a tsp or tbs of wine.
Jay
Lol are you kidding me? Don’t be an idiot! Are you concerned you might not be able to drive after eating this? Smh look, it’s an important taste ingredient so the answer is no. There’s no substitute moron.
Sam
Many people don’t drink alcohol for religious reasons, which I am sure you know and are just being a troll (not the word I really wanted to use, but keeping it clean). I suspect the oh so charming word you used – ‘moron’ applies more to you than to JC. If you truly didn’t know that, then I can only assume you are one of those stereotypical Americans who thinks the world begins and ends in the US.
Cyndi
You’re just as bad to bad mouth Americans, So you don’t have any business replying! You apparently don’t know about what it means to assume. Have a nice day hon!
sk
wow, that got mean really fast. chill out and find a fulfilling hobby instead of insulting people on the internet.