Cristel's Beef Strips with Sweet & Hot Sauce
Submitted by ladylon
Breaded pan-fried beef strips served with a ketchup-soy sweet and hot dipping sauce. Party-plate appetizer or hearty dinner with fries, finished in 30 seconds per side.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
45 minCOOK
10 minREADY
60 minThese beef strips are a home-style crowd-pleaser. Round steak sliced into thin ¾-inch strips, breaded with egg-wash and seasoned crumbs, then pan-fried fast in shallow oil until golden. The quick cook is the whole point: thin strips need just 30 to 40 seconds per side, which keeps the beef tender rather than tough.
The 15-minute chill before frying is not optional. Cold breading sticks to the meat during frying. Skip the chill and the crumbs fall off into the oil, leaving bare meat and a greasy pan. Ginger in the bread crumb mix is the unexpected flavor note, subtle but enough to lift the dish out of generic.
The sweet and hot dipping sauce is where the flavor really hits. Ketchup, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, dry mustard, and hot pepper sauce all whisk together and heat until bubbly. Sweet, tangy, salty, spicy, all in one spoonful. Serve with french fries and let folks dip.
Kitchen Tips
- Trim fat thoroughly before cutting strips. Fat strips curl up and don’t cook evenly.
- Fry a few strips at a time. Crowding the pan drops the oil temperature and makes the breading soggy.
- Keep finished strips warm on paper towels in a 200°F (95°C) oven while the rest cook.
- Chill extra batches of cut strips for freezing. Pre-rolled in flour, they thaw and fry straight from cold.
Variations
- Use panko instead of regular breadcrumbs for extra crunch.
- Add a pinch of cayenne to the breading for a spicier coating.
- Serve over rice with the hot sauce drizzled on top for a rice-bowl style dinner.
Ingredients
Directions
Trim fat from steak.
Cut steak into ¾ inch wide strips.
Beat the egg in a bowl with water until well mixed.
In a separate bowl, mix bread crumbs, salt, ginger and pepper.
Dip strips in egg mixture, then roll through crumb mixture.
Arrange strips on a baking sheet.
Chill in refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
Depending on the size of the steak and the thickness of the cut, more egg and crumb mixture may be necessary.
Heat oil in a large fry pan until hot.
Oil should be about ¼ inch deep in the pan.
Remove strips from refrigerator and fry in oil a few at a time for about 30 to 40 seconds per side (top and bottom) turning once.
Do not overcook.
Remove strips and drain on paper towel.
Keep the strips warm.
(Placing paper towel on a cookie sheet and placing in a 200F oven seems to work well.)
SWEET and HOT SAUCE: Combine all ingredients for the sauce in a saucepan (or measuring cup) and stir together well.
Heat on stove top, or in microwave until bubbly hot.
Serve beef strips with hot sauce and french fries.
NOTE: The steak can be cut and frozen so that the preparation time is greatly reduced.
After the steak is cut, roll in flour and arrange so that the strips can be laid out to thaw in a single layer.
If the strips are still chilled when it’s time to cook them, just dip into the egg, roll in crumbs and place directly into the hot oil.
The chilling process is to firm up the egg and crumb mixture so that they don’t fall off the meat during the frying.
If the meat is already sufficiently cold (from defrosting), the chilling in the refrigerator is not necessary.
Comments
If you want to know how hot your hot sauce is, look on the label for hot sauce Scoville ratings. Scoville ratings tell you how hot the sauce is based on 0-5,000 for mild all the way up to 300,000 for extreme. A hot sauce Scoville rating for a bottle