Name: Beef Chow Fun
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 180 gr beef flank (sliced thinly); 1 tsp cornstarch; 1 tsp soy sauce; 350 gr rice noodles (wide type); 3 tbsp oil; 4 mustard greens; 50 gr mung bean sprouts; 2 eggs; 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine; 1 tbsp oyster sauce; 1 tbsp dark soy sauce; 1 tsp mushroom powder (optional); 1 tsp white pepper

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Beef Chow Fun is a classic Chinese stir-fried beef with rice noodles that you can find easily in Chinese restaurants! Almost everyone who has tasted it fell in love with it! Here is the quick and easy beef chow fun recipe!

a plate of beef chow fun and vegetables, ready to eat. — Beef Chow Fun

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I instantly fell in love with this dish the first time I tried it! My then-boyfriend, who is now my husband, took me to a beef chow fun stall near my house. I had never been there before because my mother limited how much I ate out.

When I finally tasted it, the experience was truly unforgettable! Haha… I ended up returning to that stall nearly every weekend!

Because my husband loved it so much, I started experimenting with different soy sauces to recreate the flavor of the beef chow fun we enjoyed so often!

Beef Chow Fun or Beef Ho Fun

Chow Fun and Ho Fun refer to the same dish. In Hong Kong and Southern China, it’s commonly called Ho Fun or Ho Fan. In China, this dish is known as 乾炒河粉 (Gan Chao He Fen). “He Fen” is later transliterated as Ho Fun or Hor Fun, with “Gan” meaning dry. Beef Chow Mein is another type with noodles.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

Complete items in one dish – It’s a complete dish of carbs, protein, and fibers in one. You will feel satisfied after having one portion.
Quick and easy to make – It’s a quick and easy dish to make at home, especially when you’re busy and need a fast meal.
Economical – The ingredients are very inexpensive and you can easily get them in any grocery store.

Recipe Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

Beef Selection – For the best results, go with flank steak. The key is slicing it across the grain for maximum flavor and tenderness. Cut it right, and the beef will be tender even without marinating.

Noodles – Let the fresh noodles sit at room temp to prevent sticking. A quick soak in hot water for 5 minutes will help separate them. Go for wide rice noodles, not the thin ones like bee hoon (thin vermicelli). If you’re into thin noodles, check out Bihun Goreng or Mie Goreng, other popular Asian dish.

Seasonings – The best way to get the right soy sauce is to stick with the brand you’re familiar with. Feel free to try other brands if you’d like. I suggest mixing all the seasonings in one bowl beforehand—it ensures you won’t miss anything, and it’s much quicker!

Vegetables – The vegetables used mostly in this dish is mustard greens and bean sprouts. You can add chives, cabbages, or carrots, if you like.

Be sure to check out the full recipe and ingredient list below

Substitutions & Variations

You can swap rice noodles with egg noodles, vermicelli, glass noodles, or even Konjac noodles—they all work great with this recipe. Just soak them in hot water first to make them more flexible for cooking in the wok.

How to Make

Cut the flank steak across the grain thinly, around 2 mm thick.
Marinate the beef slices with cornstarch and soy sauce (image 1). Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
If you use fresh rice noodles, soak them in hot water for 5 minutes. Make sure the rice noodles do not stick to one another. Separate them using chopsticks.
Wash clean the mustard greens and bean sprouts. Cut the mustard greens in slices. Set aside.
Prepare all the seasonings, put them in a bowl so it is easier to use and you do not miss any in the process.

photo collage of marinating the beef flank and cooking the ingredients in a wok.

Heat the cooking oil in a wok. When it is hot enough, put in the minced garlic, stir-fry until golden brown. (image 2)
Put in the beef slices into the pan (image 3). Stir with spatula until all the beef slices change color.
Add rice noodles (image 4). Stir quickly. Pour in the seasoning (image 5).
Use spatula to stir-fry quickly and vigorously so the seasoning disperse evenly throughout the rice noodles. (image 6)
Throw in vegetables (image 7). Stir again until the vegetables are cooked.

photo collage of stir frying the vegetables until evenly coated with the sauce.

Push the chow fun to give some space to the eggs. Put in the eggs (image 8). Let the eggs cook for a few seconds and stir evenly into the rice noodles. The eggs will make the chow fun dry and smokey (image 9). Stir around quickly until the eggs are no longer runny.
Turn off the stove and the beef chow fun is ready to serve on a plate! (image 10)

Expert Tips

When stirring the rice noodles, do it quickly and aim to coat them evenly with the seasoning!
To keep the beef chow fun dry, add the eggs last—they’ll soak up the moisture from the rice noodles.
Always remember to cut the beef flank across the grain. This will make the meat tender even without marination.
Try to use a stove with big flame to add smokey sensation to the dish.

FAQs

Yes, you can. Keep it in a closed container. Do not keep it too long, it can stay fresh for up to 2 days.

It could be the heat from the stove is not big enough. Add the eggs last, to let it absorb the moisture from the rice noodles. Throw the chow fun into the wok again, stir fry for a few more minutes to let it dry out.

Yes, you can. Just follow the instructions on the noodles pacakge before cooking in the wok.