Our copycat P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef is pan fried and coated in a delicious sweet and savory sauce. It tastes just like the Mongolian beef entree at the restaurant, but at a fraction of the price!
P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef Copycat
Mongolian Beef is one of my favorite dishes in the world! And with this recipe you can make five times the amount for the same prices as one order of Mongolian Beef from the popular restaurant. I love P.F. Chang’s but it can be a little pricey for what you actually get. Don’t get me wrong, I will be the first to tell you that I LOVE dining out at fun restaurants. It’s nice to have someone else do the cooking for me once in a while. But this dish is so easy to make from home and one that the whole family enjoys. I have been making this recipe for years now and I always get rave reviews. Most people who have it say they actually like it MORE than P.F. Chang’s. It really does taste just like P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef!
Tips for this Mongolian Beef Recipe
- You can serve it how P.F. Chang’s does by draining the excess sauce and serving it just coated in the sauce. Or you can reserve the excess sauce and spoon it over some rice.
- P.F. Chang’s Mongolian beef is thin sliced and pan fried, as is the beef in this copycat recipe. But for a lighter version we have marinated the beef in the sauce and skipped the cornstarch coating. Then just cook the beef in the sauce in a pan over the stove. It still tastes wonderful, but won’t have that crisp coating on the outside. Skipping the frying process is also a time saver.
- Add some veggies to the pan. Oftentimes after the beef is cooked, I will remove the beef from the pan, wipe clean, then saute up some broccoli, pea pods, shredded carrots, red peppers, onions or baby corn and throw the beef back in. Then I will stir the sauce in with the beef and the veggies. This is a great way to get some added vitamins and increase your vegetable intake for the day.
- Mongolian Beef freezes beautifully! I like to freeze it in the sauce, then thaw completely in the refrigerator before heating. Just heat it in a pan on the stove until hot, but not simmering, as you don’t want to risk your meat getting tough.
What to Serve with Mongolian Beef
Serve Mongolian beef alone with our Restaurant-Style Fried Rice or Panda Express Chow Mein or pair it with one or more of our favorite Asian style recipes for a huge Asian feast:
- Coconut Curry Chicken
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Panda Express Orange Chicken
- Asian Cucumber Salad
- Beef Stir Fry with Noodles
- Hawaiian Beef Teriyaki
How to Make P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef
Ingredients
- 4 tsp. vegetable oil
- 2 tsp. ginger minced
- 2 Tbsp. garlic minced
- 1 c. soy sauce
- 1 c. water
- 1 c. brown sugar packed
- 1 c. vegetable oil for frying *see notes above
- 2 Lb. flank steaks
- ½ c. cornstarch
- 3 large green onions
Instructions
- Make the sauce by heating 4 tsp. vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. Don’t get the oil too hot. Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to medium and boil the sauce 2-3 minutes or until sauce thickens a little bit. Remove sauce from heat.
- Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4 inch slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a 45 degree angle to the top of the steak so you get wider cuts. Dip the steak pieces into cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef. Let the beef sit about 10 min. so the cornstarch sticks.
- As the beef sits, heat up 1 c. oil in a wok (or skillet). Heat the oil over medium heat until its hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and saute for just 2 minutes, or until beef just begins to darken on the edges. Stir the meat around a little bit so that it cooks evenly. After a few minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour most of the oil out of the skillet. Put the pan back over the heat, add the meat back into it and stir-fry for 1 more minute. Add the sauce to the pan and stir the meat around in the sauce until it is fully coated.
- Then remove the beef from the sauce with a slotted spoon or tongs onto a plate for serving and sprinkle on some sliced green onions. You can discard the sauce (this is what P.F. Chang's does) OR save the extra sauce and serve it over rice with the beef.
Equipment
- Stove Top
- Fry Pan/Skillet
Notes
Recipe Video
Nutrition
Recipe adapted from Top Secret Recipes.
Michelle says
Plan on making this tonight…little confused though, I see where you use the 4tablespoons of oil and then 1 cup of oil to fry the beef but where is the 2nd cup of oil used?
Erica says
Whoops! That is a total typo! Great catch! I will fix it. It should just be 1 cup.. Not 2
taz says
Thank you for posting this…I cooked it for dinner but oh my goodness it was too too too salty!! I followed the recipe exactly….I think that 1 cup of soya sauce was just too much. I’m surprised noone else mentioned this. Anyone else have this problem?
Yasha beagley says
I noticed the same thing just now while reading the recipe because though this recipe looks great I’ve never seen so much oil used … Even a cup seems a lot too me… Is this how Mongolian beef is done? It’s almost like deep frying the meat? It looks like everyone liked it:-)
Regina says
This recipe is delish! I’ve made it several times for my husband and myself. The only change I made was to cut back on the brown sugar, it was a little too sweet for me. I also have not used as much oil as called for in the recipe. I am using a non-stick pan and have only used a couple of tablespoons of oil, compared to the 1 cup called for.
This is really, really easy to prepare and well worth the effort!!!
Thanks for sharing!!
jennifer says
This recipe has become a favorite of my family’s.
I do make one adjustment: I cook it all in one pot. Starting w the sauce, then I add the meat straight to it omitting the 2nd calling of oil.
Thank you!
lora says
I made this and when I cooked the beef in the oil all the cornstarch breading stuck to the pan, all of it! I don’t know what I can do for it to come out right, I let the beef sit in the cornstarch for the suggested 10 min. and used enough oil, so I’m not sure what went wrong? Cooked on med. to med. high heat. any suggestions
Erica says
What kind of pan were you using? I don’t know what to say… That has never happened to me before! It just needs to be very lightly coated
Michelle says
Made this tonight….cornstarch stuck to my pan too then kinda of just made my sauce lumpy and oily…I used a large skillet and cooked my beef in two batches….wasn’t horrible but didn’t taste like my Chinese restaurant either…..
Alicia says
Totally trying this recipe this weekend! I am going to try swapping the water with beef stock and thicken the sauce. I love PF Changs and this recibe looks awesome!
Susan Probst says
Excellent recipe!!! Thank you so much for sharing this 🙂 My family LOVED it and it will be a monthly regular for us! We cannot afford to eat out so we really appreciate this treat. We enjoyed eating in over rice with extra sauce spooned on top! Thank you again!!
Jackie Sewe says
This was awesome. Took a little more time than I like to spend after work but the result was well worth it! WONDERFUL!!!!
Stephen says
just made this tonight. Easy to make, easy to eat. Loved the sauce!
Jill says
That looks absolutely delicious! My mouth is watering, going to try this at the weekend.
Joe says
R u girls are mongolians? Because this recipe is great! But I would add extra onions and garlic .
Thx.
Michelle S. says
Absolutely loved this recipe and so did the family. It will become a regular meal in our house. It is on the menu again this week. The only thing I am going to do differently is try a low sodium soy sauce. I am hoping it doesn’t change that taste too much.
Thank you for sharing a wonderful recipe!
Sarah says
My husband loves PF Chang's Mongolian Beef and he gave this 5 stars! We both LOVED it!!
I'm definitely going to make it again, and am wondering if anyone can help me figure out what I'm missing- I had 1 cup of vegetable oil left over at the end, that the recipe called for but I didn't use?
Also, anyone have tips for getting enough cornstarch without getting too much? I was left with kind of clumps all over the beef.
Thanks!!
Sherry Y says
Sarah – after reading your comments, and then the recipe, it looks like the recipe is a bit heavy on the amount of oil needed. It sounds more like you need 1 cup (to cook the steak) and 4 tsp. (to cook the ginger and garlic). Thus, the extra oil.
After reading the responses from the folks who made this, and LOVED it, I’m going to try it. I absolutely L-O-V-E P.F. Chang’s Mongolian Beef!!! And, this doesn’t sound all that difficult. Thanks for the feedback.
C. Jane says
Thanks for the great recipe! I made a smaller version and used chicken instead of beef. Tasted delish! Had to post about it too…of course, siting you as the original source. 🙂
Thanks!
http://www.janeandeugene.blogspot.com
Karen says
This is our favorite dish at PF Chang's, so I couldn't wait to try the recipe. I made it last night, and cannot stop thinking about how good it was. The comparison to the restaurant version is uncanny!! We will be having this again very soon!!
viciouslynomalicious says
Ok, I'm ABSOLUTELY cooking this. I can never find decent Chinese in my area, but the prospect of doing it myself is always daunting.
viciouslynomalicious says
I'm DEFINITELY cooking this tonight. I can never find a decent Chinese restaurant in the area, but am always a bit too intimidated to cook it myself.
Jamie says
We tried this last night and it was phenomenal!!! During the whole meal, my husband and I couldn't stop marveling at how great it turned out. I used round steaks since that's what I needed to use up but followed everything else to the letter. Definitely will make this again!
Kim says
Did you cut the round steak in thin strips like the recipe asked for the flank steak or did you leave it big? Would like to try. Thank you for your help.
Kalli says
Tried this last week. I was super nervous frying the beef–something I had NEVER done before. The whole recipe was super easy and EVERYONE in my family absolutely LOVED it! The day after my 4 year old daughter was requesting it for dinner again. But sadly, my husband had taken the leftovers to work with him. Seriously, absolutely amazing.
Culinary Adventures in the Kitchen says
This looks great!!! I will be trying this next week. Thanks! :0)
Wende says
These look fabulous and I can't wait to it. I shared your recipe on my Must Try Tuesday blog post this week.
http://therickettchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/06/must-try-tuesday-june-28-2011.html
Thanks for sharing!
Wende
Sarah says
Mmmm…. PF Changs is one of our favs and when we moved to Fairbanks we no longer had access to it. My husband dreams about their Mongolian Beef… I am so going to have to try this even though I'm not a big fan of frying – so messy! Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
Angie says
Looks delicious!
I'm now a follower. Can't wait to come back and look around.
Laurie Mom of 3 says
When I was pregnant with my first, I could NOT get enough of PF Changs Mongolian Beef! I've search for 11 years for a recipe, I can't wait to give this a try tonight!!! Thanks
EBWalker says
This recipe looks intimidating, but it is really not too hard and is soo worth it! Yum!
Karen Sands says
I’m in the UK. What does c stand for.
? We use grams and ounces over here. Thanks in advance. Karen
Erica says
c = cup/cups (about 8 fl. oz)
Christopher Musanté says
Your innocence is so sweet… You’re all pictured under a tree by a stream, baby’s breath in your french braided hair… you know – all of that.
Surfing the internet with a laptop of course 😉
Christopher