Authentic Sichuan (Szechuan) style braised beef with potatoes (川味红烧牛肉)is a very humble home style dish you can meet in almost every Sichuan style restaurant. But you will be amazed how balanced and well flavored the beef cubes are and how delicious the sauce is with rice or noodles.
For all beginners of Sichuan cuisine, I highly comment you starting with this dish. It has a very well balanced flavor, not overwhelming spicy like other new trending dishes since only doubanjiang is used for the hot taste. This is a traditional type of dish in Sichuan cuisine. They are also other members in this group, including twice cooked pork belly and mala chicken.
Cook’s Note
1.Spare your spices especially Chinese cinnamon (桂皮). It releases a strong flavor of medicine and if used in a large amount, brings a faint bitter taste of the dish. In addition, I add two Amomum villosum Lours (砂仁) in the spice list (shown in the right picture). I am not sure whether you can buy this outside China. But if you ever visit China or have friends, I highly recommend getting yourself one bag back. This is a very popular spice used in Sichuan cuisine mostly for beef and lamb dishes. But it is still ok to skip if really hard to find.
2.Removing the raw taste of beef is our first step for a well flavored braised beef. This process includes two stages. The first one is to soaking beef cubes with clean water. And the second step calls for simmering for couples of minutes until the inner blood water and comes out.
3.Do not cook any vegetables along with the beef. In lots of other beef stew recipes, some of the best partners like carrot, tomato, potatoes and onions are cooked along with the beef to create a multilayer of tastes. But they do influence the taste of the beef cubes, more actually weaken the original flavors and add some new, either vegetable sweet or etc. Cook vegetable in another pot and mix them together after the beef is already well cooked.
4. By the way, coriander is the best partner of braised beef. Add them before serving.
5. How to deal with ginger. We will ginger in two process of this recipes. Slice 3 to 4 pieces off and we will use this one in the blanching process and then pat the remaining and that’s the common Chinese way of getting ginger juicy releasing in the soup.
Ingredients
- 1 strip of beef Brisket, around 1000g
- 4 middle sized potatoes
- 2 tbsp. Sichuan doubanjiang
- 2 leek onions, cut into sections
- 1 inch root ginger, divided as two parts
- 1 garlic bulb, peeled and keep as whole pieces
- 1 tbsp. rock sugar
- 2 star anises
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 Amomum villosum Lours (optional)
- a very small piece of cassia bark
- 1/2 tbsp. Sichuan peppercorn
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. dark soy sauce
- 4 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
- Water as needed
Steps
Cut the beef brisket into small chunks and then soak in a large pot of clear water for half an hour.
Get a large pot and load it with enough water, add 2 slices of ginger and 1 tablespoon of cooking wine. Place the beef in cold water, start the fire and bring everything to boil for 2 minutes. Transfer out and drain.
Add around 1 tablespoon of cooking oil in your pot and fry doubanjiang until the oil turns red too (This is the most important step to make the doubanjiang aromatic, be patient). Place leek onion, garlic, ginger and other spices, fry over small fire until aromatic (do not over cook spices for avoid any bitter taste).
Place the beef in and fry for a while until you can smell the aroma of the beef. Add rock sugar, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Continue frying for couple of minutes so the flavors can be well combined. Then place water or beer to cover the beef (3cm higher in regular pot) or 1.5 cm higher in high pressure cooker. Cook until the beef is well softened. 
Peel the cut the potatoes into 3 cm cubes and then cook the potatoes with clean water for 20 minutes until almost soft.
Drain the potatoes and add then into the well cooked beef. Mix in and continue cook for 2 minutes. Cover the lid and let them combine well in the pot.
Sichuan Braised Beef
Ingredients
- 1 strip of beef brisket around 1000g
- 4 middle sized potatoes
- 2 tbsp. Sichuan doubanjiang
- 2 leek onions cut into sections
- 1 garlic peeled
- 1 inch root ginger , divided
- 1 tbsp. rock sugar
- 2 star anises
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 Amomum villosum Lours optional
- a very small piece of cassia bark
- 1/2 tbsp. Sichuan peppercorn
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. dark soy sauce
- 4 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
- Water as needed
- coriander as needed
Instructions
- Cut the beef brisket into small chunks and then soak in a large pot of clear water for half an hour.
- Get a large pot and load it with enough water, add 2 slices of ginger and 1 tablespoon of cooking wine. Place the beef in cold water, start the fire and bring everything to boil for 2 minutes. Transfer out and drain.
- Add around 1 tablespoon of cooking oil in your pot and fry doubanjiang until the oil turns red too. Place leek onion, garlic and ginger and other spices, fry over small fire until aromatic.
- Place the beef in and fry for a while until you can smell the aroma of the beef. Add rock sugar, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Continue frying for couple of minutes so the flavors can be well combined. Then place water or beer to cover the beef (3cm higher in stove pot and 1.5 cm higher in high pressure cooker) and then cook the beef until well softened.
- Peel the cut the potatoes into 3 cm cubes and then cook the potatoes with clean water for 20 minutes until almost soft.
- Drain the potatoes and add then into the well cooked beef. Mix in and continue cook for 2 minutes. Cover the lid and let them combine well in the pot.
Nutrition
Hi Elaine,
I almost drooled on my keyboard when reading this recipe 🙂 I do have some questions though.
By “one” garlic do you mean one bulb or one clove? The pictures suggest the first one, I just want to make sure, as that is surely a lot (not that I mind).
I’m surprised ginger is only used for precooking the meat and not in the final dish – having read a lot of your recipes that seems rather uncommon. Does the 砂仁 maybe taste similar? Should I add a little bit of ginger if I can’t get it?
And lastly, what kind of side dishes ie salad, vegetables, soup would you serve this with? Do you serve this with rice or noodles?
Sorry for so many questions, but I can’t wait to try this out.
By the way, the word “meat” seems to be misplaced in the very first sentence. I just don’t know if this should be “meet” or “eat”.
Andreas,
Hi and thanks for reading the post so carefully.
Actually I use ginger in both the blanching process and the final dish. I have add that part.
For the garlic, I mean one bulb with whole pieces. They will one of the best part in this dish.
砂仁 brings a unique flavor, but not very strong. If you cannot get it, other seasonings can produce a decent flavor. No need to use more ginger.
And the last one is a typo. It should be “meet”. Thanks so much for your correction.
By the way, it is a large pot of beef with potatoes, so I usually serve it with steamed rice, a side dish, a vegetable stir-frying or salad and make a very simple soup. That’s a very common meal in my family.
Hello Elaine,
thank you for your answers. I tried this today, and it tasted even better than I expected. At first I was doubtful, but cooking the potatoes separately really does make a difference. It really has the nice and soothing taste of an every day dish. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any 砂仁, but I’ll keep searching.
Thank’s a lot!
Hi Elaine, This recipe seems so simple yet full flavored. I’m keen to try it. Could you tell me approximate times for cooking? Noting the type of beef, I’m guessing that it would be approximately 2 hours on the stove top or in the oven and about 45 minutes in a pressure cooker. What would you recommend?
Katharine
Katharine,
If you use a casting iron stove pot, it should take around 1 hour to 1.5 hours. For high pressure, 45 minutes is enough.
I am a little confused about the cut of beef to use. The ingredient list uses Brisket, but in the instructions it mentions Sirloin.
Sorry, David. I believe I have made a serious mistake. Already corrected.
I’m going to try your recipe today and wondering if I can use Amomum Bai Dou Kou or Amomum Tsao-ko instead of Sichuan Amomum villosum Lour. Thanks a lot for your recipe. It looks great.
Amomum Bai Dou Kou can be a good substitue.
Hello my name is Dennis
This is one of the best dishes ? I have made
Hi Dennis,
That’s really one of the comment I ever read too.
Hi Elaine
When do you put in the remaining 3 tablespoons of the chinese cooking wine? I can see 1 TBSP being used in the blanching but not sure when to add the rest.
Thank you
I add the cooking wine in later simmering process.
Thank you for your recipe, I was looking at your pictures and was getting confused about the ‘leek onion’ as it looks more like spring onions – aren’t they usually much thicker?
Ray,
I am using Chinese large onion actually. It is ok to use both types.
Hi Elaine if I wanted to serve this with noodles, what kind would you suggest?
Yes, this is super great with noodles. You need to make a soup base just like regular noodles for example this one, with seasonings. Then top this on noodles.
Look yummy.
May I know what type/brand of Sichuan doubanjiang you using?
I don’t have any Sichuan doubanjiang and peppercorn at home, is there any suggest substitution?
Thanks
You can replace doubanjiang with other chili sauce and skip Sichuan peppercorn. As long as all the other ingredients are all gathered, the flavor can be 70% similar.
Why do we need to soak the beef brisket for 30 mins before start cooking?
How long do I need to cook in instant pot for 2 LB and 1 LB beef?