Beef chow fun(pan-fried flat rice noodles) is one of my favorite Cantonese dishes. It is considered as a snack or sometimes a staple food and one of the most basic Cantonese he fun dishes. The ingredient–flat rice noodle is named as “河粉” HeFun in China. Sometimes you may find it spelled as Hor Fun, He Fen or Ho Fun. It is a kind of flat and wide rice noodles in southern china especially in Guangdong province. Either served in stir fry recipes or soup recipes. I fall I love it when I firstly had a small bowl of ho fun soup. And this stir fry ho fun with beef, onion, bean sprout and Chinese chives.It belongs to those 15 minutes that can totally win my heart.
Then for the beef chow fun, let’s take a look at the ingredients. As I am living in Guangdong province, I can purchase fresh ho fun easily at market. You can also used dried flat rice noodles and re-soak until soft before frying.
The most difficult part of this dish is to make a tender taste of the beef and make sure that you do not break the hefen during the process. After stir frying, there should be more extra sauce in the pan. That’s why this dish is called as 干炒牛河 in Chinese meaning dry fried rice noodles with beef. In order to keep the beef a tender taste, firstly after slicing, garnish some water or Chinese cooking wine with the beef and then grasp well, letting them absorb enough water and then add light soy sauce, salt, oyster sauce, and sesame oil and starch to marinade for around 15 minutes.
There are fresh rice noodles and dried ones. If you cannot find fresh ones, pre-soak the dried ones according to the instructions. Fresh wide rice noodle usually is available in package and sometimes they may stick with each other. Do separate them before frying.
Firstly heat up oil in wok and stir-fry the beef. Transfer it out as long as the color changes.
Then all the oil should be poured out,clean your pan or wok. We need a clean and dry pan for later frying process. Add oil and then add shredded onions and rice noodles to cook. Stir in stir fry sauce quickly.
Tips: do not use slice to fry the noodles, recommended tool should be chopsticks. Toss your pan with one hand and then use another hand to fold chopstickers and help turn over the rice noodles gently.
Return beef slices and add bean sprout to fry for around 30 seconds. Then add Chinese chive section or scallion to fry for another 30 seconds.
Here we are! Enjoy!
Beef Chow Fun
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound beef
- 1 pound wide rice noodle , ho fen
- 1 small bunch of Chinese chive or scallion , cut into sections around 10cm long
- 1 small bunch of bean sprouts
- 1/4 middle size white onion , shredded
Marinade sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine or water
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon starch
Stir fry sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Cut beef into thin slices, put into a bowl. And then add all of ingredients for marinade sauce. Stir until well combined and set aside for around 15 minutes.
- Heat up cooking oil in wok. Add beef slices in to cook around half minute or just until the color of beef slices changes. Transfer the beef slices out and also pour the oil out. Clean your pan or wok.
- Heat up around 1 and 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil, add rice noodle and onion shreds and straight after that stir in the stir fry sauce. Keep tossing your pan or wok until the noodles are well coated with the sauce.
- Return beef slices and bean sprouts to fry for another half minutes. Keep tossing your pan.
- Add Chinese chives or scallion to fry for another 30 seconds.
- Serve hot!
Notes
Newly updated recipe on Nov. 2014.
Nutrition
Thank for share! I really love it.
Hi Davy,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. This is my current comfort breakfast.
Elaine, this looks great! Thank you for simplifying it. Your photography is beautiful too!
Thanks Aida for your lovely comment. Happy cooking ahead.
Raining in my mouth, looks amazing, I definitely do myself this recipe. thank you
Hi Vanessa,
Go ahead, it really worth trying. Super great for breakfast!
Hi Elaine, I’m so glad to have found your blog. I’m looking forward to trying out your recipes. Would you mind sharing which brand soy sauce you use when you use the light/dark soy sauce? What are your thoughts on kikkoman brand?
Hi Nerimaro,
I change my soy sauce brand from time to time because I am living in China and have many to choose from. I would recommend using Lee Kum Kee. Kikkoman is not a Chinese brand so I cannot give any suggestion about it. Sorry for that!
Can you take a pic of the type of soy sauce (light/dark) you use for this recipe?
Hi Jara,
I am using Lee Kum kee’s dark soy sauce and light soy sauce. I have added a link to Amazon, where you can find the pictures.
Your Beef Chow Fun looks so delicious. And thank you for the recipe. One question, is that Soy Bean Sprout that you used on this recipe? I love any kind of noodle dishes.
Yes Jenny, I use soy bean sprout in this beef chow fun. But mung bean sprout is great too.
This looks tasty and very quick too,
I’m hungry! Really hungry!
Growing up in Hawaii, my grandmother only new Oriental cuisine.
Beef Chow Fun,was my favorite dish as a child. Thanks for sharing all
your wonderful recipes with the world.
Thanks Terry for your sweet words. Beef chow fun is my husband’s favorite breakfast dish. So I make it a lot. And I am super glad that you love it too.
So glad I found your site, I still use my mother’s wok,which I inherited after she passed away. It has cooked so many great meals and now will cook many more.
what type of beef. Do I use skirt steak ?
Skirt steak is fine, Ayona.
I made this tonight for dinner, and it was amazing! I used flank steak, which I froze slightly and sliced very thin. It was melt in your mouth and full of flavor. I plan on using this recipe in my normal nightly rotation. Thank you for a delicious dish!
Hi Erin,
Thanks so much for your feedback. I love your description of this dish. It is really full of flavor. Just keep trying yummy dishes and happy cooking ahead.