Okay, so technically I didn’t “stir fry” anything here, but this is what you make at home to mimmic stir fry when you don’t have the proper equipment. This was really more of a “brief sauté” but that just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Regardless, these Easy Beef Stir Fry Noodles were fast and delicious, and that’s what really counts, right? I made this dish as simple and fast as possible, which was my goal. No frills, just good and easy. The ingredients are basic, but the flavor is still big.
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Can I Add More Vegetables?
I used carrots and green onions as my only vegetables, but you could always toss in a handful or two of broccoli slaw, thinly sliced bell peppers, snow peas, bean sprouts, or really just about any vegetable that floats your boat. We’re going for fast, filling, and convenient with this one! Sweep out that fridge and make it work.
What Kind of Noodles Should I Use?
I used rice noodles for this because that’s what I was in the mood for, but in a pinch you could probably use just about any long pasta that you’d like. Ramen? Okay, go for it. Fettuccini? It’ll pass. Lo mein? Do it. Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to stir fry!
What is Chili Garlic Sauce?
Chili garlic sauce is a really simple mixture of ground up red chiles, garlic, vinegar, and salt. It’s a really easy way to inject heat and flavor into any meal or homemade sauce. I used Huy Fong brand, which you can find in most major grocery stores in the United States. It’s the same brand as the popular “green top” sriracha that is available in most stores.
If you can’t find chili garlic sauce you can use sriracha or sambal oelek in its place.
Is The Beef Stir Fry Noodles Spicy?
Yes, thanks to the chili garlic sauce, this recipe is deliciously spicy. If you want to try something similar without heat, consider using the sauce that I used in my Vegetable Lo Mein recipe. Want spicy noodles without the beef? Check out my Spicy Dragon Noodles.
Easy Beef Stir Fry Noodles
Servings 4Ingredients
SAUCE
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.30)
- 1 Tbsp water ($0.00)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 1-2 Tbsp chili garlic sauce ($0.68)
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil ($0.57)
STIR FRY
- 8 oz. rice noodles ($1.43)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp grated ginger ($0.10)
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil ($0.02)
- 1/2 lb. lean ground beef ($3.74)
- 1 carrot ($0.16)
- 3-4 green onions ($0.50)
- 1 handful fresh cilantro (optional) ($0.25)
Instructions
- Cook the noodles according to the package directions, being careful to leave them al dente and not over cooked. drain the noodles in a colander and set aside.
- Prepare the sauce by stirring together the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, chili garlic sauce, and sesame oil. Set the sauce aside.
- Mince the garlic and grate the ginger. Use a large-holed cheese grater to grate the carrot (or julienne using a mandoline). Slice the green onions on a diagonal, separating the fleshy white portions from the green ends.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the ground beef, garlic, and ginger. Sauté until the beef is cooked through. Add the white portions of the sliced green onions and sauté for one more minute. Add the shredded carrots and sauté for one minute more (leaving the carrots slightly crunchy).
- Add the drained noodles and the prepared sauce to the skillet. Stir until everything is coated in sauce and any extra moisture has been absorbed by the noodles. Turn the heat off and top with the green portion of the sliced green onions and fresh cilantro leaves.
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Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Beef Stir Fry Noodles – Step by Step Photos
Start with 8oz. of rice noodles (or whatever type of noodles you prefer) and cook them according to the package directions. Make sure to only cook them until they are al dente (not overly soft) so that they don’t get mushy when added to the skillet later. Drain the cooked noodles in a colander. (This is a 14oz. box, so I used just over half and saved the rest for later.)
While the noodles are cooking, prepare the stir fry sauce. This is a super basic, pared down sauce. Stir together 3 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp water, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1-2 Tbsp chili garlic sauce (depending on how spicy you like it–I used 2 Tbsp), and 1 tsp sesame oil.
I love using chili garlic sauce in my stir fry because it’s like killing three birds with one stone. This rustic sauce contains red pepper, garlic, and vinegar, three ingredients that I’d normally add to a stir fry sauce separately (this particular sauce is made by Huy Fong, makers of the most popular sriracha). You can also use sambal oelek or sriracha in place of this sauce.
You can also prepare the rest of the ingredients while the noodles cook, so that everything is ready to toss together quickly in the skillet. Grate about one inch of fresh ginger (about 1 Tbsp). I keep my ginger in the freezer, which makes it really easy to grate. Also mince two cloves of garlic.
Use a large hole grater to grate one carrot. If you don’t have a grater, you can use a spiralizer, mandoline, or a julienne peeler.
Slice 3-4 green onions, separating the white/fleshy ends from the green ends (they’ll be added to the stir fry at different times).
Finally, heat 1 Tbsp vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add 1/2 lb. lean ground beef, the minced garlic, and grated ginger. Sauté until the beef is cooked through.
Add the white ends of the sliced green onions and sauté for one minute more. Add the shredded carrots and sauté for one additional minute. I added the carrots last because I wanted them to stay fairly crunchy.
Finally, add the drained noodles and prepared sauce.
Stir until everything is coated in sauce and no extra liquid remains on the bottom of the skillet (it should get absorbed by the noodles). Turn the heat off.
Top with the remaining green portions of the sliced green onions and a handful of fresh cilantro leaves (optional).
Then eat!
You don’t have to tell me twice…
This is great with ground pork, ground turkey, or ground beef! I might recommend doubling the recipe if you’re making it for 2 or 3 people :)
Really great and easy i put it over rice instead of noodles.
My sister and I put almost a pound of steak. Added sugar snap peas. Did not include ginger. We tripled the sauce. Grated the garlic and substituted vegetable oil for extra virgin olive oil. Very tasty. Used Thai Sweet Chili Sauce. Fills the stomach. “Really good,” says my sister.
Very easy to follow instructions. Delicious results enjoyed by the family who had their doubts about my skills with anything exotic.
I make this at least once a week. I’ve used beef, chicken and ground turkey. I use whatever veggies I have and I double the sauce amount. Delicious and versatile. Thank you!
Love this recipe! We’ve made it about 10 times now, sometimes we switch it up and do beef chunks (slow cooked in broth for about 4 hours beforehand), ground turkey, ground chicken etc. Always comes out great! I do tend to double or even triple the sauce portion of the recipe, just depends on your taste. I wanted to write the review to say that I just used the leftovers to make homemade tacos and OMG I am in love. I ended up using a 2 lb ground turkey package so I had a ton of meat leftover with very little noodles so I wanted to attempt asian tacos (think of the wonton tacos from Applebees). I fried up a few corn tortillas, stuffed it with the meat, topped with cheese, Cilantro and then drizzled with sour cream mixed with tapatio, Voila! Delish. Just a fun way to make a second nights meal out of leftovers!
Easy and amazing recipe I’ll try it
So yummy! I added stir fry veggies and the family loved it !
I didn’t have green onions so I thinly sliced a small yellow onion and added it with the carrot. I also threw in some frozen broccoli. Great pantry meal.
I’m from NZ and our supermarkets don’t stock garlic chilli sauce and I was wondering what I could replace this with. We can get siracha but its quite expensive and I wouldn’t use it otherwise. Could I make a chilli sauce out of ground up red chiles, garlic, vinegar, and salt? or will sweet chilli sauce work if I don’t add in the brown sugar?
I probably wouldn’t do the sweet chili sauce because I think the flavor is going to be too different and it will be too hard to estimate how much brown sugar to use. I think your best bet is to Google “homemade chili garlic sauce” or “chili garli sauce recipe” to find a guide for making it with the red chiles, garlic, vinegar, and salt. :)
Delicious!! I now try to save a 1/2 lb of ground beef or pork for all your quick throw together meals. I was thinking of making fried rice tonight, but really wanted rice noodles and look what recipe I had saved from eons ago! Added peppers and thinly sliced green beans from the freezer as well as the shredded carrot. Didn’t have any scallions or cilantro, but it was still great. Thank you for all your tips on using whatever you have on hand.
So delicious!
I’ve likely commented on this dish before, but just want to say that I have made it so many times, and everyone has LOVED and asked for the recipe! This is probably my favourite site for easy to make, Asian inspired recipes! Thanks for your great taste and ideas!
I absolutely loved this recipe the first time I made it. LOVED. It’s delicious. Decided to make it again maybe a week later, and I had half a zucchini in the fridge that needed using up, so I figured I’d improvise and grate it along with the carrots. WARNING: DO NOT ADD GRATED ZUCCHINI TO THIS RECIPE. I somehow didn’t realize that the zucchini would let out so much liquid. It was not a welcome addition to this dish. Please learn from my mistakes.
Yum! I’m so happy with how this came out. I used a different type of Asian noodle I had on hand and powdered ginger instead of fresh. It is delicious! I love that you can cater the spice level to each person.
This is delicious! I made it using ground turkey instead of beef and it was still great. I may use less sambal next time though, I used 1 and 1/2 tablespoons and it was super spicy.
So good, we couldn’t stop eating it. I used 3 pouches of cheap ramen noodles and doubled the sauce. I added cooked broccoli too. This recipe is a keeper!
So super delicious! I ate it for lunch 4 days in a row and looked forward to it every day. And on Wednesday, my coworkers were all jealous of my lunch.
Hi I am just wondering whether this meal would be able to be frozen and reheated for quick lunches/dinners?
This one probably won’t be as good for freezing because it’s not quite saucy enough to keep it from drying out. I find that pasta dishes need a lot of sauce to survive the freeze/thaw cycle.
So normally, what Beth calls 4 servings is 2 servings for me and my wife. Had a pound of beef in the refrigerator that I needed to use up. So doubled everything, figuring we could have the left overs tomorrow night.
So made it, eating it….and OMG, it is so good I can’t stop eating. Had to go back and get more! Even my wife who almost never over eats went back for seconds. So what I had been planning for our meal tomorrow night for both of us is now just a small snack for just me.
This really is that good. Just try not to be like me and keep eating it till you are so full you are a bit uncomfortable. 😛
Haha, story of my life. :) So glad you enjoyed it, Joshua!!
I made this last night using a half package of pho noodles, left over roast chicken, and frozen stir fry mix. Everyone practically licked their platter clean!
I had a steak in the fridge that I needed to use or freeze, and as soon as I got home from work, I came to Budget Bytes and searched for stir fry . I modified this to fit what I had available. I used a block of brown rice ramen, and for the sauce I used soy sauce, water, ground ginger, extra virgin olive oil, and a half tablespoon of Blair’s wasabi green tea hot sauce. (The brown sugar I had was hard as a brick, so I didn’t fool with it.) I sauteed the steak, then threw in a cup of frozen stir-fry vegetables. Once everything was hot, I added the sauce and the (cooked) ramen. So easy, and so incredibly good! Thanks, Beth!
I made this with egg noodles and even though I cooked them just a lil too long it turned out so yummy! Thank you Beth!
This is so going on the rotation for dinner, then bring to work! If you haven’t made this a meal prep, I suggest you have it with your Thai cucumber salad on the side (which is what I had today for lunch….SO GOOD)!
I made this last night, and tweaked it a bit for a healthier meal (drained and rinsed the ground beef; added all kinds of extra fresh veggies – onions, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, and snow peas; , sauteed the beef/ginger/garlic/extra veggies in a little chicken broth to soften them up). I am gluten intolerant, so I used tamari and the rice noodles, and this was awesome! Hubby ate 2 bowls and said to remember how to make this. Then he started saying things like “What if we made this with chicken?” or “Wonder if it would be good with tofu?”. I have made your recipes before and no clue why it has been a while, but that might be changing with this tasty find!!
This is definitely on the rotation for a great weeknight meal that turns into an amazing lunch the next few days! Even with all the extra veggie chopping, I was out of the kitchen in around 30 minutes.
I made this for the first time because it was in the app, and boy am I glad! It’s a perfect Budget Bytes recipe: delicious, fast, easy, inexpensive, and spicy. I have noodles left over to make again (yay!), and garlic chili sauce to make your Szechuan Pork and Green Beans, another Budget Bytes favorite.
We make your food more or less constantly, but this is still hands down my favorite meal. Unfortunately, my fiance hates beef and compromise, so I don’t get to eat it a lot. Tonight I tried it with ground turkey to see if I could find a good middle ground. It’s not the same amount of awesome, but is very passable.
Great recipe! Made this tonight, it came together super quick and tastes amazing! I doubled the sauce, used a full pound of ground beef, and added some baby bok choy and mushrooms to bulk it up. Also I forgot ginger at the store so I left that out, but I’ll definitely add it next time. Thank you!
Just made this today, it came out great! I used spaghetti noodles because they were what I had already, and added a splash of mushroom soy while stir frying because that darkens the noodles really nicely, but otherwise I didn’t change a thing. I think next time I will use less chili garlic sauce, since I’m a wimp when it comes to heat. This might be better with other meat besides ground beef since the texture isn’t the best, but I’d have to experiment a little bit. All in all very tasty and simple!
Beth – made this last night as I wanted to use some ground beef that I had made the other night My husband thought this was rivaled many other dishes at an Asian restaurant. He has no idea how easy it was to make too! I only had carrot on hand, so I shredded that and used half a bag of Pad Thai rice noodles. Definitely plan on making this again in a pinch. Saved us lots of money because I was NOT in the mood to cook. Thanks!
I feel sad that I don’t feel the love like some people do on this dish. I just made it and it was really disappointing. Nothing like I’d hoped for. I love you, Beth, but this is not a keeper for us. I made it exactly like you did, except I didn’t use cilantro.
I’ve made this dish almost 10 times now. I love it. I add shredded cabbage. Mmmmmiam!! Thanks for the awesome & easy recipes.
This recipe is great! I made it for my boyfriend and I last night and we loved it! We love onions so we added yellow onion to the beef in the same step as garlic and ginger, and still used the green onion. We opted to used Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce so it was slightly sweet, but it was still delicious. The only negative was that it did not reheat very well the next day. It caused the rice noodles to dry out, so we added a little bit of water to reconstitute the noodles, which caused the dish to turn into mush. It tasted fine, not as great as the day before, so we added some more Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce and some Sriracha to add flavor back to it. Overall, it is a very tasty dish the day it is made!
Wow – you’ve done it again Beth! I made it with Ramen noodles and my son and I loved it. I can’t wait to try it again with some different veggies.
Made this tonight with rice. So good. Thanks for sharing.
Looks amazing and doesn’t seem to take too long to cook.
Will be adding this recipe to cookbook.
thanks for sharing!
Hugs
It was so good, I had a hard time stopping eating it
thank you
I made this with 1/2 lb. of ground pork that was in our freezer, and it was a huge hit! It was Thai-like without the coconuty flavor that some of the family doesn’t favor. I plan to use it often with shrimp, leftover roasted chicken and all sorts of things.
Wow, this was delicious! I remember thinking “this may be one of the best dishes I’ve ever had” while I was eating it. Seriously. I used ramen noodles for mine. It was really great!
Using ramen is genius! So much cheaper than the pad Thai noodles.
This is SOOO good!!! My husband made it last night and I made him make it AGAIN today-it was that good!!!! We love your recipes!!!
The sauce on this one is delicious, but even increasing the noodles to 12oz, it didn’t make as much as I was hoping for. Oh well, I’ll have to add some extra veggies and things to it next time.
I used ground turkey as it’s what I had on hand and cleaned out my veggie drawer, dropping in the rest of the veggies that needed to be eaten. The SAUCE is AMAZING! I doubled it since I was adding so many extra veggies. My son made sure the leftovers were packed for his lunch today as he couldn’t wait to eat it again. Thanks, Beth, for doing all the combining and test work for me so dinner is easy!
Do you think I could use ground pork?
Yes, I think that would be great. :)
Very tasty dish. The whole family liked it. Yay!
I’ll cook this one later – just a quick thing about your new design. I cant get your new print “function” to work. I tried it 5 times now and everytime the text gets cut off on the right side, leaving me with 2-4 words missing per line. Is it me or the print page broken?
Hmm, it works fine for me. What browser are you using? Have you tried doing it in a different browser? Have you tried resizing the browser window to see if that changes the way it displays? I’ll keep testing it to see if I can replicate the issue and then troubleshoot it if I can.
Hey,
I am using the newest version of firefox. The new site that opens after clicking on print looks fine and has all the words on it, but the print does not :/ And may have something to do with my print settings. I will let you know how it goes in the comment section of the next recipe I am cooking off your blog :)
Ohh, okay, yes, that does sound like it might be the print settings. I hope you can find the issue!
Flavor was great, but it was so dry! The sauce needs to be doubled or tripled. I had to add water to our individual bowls to give it a little more moisture. This could be due to the fact that our rice noodles were brown rice (only kind my grocer had). I did like the flavor and the zip of the garlic chili paste. It was an easy sauté. I may try it again with regular rice noodles, and double the sauce.
Worked out well for me. All the stuff in the sauce has a long shelf/fridge life, which is a boon to someone like me who cooks infrequently. I made a double-serving, to have a big pot of bachelor chow. Also added broccoli, just to get some more green into my usually crummy diet: http://i.imgur.com/W7yqBb3.jpg
Tried this recipe tonight and it was a success! I used Rice Ramen noodles (found at Costco) and added some broccoli, mushrooms and bean sprouts.
I didn’t want to spend $5.00 on a tiny bottle of sesame seed oil – does anyone know if there is something I could use instead? We have tahini, olive oil and vegetable oil. No sesame seeds.
Thanks!
I used some sesame seeds I had lying around from another recipe, and just used olive oil in the sauce mix. In all honesty I didnt miss the sesame oil, and if you’re craving a nuttier flavor profile I’d just use peanut butter and just turn this into a pad thai.
I would just use olive or vegetable oil. I couldn’t really detect the sesame oil in the final dish. Not sure if you live near a Trader Joe’s, but their sesame oil is considerably less money than most other grocers.
These look and sound amazing, yum!
xx Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
I made this last night using the Morningstar fake beef crumbles, and a small bag of frozen stir-fry veggies, as well as the green onions (which I seem to always have in my freezer). I used 1.5 Tbs of sambal olek, which was fine for me and a tiny bit spicy for my husband. The sauce is great! I bought a bulk pack of those rice noodles on Amazon, and this was my first tine trying them. Fantastic, easy meal. Will make again. Thanks!
Chili garlic sauce sounds so convenient. I feel that seasoning foods properly isn’t particularly difficult, but it’s always a hassle to pull out another type of seasoning.
I used this as the basis for a ‘catch all’ dish for dinner tonight. I julienned some carrots, shredded two baby bok choy, and cut a small handful of garlic chives into short lengths. Cooked the beef with 2cloves of garlic and some ginger, then added the firm veggies. The sauce was the end of a bottle of oyster sauce, a splash of soy sauce, and maybe half a cup of leftover japanese noodle broth. Served it with sesame oil and hot chili oil on he side. It was delicious, and used up a lot of things in my fridge that needed to be used, and took half an hour from stepping into the kitchen to cut veggies to sitting down to eat.
Ooh! I have some baby bok choy as well that I will add. I’m gonna make this tonight. I’m thinking of substituting the vegetable oil for coconut oil too. I can’t wait to try this.
YUM! I use Ramen packs (without the seasoning) all the time when I want to make a stir fry noodle dish. I always forget to get Rice Noodles.
Where do you get rice noodles so cheap? Mine were $4.99 plus tax for an 8 oz. box at Hy-Vee. 😒 Target had a 16 oz. box for $5.49, so that’s a better deal but still almost twice the price. Unfortunately, ALDI doesn’t carry rice noodles, and that’s my discount grocer.
It was just my local grocery store. It was on sale, but I think the regular price was only $2.99. :/
We found the 14-ounce package shown in the recipe at Walmart for $2.19 on April 22, 2017.
This looks so good. Could tofu be substituted for the beef and if so, would the cooking change? Also, when would mushrooms be added. Thanks so much for your wonderful recipes.
You could probably do tofu instead, but I’ve never tried it so I can’t say about the specifics. I’d sauté the mushrooms in the skillet with the garlic and ginger in place of the beef, though. :)
Once again you’ve created a recipe that will stay in my family’s dinner rotation for years to come. You rock!
P.S. I used wide lo mein noodles and added shaved Brussels Sprouts. ‘Twas killer.
I’m curious how you are liking the stainless steel pot set you bought a while back. It looks like you are using the skillet for this recipe. I’d love a follow-up post on how you’re doing with those pots! Recipe looks yummy.
Yep, I still love them! :D
I’ll have to try this next week. I’ve made something similar using broccoli and oyster sauce as the sauce.
This looks delish and nutrish. We’re making all our stir fries at home after seeing a news report on the local t.v. station about a local Chinese restaurant that hauled a road kill deer off the road and served it in the restaurant! Um, no thanks.
That actually happened? That is so profoundly disturbing on so many levels.
O. M. G. Nooooooooo.
If we wanted more of a steak type of meat rather than ground beef what cut would you recommend that wouldn’t be tough? Thank you, I love your site!
Hmm, I’m not sure, but if you slice thinly and always against the grain, then make sure to cook it very briefly, that should help prevent most cuts from being tough.
Top Sirloin is a really great stir-fry cut that is pretty widely available. Though my absolute favorite stir-fry cut is Hanger Steak, but it’s not available everywhere. Definitely a lesser-known cut and there just isn’t a whole lot of it on each animal; but it’s a super flavorful and generally economic hunk o’ cow.
Mmmmmmmmmm!!!
Made this tonight since you posted just before I ran to the store… So easy and delicious! Used broccoli slaw and added some thin sliced jalapeño, I can’t wait to make it again and maybe try out snap peas or book choi :)
Very good! I didn’t want to buy sesame oil, so I used a teaspoon of peanut butter in the sauce instead. I also added a block of crumbled tofu to add some additional volume and protein! Thanks!
Great recipe, I’ve always struggled with proper noodles as I don’t own a wok or having some of the obscure ingredients, but this step by step recipe does everything that I’ve been trying to achieve! Noodles with good saucy coverage. Bookmarked, will be trying this out later this week.
I was just planning out my meals for the week and I was thinking “I need something Asian with Sriacha….” Lo and behold I go on your site and this is your most recently made recipe. We’re perfectly in sync!