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Home Beef mince recipes - ground beef

Beef chow mein – great mince/ground beef recipe!

By:Nagi
Published:3 Jul '23Updated:11 May '25
112 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

Here’s a great beef mince recipe for you that’s quick to make, economical and full of hidden vegetables so it’s a complete meal – Beef Chow Mein! It’s the beef version of everybody’s favourite Chicken Chow Mein, made with the convenience of ground beef.

Bowl of Beef chow mein ready to be eaten

Beef chow mein

Here’s something new to try with that packet of beef mince you throw into your shopping cart every week! The beef is stir fried with chow mein sauce until it’s beautifully caramelised then tossed in a tangle of noodles and vegetables.

A neat trick in today’s recipe is to scramble up an egg with the beef. It makes the beef bits stick to the noodles better, with the added bonus of upping the protein.

Another bonus: chow mein actually has a vast amount of noodle-shaped vegetables hidden in the noodles. A carrot, 2 heaped cups of cabbage and a heaped cup of bean sprouts. That’s a good veg serving for a meal!

Serving Beef chow mein

What you need

Here’s what you need to make this:

Noodles & add-ins

Ingredients in Beef chow mein
  • Noodles – Chow mein noodles are sort of dry and crinkly, rather than oily and straight like hokkien noodles, lo mein noodles. But this dish can really be made with any noodles – or even spaghetti (yes really, who’s going to know once tossed in chow mein sauce??). Use the same weight.

  • Garlic – Rarely do Asian stir fries happen without garlic, and this one is no exception!

  • Beef mince – That’s ground beef to Americans. Any fat % is fine here though lean beef won’t caramelise quite as well.

    Other proteins – Any other mince will work just fine here. Chicken, pork, turkey, even lamb! Though bear in mind the sauce is quite intense flavoured to suit the beefy flavour of beef, so you won’t taste the flavour of white meats through the sauce.

  • Egg – We use this to scramble into the beef. Neat trick to make the beef stick to the noodles better with the added bonus of a free protein boost!

  • Green cabbage – Or Chinese cabbage. Finely sliced so it disappears into the tangle of noodles.

  • Bean sprouts – Excellent grab-and-throw-in vegetable option! STORAGE TIP: Keep bean sprouts in water in an airtight container. Change the water every couple of days. This will increase the shelf life of beansprouts 3x.

  • Carrot – Cut into thin batons. More noodle shaped vegetables so it all jumbles up together!

  • Green onion – We use 3 whole stems here. They are the onion in this dish, as well as some fresh green colour.

Chow Mein Sauce

The combination of sauces used in Chow Mein is common in Chinese dishes.

Ingredients in Beef chow mein
  • Soy sauces – We’re using both light and dark soy sauce in this recipe. What’s the difference? Dark soy stains the noodles a lovely warm mahogany colour as well as adding soy flavour. Light soy sauce provides the salt without overwhelming with soy flavour, and does not stain the rice. 

    Substitutions -You can use only light soy sauce or just an all-purpose soy sauce (ie bottle just labelled “soy sauce” without “light” or “dark” in front of it) instead of dark soy sauce. But you cannot use only dark soy sauce as the flavour is too strong! More on different types of soy sauces here.

  • Oyster sauce – A load of flavour, all in one sauce! It’s sweet and savoury and adds a neat flavour shortcut in dishes. Makes a regular appearance in Asian dishes, from Pad See Ew to Asian Glazed Salmon to Honey Pepper Beef to Supreme Soy Noodles. And Steamed Asian Greens with Oyster Sauce!

    Vegetarian oyster sauce is available these days, at Asian stores and some large grocery stores (Australia – there’s Ayam vegetarian oyster sauce at Woolies). Otherwise, hoisin is a good alternative. Slightly different flavour profile (hint of Chinese five spice) but similar savoury / sweetness.

  • Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine) is an essential ingredient for making truly “restaurant tasting” Chinese dishes. Without it, the dish will be lacking something. Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry sherry. 

    Non alcoholic sub – sub both the cooking wine and water with low sodium chicken broth/stock.

  • Cornflour / cornstarch (left out of photo – oops!) – For thickening the sauce so it clings to the noodles. It also makes the sauce lovely and glossy.

  • White pepper and sugar – For seasoning.


How to make Beef Chow Mein

Be sure to cook the beef well once you add the sauce to get it really nicely caramelised, for a free flavour boost!

1. Sauce & thickener

How to make Beef Chow Mein
  1. Sauce – Mix the soy sauces, oyster sauce, Chinese cooking wine, sugar and pepper in a small bowl. We’re going to use some to flavour the beef, then we will mix the rest with the sauce thickener (next step) to make the noodle sauce.

  2. Sauce thickener (cornflour slurry) – Mix the cornflour / cornstarch and water in a separate small bowl. This is what thickens the sauce so it coats the noodles, as well as making it shiny and glossy.

2. Making the stir fried noodles

How to make Beef Chow Mein
  1. Prepare the noodles per the packet directions then drain. I usually get the water boiling while I’m prepping the vegetables then cook the noodles when I start cooking. The chow mein noodles I get just call for soaking in hot water for 3 minutes. Some brands need to be boiled.

  2. Caramelise beef – Using a large non-stick pan, cook the garlic first to flavour the oil. Then cook the beef, breaking it up as you go, until you can no longer see raw beef.

    Then add the white part of the green onions and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the Sauce. We add the white part of the green onions first as it takes longer than the green part. Cook for another 2 minutes to get the beef nicely caramelised.

How to make Beef Chow Mein
  1. Finish sauce – Meanwhile, mix the cornflour slurry into the remaining sauce.

  2. Scramble egg – Add the egg into the pan then mix it through the beef, it will sort of scramble into the mixture. This is what makes beef stick to the noodles better!

  3. Keep cooking! – When the egg is mostly cooked, add the carrot and cabbage. Cook for 1 minute until cabbage starts to wilt.

  4. Sauce & noodles – Give the sauce a quick mix. Add the bean sprouts, noodles and sauce into the pan. Toss well for 1 minute or until sauce is dispersed through the noodles. Add green part of green onions. Toss for another 1 minute, then serve!

Freshly cooked Beef chow mein

So there you go! Stir fried noodles for dinner, relatively low effort and quick to make. Great way to get a noodle fix, very economical, and highly versatile – switch out the vegetables and proteins with what you’ve got or what you love.

Enjoy! – Nagi x


Watch how to make it

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Bowl of Beef chow mein ready to be eaten

Beef Chow Mein – great beef mince noodle recipe!

Author: Nagi
Prep: 15 minutes mins
Cook: 10 minutes mins
Mains
Asian, Chinese
4.98 from 44 votes
Servings2
Tap or hover to scale
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Recipe video above. The beef mince version of everybody's favourite Chicken Chow Mein – great way to cook up ground beef with noodles. Economical and no meat chopping required, with plenty of hidden vegetables so it's a complete dinner!
Scrambling up an egg with the beef is a neat trick to make the beef cling to the noodles better.

Ingredients

Chow Mein:

  • 200g/ 7 oz chow mein noodles , or other thin yellow egg noodles or 3 ramen cakes (Note 1)
  • 1 1/2 tbsp canola oil
  • 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
  • 200g/ 7 oz beef mince / ground beef (any fat %)
  • 3 green onion stems , cut into 5cm/2″ lengths, white and green parts separated
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups green cabbage , finely sliced (or Chinese cabbage)
  • 1 carrot , peeled, cut into thin batons
  • 1 heaped cups bean sprouts (~ 75g / 2 1/2 oz) (Note 5 – storage tip)

Chow Mein Sauce:

  • 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce or all-purpose soy sauce (Note 2)
  • 1 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 2)
  • 1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce (Note 3)
  • 1 1/2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing) (Note 4)
  • 1 1/2 tsp white sugar
  • Pinch white pepper

Sauce thickener:

  • 1 1/2 tsp cornflour / cornstarch
  • 3 tbsp water
Prevent screen from sleeping

Instructions

  • Sauce – Mix ingredients in a small bowl then set aside. Some is used to flavour the beef, then the rest for the noodles.
  • Sauce thickener (cornflour slurry) – Mix the cornflour / cornstarch and water in a separate small bowl.
  • Prepare noodles per packet directions then drain.
  • Cook beef – Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan over high heat. Cook garlic for 10 seconds, then add the beef and cook until you can no longer see pink. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of the Sauce and the white part of the green onions. Cook for another 2 minutes to get the beef nicely caramelised.
  • Finish sauce – Mix the cornflour slurry into the remaining sauce.
  • Egg – Add the egg into the pan then mix it through the beef, it will sort of scramble. Egg makes the beef stick to the noodles better!
  • Cabbage & carrot – When the egg is mostly cooked, add the carrot and cabbage. Cook for 1 minute until cabbage starts to wilt.
  • Sauce & noodles – Give the sauce a quick mix. Add the bean sprouts, noodles and sauce into the pan. Toss well for 1 minute or until sauce is dispersed through the noodles. Add green part of green onions. Toss for another 1 minute.
  • Serve – Divide between bowls and serve!

Recipe Notes:

1. Noodles – Chow mein noodles are sort of dry and crinkly, rather than oily and straight like hokkien noodles, lo mein noodles. But this dish can really be made with any noodles – or even spaghetti (yes really, who’s going to know once tossed in chow mein sauce??). Use the same weight.
2. Soy sauce – Light soy sauce and all-purpose soy sauce add salt but doesn’t add much soy flavour or colour. The dark soy sauce stains the noodles a brown colour and adds soy flavour. It’s intense so you don’t need much!
3. Oyster sauce – Sweet and savoury, adds depth of flavour to an otherwise simple sauce. Sub with vegetarian oyster sauce (available in some large grocery stores and Asian stores these days) or Hoisin (different flavour with hint of five spice but similar savouriness and sauce thickness).
4. Chinese cooking wine (“Shaoxing wine”) is an essential ingredient for making truly “restaurant standard” Asian noodles. Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry sherry.
Non alcoholic sub – sub both the cooking wine AND water with low sodium chicken broth/stock.
5. Keep beansprouts submerged in water in an airtight container in the fridge. Change the water every couple of days. This will extend the shelf life 3x. Also, here in Australia, bean sprouts at Asian stores are much better quality than ordinary grocery stores!
6. Leftovers will keep for 3 to 4 days in the fridge. Will freeze fine but not ideal – noodles get a little soft.
Nutrition per serving. Serves 2 very generously – more like 2 1/2 servings. 🙂

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 664cal (33%)Carbohydrates: 71g (24%)Protein: 32g (64%)Fat: 30g (46%)Saturated Fat: 8g (50%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 149mg (50%)Sodium: 1681mg (73%)Potassium: 732mg (21%)Fiber: 6g (25%)Sugar: 11g (12%)Vitamin A: 5473IU (109%)Vitamin C: 39mg (47%)Calcium: 100mg (10%)Iron: 6mg (33%)
Keywords: beef mince recipe, beef noodles, Chow Mein, ground beef stir fry
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

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112 Comments

  1. Heather says

    April 15, 2025 at 9:18 am

    This was so good! Made it tonight with the veggies I had on hand. What a great way to sneak in veggies!! I was worried about the noodles, not sure if I had the right kind, but whatever they were they worked( chow mein noodles in USA). Anything that gets comments of make this again has me happy!!

    Reply
  2. R toure says

    November 11, 2024 at 10:36 am

    5 stars
    Made this with minced chicken! The best

    Reply
  3. Robyn says

    October 3, 2024 at 9:11 pm

    Great recipe, nice flavours. This is my second attempt. I couldn’t find chow mein noodles initially, (I’ve learnt since that they are in the refrigerator section of the supermarket), and the egg noodles I used clearly soaked the sauce up. Tonight correct noodles were really good. I left out the bean shoots, and added some capsicum, broccoli and ginger, and a serve for 2 makes 4 meals for me. I love it. Thank you. Another great recipe.

    Reply
  4. deb says

    September 6, 2024 at 7:21 pm

    It was ok, it wasn’t GREAT, it wasn’t on the ‘never make again list’ . . . .but it wasn’t a ‘winner’, was missing ‘something’ ( I just don’t know what that missing something ingredient is ) BUT it certainly has great bones to GREAT.

    Not sure what it’s missing, but will try again & maybe add some chilli or Curry powder & perhaps double the sauce. Ours was a bit dry too.

    Thanks for the recipe. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Sian says

    September 3, 2024 at 9:46 pm

    5 stars
    This was delicious, made my own egg noodles as didn’t have any in the pantry and didn’t have bean sprouts so added in celery the same size as the carrot was perfect. This is now added to our weekly meal plan.

    Reply
  6. Dawn says

    September 1, 2024 at 12:32 am

    5 stars
    Made this last night. It was very good and I’ll definitely make it again. I doubled the recipe. It served 2, with enough leftover for 1 large or 2 small lunches. I did add additional veggies. Snap peas, water chestnuts, and bok choy. I did not make any substitutions.

    Reply
  7. Dawn says

    August 30, 2024 at 6:07 am

    5 stars
    I hate leaving stars when I haven’t made it, but I submitted this question days ago and evidently it wasn’t approved so I apologize everyone but I’m hoping this will get approved. I’m going to be making this in the day or so but I’ll be in using thinly sliced pork. Any modifications I need to do in seasonings?

    Reply
  8. Julie says

    July 30, 2024 at 7:24 pm

    Made this tonight, used Pad Thai noodles as I am GF. Son devoured 3 bowls of it. I enjoyed it too and was quick and easy to make! Winner!

    Reply
  9. Lindi says

    July 30, 2024 at 5:13 pm

    5 stars
    It’s funny I have never ordered or made a chow mein noodle dish of any description, not sure why…
    It’s always been stir fry, I didn’t pin this recipe when you first posted it, but I did make this for lunch did just a half recipe. I loved it,it surprised me. My mission now is to go back thru my Nagi pinterest boards and your amazing cookbook and re read all your recipes with Noodles…
    It may also because I love Brendan Pang’s noodle and dumpling cookbooks and I also enjoyed watching him create on Masterchef.

    Reply
  10. Veronika says

    July 21, 2024 at 2:01 pm

    5 stars
    My 15 month old devoured this! It was so yum we will be making it again tonight. We grated the carrot and Chinese wombok cabbage for my daughter, and omitted the bean sprouts as my local Woolworths didn’t have any. We also used Chang’s long life noodles. Quick, easy and so tasty!

    Reply
  11. Lyndsay Tynan says

    May 5, 2024 at 5:23 pm

    5 stars
    yum as usual 1 beer cook

    Reply
  12. Wendy Vincent says

    April 30, 2024 at 9:14 pm

    5 stars
    Yummo! I never liked chow mein as a kid.. This was awesome, son and hubby both loved it too. Will do again.

    Reply
  13. Dani says

    April 30, 2024 at 8:52 pm

    5 stars
    My whole family devours this one!! Sooo yummy!!!!

    Reply
  14. Kathy says

    April 28, 2024 at 5:51 pm

    5 stars
    And yet another winnner. So fabulously quick and easy to make and get in the table fast. I used dried egg noodles and purple cabbage (using up what I had). Love this one

    Reply
  15. Faye says

    April 26, 2024 at 5:12 pm

    5 stars
    This was another winner and I added extra left over vegetables I had in the fridge. I only used half the amount of noodles. Thanks Nagi 🙏

    Reply
  16. Julie Shephard says

    January 18, 2024 at 7:55 pm

    My partner and I travel and live in our caravan. This meal is on regular rotation, so easy to prepare.
    A spoonful of hot chilli makes the meal 😋

    Reply
  17. Liv says

    January 14, 2024 at 9:33 am

    This is absolutely delicious. Made a big batch in the wok so we have leftovers which are super tasty as well. I didn’t need the corn starch as the fresh noodles I used had starch still on them so it helped to thicken perfectly

    Reply
  18. Margaret Nowacki says

    December 21, 2023 at 1:43 pm

    5 stars
    This is very popular in our family and has been added to the regular dishes. So easy to make and the leftovers are great the next day.

    Reply
  19. Karen says

    December 13, 2023 at 6:39 pm

    5 stars
    Dear Nagi, I have tried so many of your recipes and we have loved everyone of them including this one. They are simple, easy to follow, very tasty and I love that I have most things in my pantry.

    Reply
  20. Neety says

    December 12, 2023 at 2:16 pm

    4 stars
    Great weekday meal. Easy to prep. Will definitely make again.

    Reply
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I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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