When I first moved to Alberta in the early 1990s, I worked in a Chinese restaurant in Lethbridge. One day I had a customer come into the restaurant and order ginger beef. When I asked how the meal was she said, "Well, it's not "Calgary Ginger Beef."
At the time, I simply wrote her off as a 'big city snob.' At that point, I hadn't yet tried Calgary ginger beef and had no idea there was even a difference. However, that completely changed once I tried it. I was in LOVE and knew exactly what she meant! Calgary is the birthplace of ginger beef, after all. And this Ginger Beef Recipe is my copycat version (based on the Ginger Beef restaurant's recipe.)
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Now I would be considered that snotty Calgarian. If I walked into a restaurant anywhere that served ginger beef, I would also be comparing it to Calgary's ginger beef standards. And since I only lived in Lethbridge for 1 year and have lived in Calgary for over 30 years, I'm pretty familiar with Calgary ginger beef.
I also consider myself a bit of an authority when it comes to the stuff (haha.) Geez, I only watched the cooks make it a zillion times when I worked at the Mandarin. So what's the difference between Calgary ginger beef and Lethbridge ginger beef (or ginger beef from anywhere else) you might be wondering? Well, I'd say Calgary ginger beef is sweeter. It's the perfect balance of sweet and savory.
🥘 Ingredients
Ginger beef is made up of beef, of course, a batter, and a sauce, with veggies. For this recipe, you'll need the following:
Beef:
- flank steak or sirloin
Batter
- eggs
- water
- corn starch
- vegetable oil for deep frying
Vegetables
- carrot
- green bell pepper
- olive oil
- fresh ginger
- fresh garlic
Sauce
- soy sauce
- Chinese red vinegar (red rice vinegar)
- Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
- water
- white granulated sugar
- crushed chilies (red pepper flakes)
- plum sauce
*See recipe card for quantities
📖VARIATIONS & SUBSTITUTIONS
- Beef -you could also use skirt steak or beef tenderloin instead
- Addins - you can add in snow peas, broccoli florets, or hoisin sauce
💭History of Calgary Ginger Beef
Calgary is the home of ginger beef; it's where this westernized ginger beef story began. Because Peking-style food wasn't always so popular in Cowtown, as a way to make it more appealing to Westerners, back in the 1970's Chef Wong (from the Silver Inn in Calgary's Chinatown) started playing with a recipe from Northern China. Inspired by British pub grub, he deep-fried shredded beef and then simmered the crispy strips in a spicy chili sauce.
He dubbed the dish “Deep fried shredded beef in chili sauce” and began serving it to customers. The name 'ginger beef' eventually caught on. You read more about the history of ginger beef HERE. In Calgary, there are a lot of Chinese restaurants that serve ginger beef, but my first ginger beef experience was from the original Ginger Beef restaurant in Brentwood and I have always ordered from there (or Ginger Beef Express); it's my favorite restaurant for ginger beef!
🥟Chinese New Year Dishes
If you're looking for Chinese New Year Dishes, although ginger beef may not be a symbolic Chinese New Year dish, it will make a great addition to your meal. But if you're looking for symbolic Lunar New Year dishes, you might also like my Chinese Potstickers (Dumplings).
Chinese dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape is similar to ancient gold. However, this dumpling recipe is not a copycat. I was taught to make them by the cooks when I worked the Mandarin. However, the dipping sauce IS a copycat of my very favorite potsticker dipping sauce from, you guessed it, The Ginger Beef Restaurant!
🥗 Side Dishes
This Ginger beef recipe pairs perfectly with a simple steamed white rice, brown rice, or even minute rice!
🔪 Instructions
- Slice beef (against the grain- see VIDEO in notes for instructions on how to do this) into thin slices
- Combine all batter ingredients and coat beef strips in batter.
- Add oil to a deep large skillet and heat on medium heat. *NOTE: I prefer to use a deep fryer for safety, but for some reason, I couldn't get it to work with this recipe! Even when I sprayed the basket with Pam, the pieces still stuck. Deep-fry coated beef, about 6 pieces at a time, until crispy, about seven to ten minutes *
- Remove meat with a slotted spoon. Set meat aside on paper towel to drain. Repeat with remaining meat, frying in small batches of 6-8 pieces (depending on the size of your frying pan.) Add sauce ingredients (except plum sauce) in a bowl and whisk together. Set aside. Julienne carrots and thinly slice green peppers.
- In a wok, over medium-low heat, stir fry garlic, carrots, green pepper, sesame seeds and half the ginger in oil for about 3 minutes. Add sauce. Bring to boil over high heat for 1 to 2 minutes and then reduce heat to medium-high heat and cook until reduced for 5- 7 minutes. Add plum sauce, whisk, and cook for 1 additional minute. Add beef to sauce; stir to coat with sauce.
- Sprinkle with additional sesame seeds and serve over white or basmati rice. Add additional plum sauce for extra sweetness, if desired. Garnish with green onions (optional)
🎥 Video: How to slice beef against the grain
How to slice beef against the grain
💭 How to get crispy ginger beef
I'm not sure how many people know this, but the way most restaurants get crispy ginger beef is by deep frying it twice! They prep a lot of deep-fried ginger beef in advance, keep it in the fridge, then when a customer orders it, they give it a quick 2nd deep fry, sautee it in some sauce and serve it. I'll be honest, by the time I did it once I was not doing it again. I'm not gonna lie, this recipe is a lot of work! Of course, unlike a home kitchen, it's different in a restaurant where they have systems in place to manage that process.
👪 Serving size
This ginger beef stir fry recipe serves 8, if you serve it with rice. You can half, double, or triple the recipe by clicking on the serving size (it's in blue) on the recipe card and selecting the number of servings you'd like. The ingredient amounts will automatically adjust.
🌡️Storage
- This ginger beef can be stored with the sauce in the fridge in an airtight container for 2-3 days. If you make rice to go with this recipe, keep the rice stored in a separate container in the fridge.
- This recipe freezes well for up to 3 months.
It takes a lot to impress me at a restaurant so if I'm going to make a restaurant copycat recipe (you can see my other copycat recipes at the bottom of the recipe card), you know it's gotta be worth my time! I've said it before, but creating a copycat recipe is a hell of a lot more work than simply creating a recipe from scratch.
Not to brag or anything, but I usually like my copycat recipes better than the original and so does my family. I have even had readers write and tell me they like my copycat version better than the restaurant's original recipe. My teenage son also said he prefers this ginger beef ‘fake-out’ version over the original take-out! So if you're looking for a delicious recipe for ginger beef, you'll love this one.
Since I still live in Calgary and can get my hands on Calgary ginger beef anytime I want, I obviously had other motives for committing to the amount of work that went into the development of this recipe. I guess it was a labor of love and a bit of a personal recipe creation challenge. But now it exists, just in case. Just in case I can't get my hands on Calgary Ginger beef because well, you just never know...
One of my favorite restaurants, the Joshua Tree, closed down and I had to create a copycat of their Joshua Tree restaurant "Tree Burger” (shown below) from memory.
And this recipe is for all of you out there who perhaps used to live here and can't get your hands on it and miss Calgary Ginger Beef. Or those of you who tried it when you visited Calgary, loved it, and would love to make it at home. I hope you enjoy it!
📋 Calgary Ginger Beef Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Beef:
- 2 pounds flank steak or sirloin, approximately sliced thinly against the grain
Batter
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup corn starch
- 2-3 cups oil for deep frying
Vegetables
- 1 large carrot finely julienned
- ½ green bell pepper finely sliced
- 2 tablespoon cooking oil * I use olive oil
- 2 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
Sauce
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons red Chinese vinegar (red rice vinegar)
- 2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
- ½ cup water
- ⅓ cup white granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon crushed chilies (red chile flakes)
- ¼ cup plum sauce *add more for additional sweetness
Garnish
- sesame seeds
- green onions (optional)
Instructions
- Slice beef (against the grain- see VIDEO in notes for instructions on how to do this) into thin strips
Batter
- Combine all batter ingredients and coat beef in batter.
- Add oil to a deep frying pan and heat on medium. *NOTE: I prefer to use a deep fryer for safety, but for some reason, I couldn't get it to work with this recipe! Even when I sprayed the basket with Pam, the pieces still stuck.
- Deep-fry coated beef, about 6 pieces at a time, until crispy, about seven to ten minutes.
- Remove meat with a slotted spoon. Set meat aside on paper towel to drain. Repeat with remaining meat, frying in small batches of 6-8 pieces (depending on the size of your frying pan.)
Sauce
- Add sauce ingredients (except plum sauce) in a bowl and whisk together. Set aside
Vegetables
- Julienne carrots and thinly slice green peppers.
- In a wok, over medium - low heat, stir fry garlic, carrots, green pepper, sesame seeds and ginger in oil for about 3 minutes.
- Add sauce. Bring to boil for 1 to 2 minutes and cook until reduced for 5- 7 minutes on medium heat. Add plum sauce, whisk and cook for 1 additional minute.
Assembly
- Add beef to sauce; stir to coat with sauce.
Garnish
- Sprinkle with additional sesame seeds and serve over white or basmati rice. Add additional plum sauce for extra sweetness, if desired.
- Garnish with green onions (optional)
Lilly
Hello, is there anything else I can use besides the Chinese vinegar and the Chinese cooking wine? I have regular white vinegar and rice wine vinegar. Thanks!
Terri Gilson
Hi Lilly,
Neither are a good substitute. But you could use dry cooking sherry. OR you can replace 1 cup of Chinese cooking wine with 1/2 cup of white grape juice mixed with 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar.
Enjoy!
Terri
Paula D
I love the crispy Ginger Beef so much but no way I'm going to double-deep-fry! Just curious at to which restaurant you worked at in Leth as that's where I am now.
Terri Gilson
Hi Paula,
Haha I hear you! I'm not doing double the work either! I worked at the Mandarin and that was 30 years ago, actually. It shut down probably 8-10 years ago!
Terri
Murtaza Hussain
Thank you so much for this!! My family loves ginger beef and I have been looking for the authentic Calgary recipe!! Is there a non alcoholic alternative to the cooking wine / dry sherry?
Terri Gilson
Hi Murtaza,
No problem - hope you enjoy it! For a substitute use 1/2 apple cider vinegar and 1/2 water as a substitute for 1 cup of dry sherry. This is probably the best non-alcoholic substitute, especially for quantities of 1/2 cup or more. For a sweet sherry substitute, add a bit of sugar to the apple cider vinegar.
Terri
Kathryn
I remember as a young adult eating this every weekend at Charlie Chans, Calgary. Miss it now in Ontario. Will give this a try. Excited if I can replicate it. Ty
Terri Gilson
I hope you enjoy it, Kathryn! 🙂 I'd love to hear how it turns out. Please come back and leave and comment and star rating if you're happy with it.
Melanie
I am so looking forward to making this! One question, I can't seem to find where you say what to do with the second half of the fresh ginger?
Terri Gilson
Hi Melanie:
Sorry about that and thanks for pointing it out! You need to use all of the ginger at that stage (I've updated it to reflect that). Initially, when I was creating the recipe, I was going to put half in afterwards, but I changed my mind and forgot to change it in the recipe. If you like it, it would be wonderful if you could come back and leave a comment and a review! I would really appreciate it. Enjoy!
Terri
Melanie
Thank you for responding so quickly Terri! I made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing. Even my picky kids loved it! We will definitely be making this again. I really appreciated the step by step instructions with pictures; it helps when using techniques you haven't tried before. My husband bought me a wok for this recipe and I think it's going to get a LOT of use!
Terri Gilson
That's great, Melanie! I'm glad you all loved it!
Carol V
We usually get Ginger Chicken from Ginger Beer Express close to our house, but I love it because they seem to have gingersnap cookies in the batter. Do you think I might be able to replace half of the cornstarch with gingersnap cookies?
Terri Gilson
Hi Carol: When I worked in Chinese restaurants, the ginger chicken was made EXACTLY the same way as the ginger beef, except they used chicken. If you follow this recipe, but use chicken, I think you'll be pleased with the results. I believe it's simply the deep-fried sweet/savory combo you are tasting (sugar and fresh ginger), so I would not recommend ginger snaps. I'd love to hear how it turns out for you! Enjoy....
Kristen
No need to order out anymore, you nailed it with this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Vijitha
I haven't tried Calgary Ginger beef yet.. I don't think I'll be travelling to Calgary any time soon coz of this pandemic, but now I can make this at home and get a taste of the original dish, thanks to you Terri! It sounds and looks delicious! Gonna try it this weekend 🙂
Terri Gilson
You will have to try it when you come to Calgary! Hope you enjoy it at home, in the meantime.
Wanda
We always order ginger beef and in fact just had it again last weekend! I'm excited to make it at home now that I have this recipe to follow!
Terri Gilson
I hope you enjoy it, Wanda!
NANCY
Yes to the snobby palate! I love a good calgary silver inn ginger beef recipe!
Terri Gilson
Hi Nancy, Yes, this is very similar to the Silver Inn's (the original original 🙂 )
dishnthekitchen
Terri, would you believe I've never ordered Ginger Beef? If I'm ordering Chinese I always pick one or two deep fried items which are usually seafood! However, your description had me drooling. There's a Ginger Beef restaurant close (ish) by on MacLeod Trail. Is this the good spot you were talking about?
Terri Gilson
OMG Bernice! And you are a born and bred Calgarian !When it's safe for us to go out for lunch again, I'm taking you for ginger beef! I need to find out if that location is part of the original Ginger beef group 🙂
Stan
That is Ginger Beef ginger beef. Nice recipe but how does it compare to the original created at the Silver Inn in Calgary?
Terri Gilson
Hi Stan,
It's very similar, but I found that the Silver Inn is a bit sweeter.I personally like Ginger beef restaurant one better.
Terri
Colleen
I had no idea that Calgary had its own ginger beef! I've always been a "Vancouver snob" when it comes to Chinese food, but now I'm intrigued and will try this recipe for sure!
Sharon
Yum times ten!! Count me in as an honourary Calgary snob. lol I'm also a big fan of replicating restaurant dishes and we generally prefer the homemade versions too. Thanks for this one!