Garlic Pepper Beef

What turns a good dish into an exceptional one? I think that when it comes to working with beef, one of the biggest upgrades you can get is by ensuring that it is juicy, tender, and of course, flavorful. And I’d say that your best bet for this, while utilizing a simple cooking process, is the Garlic Pepper Beef recipe.

Buttery and filled with lots of savory flavors, Garlic Pepper Beef makes for a great lunch or dinner. And for a recipe that is not exactly Filipino in origin, it may shock you just how popular this is among our kababayans. A popular fast food chain is known for its adaptation of the delicious dish, and has made several comebacks to please customers. But where exactly does the appeal come from? What makes Garlic Pepper Beef so universally loved?

What does Garlic Pepper Beef taste like?

Firstly, the familiarity of flavors really plays into the fame of such a recipe. You’ve got a very slight spiciness from garlic powder and ground black pepper. But a bit of oyster sauce and soy sauce also balances this out, and makes the food far more savory and irresistible. And this is a mix that may remind you of other delicious recipes with brown, soy sauce-based sauces and stews.

But as I mentioned earlier, the way we make the beef also plays into how tasty our dish is. The marinating process really helps pack in all that flavor. And our toasted garlic as topping is perfect to add an element of crispiness.

Ingredients in Garlic Pepper Beef

Beef sirloin

We will need a beautiful cut of meat for this dish, and so the recipe calls for some beef sirloin. This particular part is known for being soft and lean, which makes it a pretty common first choice for several cooks. Just get 1 lb. for our recipe.

Garlic

It’s in the name, and so inevitable, you will need a couple of cloves of garlic. If you haven’t gotten to purchase them yet, I would suggest choosing those that are firm, and have no blemishes on them. Grab 5 cloves, and then proceed to mince these.

Knorr beef cube

You can achieve a lot more depth with the right beef cube for flavoring. And so we will use ½ Knorr beef cube as an easy way of really emphasizing the meatiness of our dish.

Butter

This is an ingredient that actually serves a lot of purposes when it comes to cooking meat. A bit of butter can help further tenderize your beef, and it can specifically soften the outer part of the meat to make it less harsh for eating. Butter does all that while adding a nice layer of flavor. Set aside just 1 tablespoon for this Garlic Pepper Beef.

Water

Just fill up 1 cup with water for our recipe. This is essential to creating our velvety, delicious sauce.

Canola oil

And for a bit of a healthier choice in oil, we will need 4 tablespoons of canola oil. People looking to cut back on saturated fat in their food often go for this type of cooking oil. It is also considered the more ideal choice because it’s got a lot of monounsaturated fat, which is known to lessen bad cholesterol in your body.

Marinade ingredients:

Soy sauce

Seeing as to how we are dealing with beef, it is almost a given that we will also need a tad of soy sauce. This is a perfect go-to condiment that can make your meat more savory and rich. Have 2 tablespoons of soy sauce ready for the marinade. This reminds me of sirloin bistek tagalog.

Oyster sauce

We will also want 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce to add a bit more flavor to the beef sirloin.

Ground black pepper

We’ve been working with a couple of common spices and seasonings so far, and we will use yet another one that you most likely already have in your kitchen. Get ½ teaspoon of ground black pepper. Here is another kind of pepper steak.

Garlic powder

Using garlic powder can really cut our prep time in terms of creating the marinade as there will be no peeling and chopping involved. But another reason why I like using the powder version is because it possesses a naturally rich and strong flavor that we want to reflect in our beef. And since it can be pretty flavorful, all we will use is 1 teaspoon of garlic powder.

Cornstarch

Last but not least, you will need 1 tablespoon of cornstarch for our marinating process.

How to Make Garlic Pepper Beef

Step 1: Marinating the beef sirloin

For this, you just need to put your beef sirloin, soy sauce, oyster sauce, ground black pepper, garlic powder and cornstarch in a container. Now mix these together, and make sure that the beef is nicely covered by the marinade. Wait for 10 minutes to let the flavor soak into the meat.

Step 2: Creating toasted garlic

While waiting, we can go ahead, and heat up some oil in our pan. And then put the minced garlic inside for cooking in low heat. Making sure that this does not get burnt, you can keep cooking until you have a golden brown color for the garlic. Then use a kitchen strainer to filter your garlic with a container below to catch the oil. Set this aside, along with the oil that we have gathered as we will use this later.

Step 3: Cooking up the beef

Once the marinating time is up, it’s off to frying! Pour your garlic oil in the pan we used earlier, and let this get hot. Then put your marinated beef inside, and fry this until the beef is brown. Take the beef out of the pan for now.

And then add butter to the pan, and just melt this. Put half of your Knorr beef cube. Now we have to place the beef back inside, and stir-fry everything for a good 30 seconds.

Step 4: Making the sauce

Incorporate your water now so we can create the sauce. Just wait for this to boil, and then stir everything once boiling has begun. You can keep cooking until you get to see the consistency you would like for your sauce.

After that, you can top the dish off with some of your toasted garlic from earlier. And voila! You’ve got yourself some tasty Garlic Pepper Beef. Feel free to transfer this to a serving bowl of choice.

This is truly a remarkable dish. It is as easy as ginger beef stir fry and tastes as good too. Give this recipe a try and let me know your thoughts.