Man oh man does my husband love this dish. It appeals to everything he loves: Beef, Thai and Spicy. Funny thing is, every time I make this I always question the recipe. Nothing about it makes sense to me. The marinade (I use that term loosely) is 1 tablespoon of liquid mixed with spices for 2 lbs of meat! Then the sauce never looks like it will be enough to coat the beef. I’m always blown away at how much amazing flavor can be packed into such a small amount of ingredients.

You can adjust the spiciness by adding more or less of the jalapeno peppers and garlic chili sauce. You can do the same with the salt (which in this recipe is the fish sauce). Americas Test Kitchen had 3 tablespoons of fish sauce in the original sauce recipe, Joelen over at Whats Cooking Chicago adjusted the recipe to 1 tablespoon. I went in the middle and added 1 1/2 tablespoons. Perfect for us, but suit it to your tastes! We also only used a pound of beef because I was only making it for the two of us. 

I’m not certain of the nutrition stats for this recipe but other similar recipes I have found are between 300-400 calories per serving of 1 – 1 1/2 cups. I’m not labeling this as a 500 calorie or less dinner because I’m not certain what this would be but I really felt like Thai and used the above figures to justify serving it with brown rice. 🙂

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

Thai Chile Beef
recipe adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
Marinade:

1-2 pounds blade or flank steak, trimmed and cut into 1/4 in strips
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce

Sauce:
1 tablespoon fish sauce (use this to taste)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon Asian chili paste
4 garlic cloves, minced

Stir Fry:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds removed, sliced thin
3 medium shallots, chopped
1/2 cup Thai basil leaves
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/3 cup roughly chopped peanuts
Lime wedges for serving
Place the beef in a medium sized bowl and add the marinade ingredients. Toss to combine and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the sauce ingredients (fish sauce, rice vinegar, water, brown sugar, and chili paste) and set aside.

Heat 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet or wok over high heat. Add a third of the beef and brown; transfer the beef to a bowl and repeat with remaining beef in 2 batches using 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil for each batch. Doing this in batches allows a better browning so it’s best not to add all the beef at once.

After the beef is cooked, reduce the heat to medium, and add 2 more teaspoons of oil to the skillet. Add the garlic, shallots and jalapenos, cooking until softened, stirring frequently.

Add the sauce mixture to the skillet and increase the heat to medium high until the sauce thickens a bit. Add the beef and any juices back to the skillet and toss in the sauce.

Take off the heat and stir in the Thai basil leaves and cilantro. Add half of the chopped peanuts and toss.

Serve over rice with lime wedges on the side.