For this tasty, economical dinner, minced beef is fried up with hoisin sauce, garlic, lemongrass and sesame oil until it’s beautifully caramelized, then it’s tossed together with easy egg fried rice – plus a good handful of frozen peas to add a bit of veg in there!
I love to serve this up topped with sriracha and spring onions.
It makes a great, simple and flavourful weeknight dinner!
I’m a big fan of fried rice – chicken fried rice, Indonesian rice with lots of spicy flavour, or fried rice with meltingly tender chunks of sticky pork belly – I could eat it most days!
This is my way of making a lovely meaty fried rice, with loads of flavour, that doesn’t break the bank with expensive cuts of meat, and it’s quick to prepare too.
📋 What do we need?
- Minced beef – I use 10%-12% fat minced beef. I’ve made this recipe using 20% fat minced beef, but it makes the rice a little too oily (5% fat mince can make it taste a little dry), so it’s better to go with the 10-12% version, then add any extra oil in as needed.
- Rice – use cooked rice (I’ve got a simple tutorial here for how to boil rice in a pan perfectly), then cool it, so the rice dries out a little. Cooling the rice helps stop the rice from sticking together and will also help it to absorb more flavour.
- Peas – frozen peas (no need to defrost) make a great addition for a little bit of sweetness. They cook quickly, so they can go in the wok straight from frozen.
- Lemongrass paste – this adds a lovely flavour to the minced beef. I like to use the paste as it’s easier to mix into the beef without the risk of tough, woody bits that you can get with lemongrass sticks.
📺 Watch how to make it
Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.
👩🍳PRO TIP Make sure your rice is cold when you add it to the wok, this will ensure it soaks up all the flavours and doesn’t go mushy
Minced beef is full of protein and with the rice and peas this is a complete and satisfying meal, ready in minutes and with minimal effort.
🍲 More fantastic rice-based recipes
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Minced Beef Fried Rice
Ingredients
For the beef:
- 500 g (1.1 lbs) minced beef (I use 10-12% fat beef, so it's not too oily. 5% fat mince can make it a little dry)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 minced cloves garlic
- 1 tsp lemongrass paste
- ¼ tsp white pepper
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
For the rice:
- 1.5 tbsp neutral oil e.g rapeseed, sunflower or avocado oil
- 800 g (4 cups) boiled and cooled long grain rice this is about 300g (1 ⅓ cups) of dried rice that has been boiled in water
- 115 g (⅔ cup) frozen peas
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice juice of approx. ½ lemon
To Serve:
- sriracha chili sauce
- 3 spring onions (scallions) finely sliced
Instructions
- Heat a wok over a high heat. When hot, add the minced beef and cook for 5 minutes, breaking up the mince with a spatula, until the beef is browned.500 g (1.1 lbs) minced beef
- Add the sesame oil and brown sugar and fry for a further 5 minutes, moving the mince around the wok with the spatula. It should go a little bit darker.1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp light brown sugar
- Add in the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, garlic, lemongrass paste, white pepper, and chilli flakes and stir fry for a further 5 minutes. Keep moving the mince around the pan regularly.2 tbsp hoisin sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 minced cloves garlic, ¼ tsp white pepper, 1 tsp lemongrass paste, ½ tsp chilli flakes
- Spoon the minced beef out of the pan and place in a bowl.
- Add the oil to the wok and heat through.1.5 tbsp neutral oil
- Add the rice and peas to the wok and fry for 3-4 minutes, constantly moving the rice around the wok with your spatula, until the rice and peas are hot.800 g (4 cups) boiled and cooled long grain rice, 115 g (⅔ cup) frozen peas
- Move the rice to one side of the wok and crack the two eggs in the space. Ensure the part of the wok with the eggs in is over the heat and fry the eggs, scrambling them with the spatula. This should take about a minute.2 eggs
- Stir the eggs into the rice.
- Add in the soy sauce, salt, and lemon juice and toss together.1 tbsp dark soy sauce, ¼ tsp salt, 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Add the minced beef back to the wok and fry, keeping everything moving with your spatula, for a further 2-3 minutes to heat the mince back through.
- Serve topped with sriracha and spring onions.sriracha chili sauce, 3 spring onions (scallions)
Video
Notes
- Refrigerate it as quickly as possible
- Don’t store for more than 24 hours in the fridge, and
- Thoroughly reheat it.
- Freeze it as quickly as possible
- Defrost in the refrigerator overnight (and don’t store for more than 24 hours)
- Thoroughly reheat it.
- Swap out the minced beef for minced pork, turkey or chicken (note, you’ll need to add a splash of oil with minced turkey or minced chicken as they’re far lower in fat than beef and pork mince).
- You could also add ham, crispy bacon and/or cooked chorizo pieces.
- If you want more vegetables, add in cooked chopped carrots, sweetcorn, broccoli, mushrooms, sugar snap peas, canned beansprouts or canned bamboo shoots.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Delicious recipe! Just the right amount of spice too.
Really quick to make (I swapped lemongrass for ginger) and it was absolutely delicious, even my kids are very scrap on their plate.
Thank you for sharing.
Loved it. Having lived in Asia for many years before returning home, I’ve struggled to find a recipe that could replicate the food I used to eat. This nailed it. My Singapore Chinese wife in total agreement
This was really, really good! I think just that little dab of lemon grass gave the meat a unique flavor. I also like how the sauce was more subtle than most, not too sweet, not too overpowering. This is a keeper! BTW, I used a plant-based meat substitute (soy curl bits, rehydrated) to keep this vegan, and brown rice because… that’s just the way we roll, LOL.
Looks yum, couldn’t wait to give it ago. Couldn’t find the video anywhere though?
Hi Valery, It’s in the post, under the ‘Watch how to make it’ title (under the image and bullet pointed description of the ingredients).
We also have it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bv2_z0D-Rg
Made this tonight, really good! Couldn’t find lemongrass paste so used ginger paste instead, which worked great. Very easy to add extra veggies too.
What can I use instead of a wok?
A large frying pan would be fine Jenna.
Absolutely beautiful and packed full of flavour. The sriracha is a must and I’d add more spring onions on top next time, but that’s just my preference. The whole family wolfed this down, a rare occurrence!!
I thought it was great. I had a bit of trouble finding lemongrass paste but it was worth it. Loved the dish. Great videos. Love the cookbook