An Easy Beef Stir Fry Recipe with Honey Balsamic Sauce! (2024)

Juicy strips of top-sirloin are stir fried with crisp-tender peppers, onions, baby bok choy and fresh sliced mushrooms, all in a savory sauce that will wake up your tastebuds! This Honey Balsamic Beef Stir Fry is so good, I guarantee you’ll want seconds.

An Easy Beef Stir Fry Recipe

Have you ever made homemade stir fry? If not, this is a great recipe to get you started, or my awesome Chicken Stir Fry recipe! 🥢

Often, when home chefs think of making stir fry, we fall into one of two categories: either, we assume it will be super simple, just throwing ingredients into a pan and stirring like crazy, or we think it will be really difficult and we should just leave it to the pros.

But, the truth is, stir-frying is really easy — you just need the right ingredients and the right technique. And, that’s what this recipe gives you! An easy (and super tasty) recipe that produces tender, lean beef, crisp-tender veggies and a flavor-packed sauce.

Recipe Ingredients

You don’t need any hard-to-find ingredients for this stir fry. Just a healthy dose of veggies, beef and seasonings.

• Steak: For this recipe, I use top sirloin steak. Sirloin, ribeye, and other tender cuts are also great!
• Broth: You’ll need about ¾ cup of low-sodium beef broth for the sauce.
• Soy Sauce: A couple tablespoons of soy sauce add a delicious umami flavor to the sauce. I usually use low-sodium soy sauce. Tamari is also fine, and coconut aminos taste great in stir-fries, too.
• Balsamic Vinegar: This pungent vinegar brings oodles of flavor to the dish.
• Honey: You’ll need a couple tablespoons of your favorite honey. You can also substitute maple syrup.
• Cornstarch: This handy ingredient thickens the sauce and makes it silky.
• Vegetable Oil: For sauteing. You can also use avocado oil, or whatever high-heat oil you prefer.
• Ginger: You’ll need a tablespoon or so of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped.
• Bell Peppers: Two small red bell peppers, seeded and cut into thin strips, are a beautiful, healthy and delicious addition to the beef.
• Onion: Thinly slice one small onion, any type.
• Garlic: You’ll need three cloves of garlic, minced or pressed.
• Baby Bok Choy: One of my favorite veggies, this flavorful green brings freshness and a slightly bitter taste that balances out the other ingredients, similar to fresh spinach.
• Mushrooms: I like to add about a cup of fresh, sliced mushrooms to my stir-fries. Cremini are great, as are shiitake, but plain button mushrooms are also delicious! Use whatever kind you like or have on hand.
• Sliced Green Onions: For garnish.

How to Prepare the Sirloin Steak

An important rule of slicing up steak for frying is to cut against the grain. The question is, how do you do that? Essentially, you try to look for the way that the long muscle fibers are going, and cut across them, as if you were cutting across a bundle of yarn to make short pieces of yarn.

If your steak doesn’t seem to have an obvious grain, try holding the steak in your hands and gently bending it into a convex shape. As the top of the steak stretches out, you’ll see the grain more easily. Little parallel cracks will appear in the surface, and you want to cut across the direction of those cracks.

If this all sounds confusing, don’t worry! There are some great tutorials on this, including one here and another here.

How to Make Honey Balsamic Beef Stir Fry

As I mentioned before, this is a very easy recipe that’s especially good for beginners! My advice is this: It’s VERY helpful to have all of your ingredients ready to go, and near your pan, since the cooking moves quickly.

1. Prep Steak: First, make sure your steak is ready by thinly slicing the meat across the grain. You need a very sharp knife for this. Try to cut it into even strips for the best results. Once the meat is sliced, set it aside.
2. Make Sauce: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together your beef broth, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, honey and cornstarch. Set the sauce aside.
3. Stir-Fry Vegetables: Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a wok or a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the ginger and cook for 15 seconds. Then, add the peppers and onions, and continue to cook for 4 minutes. Finally, stir in the minced garlic, baby bok choy and mushrooms. Cook for 3 more minutes, or until the veggies are crisp-tender. Immediately remove the veggies from the wok or skillet, and set aside.
4. Stir-Fry Beef: Pour the other tablespoon of oil into the skillet. Add the sliced steak; cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until browned.
5. Add Sauce: Push the steak to one side of the skillet, and then pour the previously prepared sauce in the center of the skillet. Let the sauce cook for a minute or so, until it thickens and turns bubbly.
6. Finish Cooking: Return the vegetables to the skillet and stir all of the ingredients together, so that everything gets coated with the sauce. Cook for 1 more minute, remove from the heat, and garnish with green onions. Serve over rice or noodles.
7. Enjoy!

Tips for the Most Tender Beef

So, how do you make sure your steak comes out tender? Here are my best tips for working with top sirloin and creating a tender, succulent stir-fry.

• Check the Marbling: The most tender cuts of top sirloin will be lightly marbled with a thin network of white fat. That fat melts away as the steak cooks, helping to create a tender texture. However, as you cut the beef, feel free to trim away large, thick, or chunky pieces of fat.
• Heat the Pan Well: Thin slices of stir-fry beef can overcook and get tough very quickly. You want your pan to be heated properly, so that you can quickly cook the beef and get it out of the pan, still tender. To check if the pan is hot enough, hold your hand about three inches from its cooking surface. If it’s too hot to hold your hand there comfortably, the pan should be ready. Be careful when checking the pan to avoid burns.
• Don’t Disturb the Steak: Although this is a stir-fry, it’s actually good to avoid stirring and disturbing the meat while it cooks. Instead, place the strips of beef in a single layer in the pan, and turn them halfway through cooking. This is because the woks used in restaurant cooking get much hotter than a normal home stove or range, so the technique has to be adjusted.

Serving Suggestions

I definitely love serving this with rice or noodles. Jasmine rice makes a lovely, fragrant side, and I like to use lo mein noodles or linguine as well. But there are lots of other great options out there! Here are a few faves.

• Shrimp Salad: I love to serve a good salad with just about any meal, but for this stir-fry, I think it’s fun to go all out! One of my tastiest salad recipes is this amazing Shrimp Salad with Avocados. It’s a whole new approach to surf n’ turf!
• Snap Peas: These Roasted Sugar Snap Peas are a crunchy and delicious addition to any meal, and they go particularly well with beef.
• Fries: Take things in a different direction with a fresh and tasty batch of my Crispy Air Fryer Zucchini Fries! Their beautiful flavor and texture make a bold contrast to the stir-fry.

How to Store and Reheat Leftovers

If you have any leftover stir-fry, you can store it in the fridge for a couple of days. Here’s how:

• To Refrigerate: Place leftovers in airtight containers. Leftover stir-fry will keep for up to 2 days in the refrigerator.
• To Reheat: Place leftovers in a skillet over medium-low heat and cook until heated through.

Can You Freeze Homemade Stir Fry?

Yes, you can freeze the different components of this stir-fry and then assemble the finished dish later! Keep in mind that the veggies may not be as crisp. Here’s how to do it:

1. Freeze Sauce: Make the sauce and freeze it in a freezer bag or small container, leaving a little bit of room for the liquid to expand as it freezes. The sauce will keep for up to 3 months.
2. Freeze Veggies: Stir-fry the veggies, let them cool, and then freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Transfer them to a freezer bag. Cooked veggies will last six months, or even longer, in the refrigerator.
3. Freeze Steak: Stir-fry the beef strips, cool, freeze, and store, the same way as the veggies. Cooked steak will keep for up to three months in the freezer.
4. Reheat: To reheat, thaw the ingredients overnight in the refrigerator, and then place them in a skillet over medium-low heat until heated through.

More Beef Recipes

There have to be a billion different dishes that incorporate beef. These recipes are some of the very best!

• Swedish Meatballs
• Homemade Sloppy Joes
• Slow Cooker Barbecue Beef Brisket