A quick and tasty weeknight meal, Pepper Steak is the perfect combination of tender meat and colorful veggies dripping in a savory asian-inspired sauce. It is healthy AND delicious, a family winner if there ever was one!
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Tender, melt in your mouth steak ✅
Colorful, healthy veggies ✅
Easy to make on a crazy night ✅
Makes fantastic leftovers ✅
Can be prepped or frozen ahead ✅
What more could you ask for? Pepper steak and rice is super simple to pull together and meets every qualification for the BEST weeknight meal. Serve it alongside a bowl of brown rice and you’re good to go!
Pepper Steak has a well known story in our family. As a kid, my dad would often explore the desert near his house. One day while exploring his mom and him stumbled across an old Great American recipe card for Spicy Pepper Steak.
True to her adventurous spirit, his mom went home and made the recipe… and they loved it! The recipe card is still in the family today, two generations later. Just goes to show that great recipes really can come from anywhere.
🥩 Ingredients
Flank steak: This is the best cut of meat for this recipe, but you can substitute with top round or sirloin steaks.
Soy sauce: The main marinade ingredient that adds flavor and helps the meat get nice and tender.
Garlic: Buy it minced or mince your own.
Paprika: I don't suggest using smoked paprika for this recipe. Just regular paprika will do.
Ground ginger: A little goes a long way. You can substitute fresh if needed.
Vegetable oil: Or canola oil.
Bell peppers: Use your family's favorite colors, they're all good!
Celery: Chopped small for extra veggies and texture.
Cornstarch: Just a bit to thicken the sauce at the end.
Water: Mix with the cornstarch to create the sauce.
Tomatoes: Chopped tomatoes go on at the very end for a touch of fresh, bright flavor.
🔪 Instructions
Cut the meat: If you want to know how to make pepper steak tender, this is the most important part. Slice the meat into thin slices, about ¼ inch thick, against the grain.👇🏻
When you look at the meat, you will notice it has long strands all running one direction. This is the grain. You want to cut the meat in the exact opposite direction, or perpendicular to the grain, for super tender meat.
Marinate and drain meat: Combine the marinade ingredients and let the meat marinate in a bowl or zip bag for at least 30 minutes, but ideally longer. When it's time to cook, drain the meat really well over a bowl, but keep the marinade! This becomes the yummy sauce later on.
Cook: In a hot skillet (I use a large electric skillet), cook the meat in a single layer until it's beautifully brown and almost cooked through. Remove the meat and do the same with the veggies, cooking until they are tender-crisp.
Make the sauce: And now for the best part! Put the meat, veggies, leftover marinade, water, and cornstarch all back in the skillet. Within just a few minutes you'll have a thickened, bubbly sauce that smells soooo good. Top with fresh tomatoes and you're ready to serve!
👨👩👧👦 For a crowd
This recipe already serves 8. If you are wanting to make it for more than 8 people, I highly suggest cooking the meat and veggies in two skillets at the same time. This will help avoid overcrowding the pans and make sure it doesn't take extra long to cook.
🙋 Questions & Answers
You can very easily prep this recipe a day in advance. Marinate the meat in the fridge overnight, then slice up the veggies and store in an air-tight container. When you're ready to cook, just continue the recipe as directed.
This is a great meal to have ready in the freezer. Slice the meat as directed, mix it with the marinade in a ziploc bag, and freeze it just like that. When you’re ready to make it, thaw the meat overnight in the fridge or for several hours on the counter. Then just slice the fresh veggies and cook it up in a jiffy!
Pepper steak can be too tough if you use the wrong cut of meat or cut the meat wrong. The key to tender pepper steak is to start with flank steak, top round, or sirloin steaks. Then slice the meat against the grain (perpendicular to the long fibers in the meat). I promise it will be tender this way!
We serve our pepper steak with brown or white rice. The dish is filling and full of protein and veggies, so I rarely need to serve sides with it. Makes for an easy dinner!
👨🏼🍳 Tips & Tricks
- Slice the meat against the grain (perpendicular to the long fibers in the meat). This is the secret to soft, tender meat!
- For the best flavor, marinade the meat on the longer end of the directed range.
- Make sure to drain the meat very well. Excess marinade will slow the cooking and prevent it from browning well.
- For the best browning, allow the pan to get very hot before cooking. Then add the meat in a single layer and stir it as little as possible. The less stirring of the meat, the better the browning.
📖 More weeknight dinner ideas
- Electric Skillet Lemon Chicken - An easy one skillet dinner of tender chicken covered in a lemony pan sauce.
- Easy Chicken Tinga Tacos - Rotisserie chicken shredded and coated in a smoky tinga sauce, then made into delicious tacos.
- Easy Chicken Piccata Pasta - A spin on a tasty Italian classic made with frozen chicken piccata and bow tie pasta.
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📋 Recipe
Crazy Good Pepper Steak
Ingredients
Marinade
- 3 lbs flank steak *can substitute top round or sirloin steaks
- ⅔ cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
Pepper Steak
- 3 medium bell peppers any color, cored, seeded, and sliced
- 1½ cup celery diced
- 1½ cups water
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 cups fresh tomatoes diced
- Salt if needed to taste
Instructions
- Trim excess fat from meat and slice thinly against the grain. Combine marinade ingredients and marinate meat in a bowl or zipper bag for a minimum of 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.
- Before cooking, use a strainer to drain meat well. Reserve the marinade for the sauce.
- Spray a skillet lightly with non-stick spray or oil and heat over medium-high. Add meat in a single layer and allow to cook until browned and almost cooked through, stirring minimally, 7-8 minutes. If meat does not fit in a single layer, cook in two batches. *If meat releases a lot of juices while cooking, remove it from the pan, pour juices out of pan into reserved marinade, and return the meat to the pan to continue cooking.
- Remove meat from pan. Add 1 tbsp vegetable oil and cook bell peppers and celery. Cook until tender-crisp, 3-5 minutes.
- In a small bowl, mix water and cornstarch together. Add water mixture, reserved marinade juices, and cooked meat back to the skillet with the veggies. Cook until the sauce is thickened, 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in fresh tomatoes and salt, if needed. Serve over rice.
Notes
- Slice the meat against the grain (perpendicular to the long fibers in the meat). This is the secret to soft, tender meat!
- For the best flavor, marinade the meat on the longer end of the directed range.
- Make sure to drain the meat very well. Excess marinade will slow the cooking and prevent it from browning well.
- For the best browning, allow the pan to get very hot before cooking. Then add the meat in a single layer and stir it as little as possible. The less stirring of the meat, the better the browning.
Nutrition
All nutrition information is provided by a third party and is an estimate only. Use your own nutritional calculator for more specific measurements.
Phyllis says
Just cooked this again. We really like it a lot and will be putting into our plans again in a fe2 weeks. The flavor is great and the r3vipe is a definite keeper!
Misty says
Yay, glad you liked it!
Phyllis says
WINNER!! We were knocked over with the GREAT savory flavor and tenderness of the meat. And the veggies were tender crisp.
Your photography makes it all come alive and your tips are priceless.
Thanks for all your hard work to make me look like a great cook. Love it 😍
Cheri says
I ate dinner at my parents’ house tonight, and my Mom made this pepper steak. All I could keep saying is YUM!!!! The flavors are outstanding! I felt like Bob, in the movie What About Bob, when he was eating with the fam and he kept saying, “Mmmmm...Mmmmm...Mmmmmmmm!” I really enjoyed this dish. It truly is CRAZY GOOD!
Ringo says
This is delish!
Aspen says
The fresh tomatoes in this dish are mouth-watering good. This is on my regular meals list!