Ground Beef Stir Fry

Why you’ll love it

This is such a simple and inexpensive take on a traditional beef stir fry recipe since it has ground beef. The delicious homemade sauce is savory and sweet, so it shouldn’t be hard to get your picky eaters to clean their plates with this one! It’s one of my go-to meals when I’m wondering what to make with ground beef.

You’ll appreciate just how quickly this recipe comes together, and the stir fry sauce with ginger and garlic is made from scratch, so you know exactly what’s going into it. No more premade stuff from a bottle with a million ingredients you can’t pronounce!

Just a few everyday ingredients

For the stir fry

• Ground beef – I recommend 90% lean
• Olive oil – for sautéing the onion
• Onion – my go-to is sweet (Vidalia) onion, but you can use any variety
• Mushrooms, red bell pepper, broccoli, carrots – the fresh vegetable medley I chose
• Sesame seeds and scallions – for serving, but optional

For the sauce

• Sugar – brown sugar gives a hint of sweetness and balance to the sauce. It’s not overpowering!
• Ginger – always use freshly grated ginger for the best taste
• Garlic – I used two cloves, but use as much as you like
• Hoisin sauce – it can be found in the Asian foods aisle in most major grocery stores. It has a unique flavor, so I don’t have any suggestions for direct swaps.
• Soy sauce – I used regular, but you can use low sodium if that’s a consideration
• Apple cider vinegar – for a little tanginess. You can use rice wine vinegar too.
• Beef broth – for an even deeper, richer taste. Water works instead, though.
• Cornstarch – it’s a thickening agent

How to make ground beef stir fry

This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.

Prepare all ingredients before you start cooking, including adding all sauce ingredients to a bowl and whisking them together. Brown the beef in a large skillet, at least a 12″ one.

Drain the fat and transfer the meat to a plate. Add the oil to the same skillet and give the onion a one minute head start, then add the rest of the veggies and stir fry them for 3-4 minutes.

Add the beef back to the skillet, then stir in the sauce. Let it cook for a couple of minutes until thickened, stirring often so everything is coated.

Substitutions and variations

• This recipe is quite flexible in that you can use whatever veggies you have on-hand or prefer like snap peas, baby corn, water chestnuts, etc. Just be sure to cut them up small so they cook fast. I would try to keep the quantities roughly the same so the pan isn’t too crowded. 
• Fresh vegetables are definitely best, but you can use a frozen mix if that’s all you have as a shortcut.
• You can swap the ground beef for another type of meat like ground chicken or even ground pork. If using something leaner than beef, add a splash of olive oil to the pan for step 2.
• Want to make it spicy? Add some crushed red pepper flakes to the sauce or a squirt of sriracha either to the sauce or once you’ve plated it!