The last time my fiance and I visited Hawaii, we went to Chinatown in Honolulu to enjoy a delicious bowl of beef noodle soup. It was perfect; well-seasoned broth and fresh chewy noodles topped with heavenly slices of beef in one, umami-packed $5 bowl. This was my third favorite meal the whole trip, which was a difficult feat to manage considering the amount of amazing food we hunted down. For those of you who are wondering, Sushi Gaku and Okata Bento came in first and second.

Then we came home, and what am I faced with? Either pay double (even triple) that for a similarly delicious soup somewhere in DC (after probably trying many not so delicious ones), or figure out a way to make it at home. Well, you know me, making it from scratch sounded like a brilliant idea. Thus was born this delicious stewed beef that freezes great and works in any noodle soup I concoct (especially with top ramen when you are feeling lazy or forgot to grocery shop).

The original recipe for this beef comes from another blog, Chinese Grandma, and can be found here with the soup recipe too! I didn’t really modify this recipe much, so definitely check out hers.

Ingredients:

2 boneless beef hindshanks, about 1.5 to 2 lbs each – You can also use chuck steak, flank, or round.

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup cooking sake

2 cups water

2 whole green onions

3-4 thick slices of ginger

8-10 Sichuan peppercorns – Or substitute 1-2 tbsp ground pepper.

Trim your beef and place in a large dutch oven. Sprinkle both sides of the beef with pepper until nicely coated on both sides. Depending on the size of the cuts, you may need to add more or less pepper than the suggested amount. Add the soy sauce, sake, water, green onion, and ginger to the pot. Bring to a boil.

Once the mixture boils, cover tightly, and reduce the heat to low. Let it simmer for 2 hours.

Flip the meat over. You may need to add additional water if the meat is less than half submerged in the liquid. Use your judgement; it won’t get watered down if you add an extra cup just in case. Cover tightly and simmer for another 2 hours.

Let the meat cool, then put it in the fridge overnight. Once they are fully cooled, remove them from the sauce and slice thinly. At this point, you can freeze them or add them to a soup of your choice. You can also save the sauce as a soup flavoring. Enjoy!