Cantonese Ground Beef Rice and Eggs (窝蛋牛肉)

This Cantonese ground beef rice and eggs post is sponsored by Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs. All opinions expressed are my own. Thank you for supporting the companies that keep this blog going.

It’s a super easy Cantonese ground beef rice bowl cooked with an oyster-sauce-based sauce, onion, green peas, and runny eggs. Top steamed rice or noodles with it to make a hearty and healthy meal. It’s also perfect to make ahead and use as meal-prep. {Gluten-Free Adaptable}

The Cantonese ground beef and egg bowl is somewhere between Shakshuka and shepherd’s pie. It is a one-pan egg dish that is bright and bursting with flavor, so you’d feel comfortable eating it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or any snack time in between. The sauce is made from oyster sauce and soy sauce – savory with a slight hint of sweetness. Braised with ground beef, onion, ginger, and green peas, it produces a hearty flavor that you won’t mind eating again and again.

The dish is so easy to prepare. You simply brown the ground meat, saute it with aromatics, briefly braise it in the sauce, then crack a few eggs into the pan and add some frozen peas. Instead of moving the pan into the oven, you simply need to cover the pan and let the eggs cook to your preferred texture. The prep and cooking takes about 30 minutes total. You can serve some steamed rice on the side. Start the rice right before you start the beef and they’ll both be ready at the same time.

Cantonese Ground beef rice bowl cooking notes

1. Traditional approach vs. this recipe

The traditional approach to making the Cantonese ground beef rice bowl is to marinate the beef in the sauce and cornstarch, then cook it in a wok. The marinating process is intended to eliminate the gamey taste of the beef, impart some flavor, and tenderize it a bit.

However, I found that step a bit redundant. The quality of ground beef in the US is so high that the result is great if you simply simmer the meat.

2. Top it with an egg

Many traditional recipes have you crack the eggs at the very end of the cooking, after you dish the beef onto the rice. The idea is to use the hot beef to quickly cook the egg, which forms a semi-raw texture. I personally prefer my eggs cooked to the point where the white is set and the yolk is sticky and runny. So I used a totally different approach and cooked the eggs with the beef and sauce. The end product looks a bit like shakshuka and is pretty stunning, if I do say so myself.

My default egg brand for use in daily cooking is Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs. I mentioned them in a previous post. In short, they are a B-Corp brand that sources fresh, high quality eggs from the small family farms they partner with, and then brings them to your grocery store. Unlike at mass-production facilities run by big corporations, their hens are truly humanely treated, and have access to fresh water and grass. As a result, you’ll notice that their eggshells are much thicker, the yolks have a more vibrant yellow color, and the egg whites have a thicker texture.

The other day I had a friend come over to cook something together. When he was cracking the eggs, he was surprised and said “Wow, the chicken that made this egg was very well-fed,”Because it took him three tries to crack the egg open. When he dropped the egg yolk into a glass cup from a height of a few inches after separating the eggs, and the yolk held its shape and didn’t break apart at all: a testament to the high quality of Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs.

3. How to tweak this recipe

The traditional Cantonese minced beef and eggs are usually braised with green peas. But you can use any veggies you have on hand to add some color and nutrition to your dish. For example, broccoli florets, sliced carrots, baby bok choy, and spinach all work very well. Or you can also use frozen veggie mix, frozen corn, or frozen green beans.

And of course, you can always use other types of ground meat. For example, ground chicken, ground turkey, and ground pork will work well with the sauce.

4. Ingredient replacement

The recipe uses both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. If you only have regular soy sauce, that’s totally OK. The purpose of the dark soy sauce is to add an appetizing brown color to the dish. Replacing it with regular soy sauce won’t affect the taste, but your dish might look a bit lighter than in the pictures shown here.

You can replace the Shaoxing wine with dry sherry or even Japanese rice wine. I often get questions from readers asking if they can skip the wine to make the dish halal. You can totally replace it with more stock/broth in this recipe.

Oyster sauce is the key ingredient in the dish. In case you need to make the dish gluten-free, you can check out my homemade oyster sauce that’s made with mushrooms. You can also purchase bottled gluten-free oyster sauce.

More easy egg recipes

• Easy Egg Curry
• Easy Egg Foo Young
• Chinese Egg Drop Soup
• 3-Ingredient Egg Fried Rice
• Classic Tomato and Egg Stir-Fry

If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag @omnivorescookbook and @peteandgerrys on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.

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Cantonese Ground Beef Rice and Eggs (窝蛋牛肉)

4.87 from 29 votes

It’s a super easy Cantonese minced beef bowl cooked with an oyster-sauce-based sauce, onion, green peas, and runny eggs. Top steamed rice or noodles with it to make a hearty and healthy meal. It’s also perfect to make ahead and use as meal-prep. {Gluten-Free Adaptable}

To make this dish gluten-free, use bottled gluten-free oyster sauce or homemade oyster sauce. Use dry sherry to replace Shaoxing wine. Use tamari or coconut aminos to replace light soy sauce and dark soy sauce.

Author: Maggie Zhu

Course: Main

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: weekday dinner

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 4 servings

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Ingredients

• 1 lb (450 g) ground beef

Sauce

• 2 cups chicken stock (or beef stock, or veggie stock)
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
• 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce (or soy sauce)
• 1/8 tsp white pepper powder

Cooking

• 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
• 1 yellow onion , minced
• 2 teaspoons ginger , minced
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1 tsp Sesame oil (optional)
• 5 large Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs

Serving

• 2 cups steamed rice

Instructions

• Mix the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.
• Heat the oil in a large nonstick pan (or carbon steel paover medium heat until hot. Add the ground beef and spread it with your spatula. Let it cook without touching until the bottom is browned. Break up the beef into smaller bits.
• Add the onions and ginger. Cook and stir occasionally, until onion turns tender and the edges are lightly browned, 5 minutes or so.
• Pour in the sauce. Stir to mix well. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Your pan should still have some sauce left, just enough to cover the beef. If not, you can gradually stir in more broth.
• Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl.
• Once the beef is cooked, add the frozen peas. Stir the cornstarch slurry again to dissolve the powder completely, and pour half of the slurry into the pot. Stir to mix well. The broth should thicken and will able to coat the back of a spoon. If the broth is still very thin, keep adding more cornstarch slurry to the broth and stir constantly, until it thickens.
• Crack 5 eggs onto the beef. Cover immediately and let it steam until the egg whites are cooked and the yolks are still runny, 2 to 3 minutes. Or you can cook the eggs to the degree you prefer. Make sure the sauce doesn’t come to a full boil, which will reduce the cornstarch's ability to thicken the sauce. Move the pan off the heat for a few seconds if the pan gets too hot.
• Once done, uncover the pan and remove it from the stove. Use a spatula or ladle to transfer the beef with an egg and some sauce onto a bowl of rice. Serve hot as a main dish.

Nutrition

Serving: 4g, Calories: 359kcal, Carbohydrates: 14.8g, Protein: 38.6g, Fat: 15.8g, Saturated Fat: 4.8g, Cholesterol: 314mg, Sodium: 1103mg, Potassium: 616mg, Fiber: 2.6g, Sugar: 6.2g, Calcium: 60mg, Iron: 19mg

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