Crispy Chilli Beef

  • 10MINS
  • 25MINS
  • Serves 4
  • 279KCAL

Here’s our slimming friendly version of Crispy Chilli Beef! A delicious fakeaway even if you are calorie counting or following a diet like Weight Watchers.

  • Dairy Free pinchofnom.com
  • Everyday Light pinchofnom.com
  • Fakeaways pinchofnom.com
Easy Peasy Crispy Chilli Beef pinchofnom.com

NutritionPer Serving

  • Calories279
  • Carbs19g
  • Protein32g
  • Fat7.2g
  • Saturates2.6g
  • Sugars10g

Crispy Chilli Beef - Pinch of Nom Slimming Recipes

For the full list of ingredients and comprehensive instructions, please see the recipe card at the end of this post. Before you scroll, there’s important stuff to know in the blurb!

You may ask yourself why did we come up with this Crispy Chilli Beef recipe when there are so many out there already? So let us explain. Since we started this website, we’ve been very aware of some recipes you find online not turning out as the pictures suggest. It’s a real pet peeve of ours!

We all know what it’s like. You find a recipe that looks amazing, off you pop to the supermarket to spend a small fortune on the ingredients. You gear yourself up thinking this is the recipe that will finally get you on Masterchef, then, disaster.

What you have bubbling away on your stove looks nothing like the mouth watering picture of the meal you’d set your heart on. And even worse, it tastes nothing like you expected.

So it ends up in the bin.

This is exactly the problem that a number of members on our Facebook page faced a few weeks ago with a Crispy Chilli Beef recipe. If you’re a regular Facebook user you’ll know that you see a lot of ‘recipes’ pop up in certain groups and on your timeline.

Some of them are pretty good, but sadly most of them are just spam, which will direct you to a website full of recipes that haven’t been tried or tested, and stock photos that have been passed off as the homemade version of the recipe.

The result is you waste an awful lot of time and money trying to achieve the impossible.

When you look at this recipe you may be put off slightly by the number of ingredients. Yes there are quite a few, but it’s well worth it, and we can guarantee this one tastes just as good as it looks!

What diets is this Crispy Chilli Beef recipe suitable for?

You can enjoy this Crispy Chilli Beef if you’re dairy free.

Please make sure to double or triple check all of your ingredients if you’re cooking for people with allergies.

Do you need any special ingredients to make Crispy Chilli Beef?

You will need some granulated sweetener. This is the type with the same consistency as sugar rather than the powdered type, which can leave a bitter/chemical aftertaste.

If you chose to use a powdered sweetener, then please check how it compares to sugar. In some cases you’ll need to use less, as powdered sweeteners weigh less. The type of sweetener we use has the same weight and sweetness as sugar so you can substitute for the real stuff if you wish.

We use Franks Red Hot Wings sauce in this recipe which is available in many supermarkets. However, you could always substitute for another hot sauce like Tabasco or Sriracha if that’s all you have.

Hints & Tips

Below we added some of our communities most common hints and tips. We hope you find them useful.

3
Crispy Chilli Beef & Salt & Pepper Chips
Cooked beef in the airfryer which made it more crispier than oven.
NEW TIP
Family fave
Bulk cook your sauce and freeze in freezer bags laid flat. Weigh out and freeze the raw steak and freeze that too for a quick midweek meal
Go easy on the egg and flour so it stays crispy
1
Favourite fakeaway
We switched the beef for chicken strips and lightly coated them in flour absolutely banging!!
Delicious 🤤
I pan fried fillet steak with light oil spray instead of crisping up rump steak. Also added some extra veg that needed using. A family fave in our house, between myself & my husband, we have lost 2 stone in weight using pinch of nom! Best books 🙌🏼
Crispy Chilli Beef
I started prepping before realising I had no eggs so coated the beef in flour only & airfried the beef until crispy - it worked really well. I also halved the ingredients for as only two of us
Use of flour
Don’t overly coat the beef in flour. Just drag it through lightly
1st time fakeaway
Use baking parchment and make sure you prepare your ingredients ahead of time
2
A family favourite, one of our Saturday night fakeaways
If you have an air fryer, coat the steak in cornflour (no egg needed) and pop on air fry for 15 minutes at 200 degrees. Keep moving it around every 5 minutes and it is amazingly crispy
Going back to my old books - forgot just how good this is
Cut the steak into really thin slices and left in the oven slightly longer. Didn't mix the beef with the sauce until on the plate ready to eat so it kept really crispy
Ingredient prep
I started to feel a bit overwhelmed as there are quite a few steps in this recipe compared to others, next time I make it I will have everything prepped and ready before staring to cook.
Soo delicious! Make sure you create to you own spice level
This was so easy to make and so tasty! I did make mine too hot! So I’ll make sure to add less chilli flakes next time. I suggest adding more or less flakes/chilli sauce to your liking. Can’t wait to make again!
Yummy crispy chilli beef
Made completely gluten free due to dietary needs. Tastes absolutely amazing and nice bit of spice 🌶 Added some rice noodles as a carb. Real hearty meal.
1
Absolutely delicious perfect for a Saturday night fakeaway
Mix the beef and cornflour and egg in a sandwich bag- less messy
Hot hot hot!
Made as part of multiple dishes for a weekend takeaway - amazing!!
I think this would work with chicken or pork if you weren't a beef fan!
Crispy Chilli ‘Not beef’
I used meat free beef style pieces to re create the PON crispy chilli beef. Tasty and satisfying!
I added a sprinkling of sesame seeds just before plating up!
Swapped out the pork for chicken breast
I added noodles to the recipe with egg fried rice and prawn crackers for the side dishes. The perfect Fakeaway!

We love hearing from you, submit any tips or tricks you have for this dish and we’ll review them and add some of them here. Just click here.

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‘Love this with salt & pepper chips and chip shop curry sauce. So easy, so quick and it’s just the same but so much better for us! We love this!’

Lorna B

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There are lots of  high quality granulated sweeteners available from the supermarket, such as Canderel Sugarly, and Natvia.

We LOVE using our wok for dishes like these. It’s great for so many Asian dishes and when you need to cook something quickly and evenly!

How many calories are in this Crispy Chilli Beef?

There are 279 calories in each portion of this Crispy Chilli Beef. This means it falls into our Special Occasion recipe category, you can find all of our other Weekly Indulgence recipes here.

This Crispy Chilli Beef recipe fits in perfectly if you’re following a calorie controlled diet, and works well with any one of the major diet plans such as Weight Watchers.

As a guide, an average man needs around 2,500kcal (10,500kJ) a day to maintain a healthy body weight. For an average woman, that figure is around 2,000kcal (8,400kJ) a day. Obviously, if your goal is to lose weight then you might want to adjust these slightly! You can read more about these recommendations on the NHS website.

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 190-200°C.

Step 2

Season the strips of beef, then dip each one into the beaten egg, then quickly drag it through the flour to give a light coating.

Step 2 pinchofnom.com

Step 3

Place each piece of coated beef on a baking tray sprayed with a fair bit of low calorie cooking spray, then give the strips a spray too. You could even put it on a piece of baking parchment to ensure it doesn’t stick.

Step 4

Cook for 20-25 minutes, until the beef is crispy. You can turn it over towards the end if needed.

Step 5

While the beef is cooking, spray a wok with some low calorie cooking spray. Then over a medium/hot heat fry the peppers, carrots, onion, spring onion, chilli flakes, garlic and ginger.

Step 6

Cook for 5 minutes, then add the lime juice, granulated sweetener, soy sauce, rice vinegar and honey.

Step 6 pinchofnom.com

Step 7

Stir, then add a couple of drops of Franks sauce and the 100ml of beef stock.

Step 7 pinchofnom.com

Step 8

Allow to cook for a minute and then add the cooked beef strips.

Step 8 pinchofnom.com

Step 9

Stir well and serve with your choice of accompaniment.

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Whatever accompaniment you choose, don’t forget to account for the extra calories and/or other nutritional values.

How do you know when Crispy Chilli Beef is cooked?

The beef is cooked when it is crispy on the outside. This should take approx 25 minutes in an oven preheated to 190-200°C.

Standard advice here in the UK is to cook food until it has reached 70°C and stayed at that temperature for 2 minutes. This is to keep your family safe.

There are 2 things to note with this recipe is this. First, traditionally Crispy Beef is cooked in a wok with a load of oil. That’s what gives the meat that crispy texture. However, this isn’t very slimming friendly, so we bake the beef strips in the oven instead.

Whilst this does make the meat crispy, it will never be ‘quite’ as crispy as the traditional method. But if you leave it until the last minute to add it to the sauce then it will retain it’s crispiness for a bit longer.

So the secret is don’t leave the meat in the sauce for too long.

Secondly, if you prefer a bit more sauce you can add a little extra stock, soy sauce and rice vinegar.

How long can you keep Crispy Chilli Beef in the fridge?

Once you’ve put it out, ideally you should eat it within 4 hours.

If you allow any leftovers to cool, make sure to refrigerate in a container with a lid and chill.  You can keep leftovers of Crispy Chilli Beef in the fridge for approximately 3 days or so.

However, if leftovers are stored in the sauce, the beef will lose its crispy coating. We would advise setting any extra beef aside and storing separately to the sauce to prevent this.

Can I freeze Crispy Chilli Beef?

We don’t advise freezing Crispy Chilli Beef as the crispy coating will end up soggy!

How do I reheat Crispy Chilli Beef?

If you’ve stored the beef and sauce separately you can reheat the beef for around 10 minutes in an oven that has been preheated to 190-200°C. Make sure it’s piping hot before serving.

Place the sauce in a microwave proof container with loosely fitting lid and heat for 4-7 minutes until piping hot.

That being said, this dish is by far best when cooked fresh!

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Crispy Chilli Beef

Here’s our slimming friendly version of Crispy Chilli Beef! A delicious fakeaway even if you are calorie counting or following a diet like Weight Watchers.
  • Prep Time
    10 MINS
  • Cook Time
    25 MINS
  • KCals 279
  • Carbs 19G

Ingredients

  • 500 g lean rump steak cut into thin strips
  • 1 egg beaten
  • 1.5 tbsp self raising flour
  • 6 tbsp soy sauce, preferably dark
  • 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • 1.5 cm piece ginger peeled and finely chopped
  • 3 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 red pepper deseeded and sliced
  • 1/2 onion sliced
  • 5 spring onions chopped
  • 1 lime juice only
  • 1 carrot cut into thin strips
  • 2 good pinches chilli flakes or 1/2 chopped red chilli
  • 2 drops Franks Buffalo Wings Hot Sauce or another hot/chilli sauce
  • 2 tsp granulated sweetener
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1/2 Oxo cube made up with 100ml boiling water
  • low calorie cooking spray
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper

We use a fan assisted oven for all of our recipes. Check out our oven temperature conversion guide.

Please do not screenshot this. Recipes are updated often

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 190-200°C.
  2. Season the strips of beef, then dip each one into the beaten egg, then quickly drag it through the flour to give a light coating.
  3. Place each piece of coated beef on a baking tray sprayed with a fair bit of low calorie cooking spray, then give the strips a spray too. You could even put it on a piece of baking parchment to ensure it doesn't stick.
  4. Cook for 20-25 minutes, until the beef is crispy. You can turn it over towards the end if needed.
  5. While the beef is cooking, spray a wok with some low calorie cooking spray. Then over a medium/hot heat, fry the peppers, carrots, onion, spring onion, chilli flakes, garlic and ginger.
  6. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the lime juice, granulated sweetener, soy sauce, rice vinegar and honey.
  7. Stir, then add a couple of drops of Franks sauce and the 100ml of beef stock.
  8. Allow to cook for a minute and then add the cooked beef strips.
  9. Stir well and serve with your choice of accompaniment.

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218 comments

See what others have to say

AlexSaturday 7th July 2018

Could you do this in the actifry instead of the oven?

Reply

Zoe MurphySunday 1st April 2018

Hiya, was just wondering if you knew if this would work with cornflour instead? Thanks 🙂

Reply

RebeccaThursday 8th February 2018

Could you use plain flour instead of self raising? Is there an alternative for the rice vinegar? I have white wine vienegar?

Reply

AliSaturday 3rd February 2018

Could this be made with chicken instead of beef ?

Reply

Adam MackieMonday 22nd January 2018

Just made this (without the sweetener as I can’t stand the stuff) and I was absolutely gobsmacked on how good it was. Have now went and looked up other recipes. Thanks.

Reply

AmyMonday 15th January 2018

What about smash instead of flour n cook the beef in the actifry with fry lite?

Reply

CarolineSunday 14th January 2018

Where can i buy franks hot wing sauce or what should i use instead? Also could you do this in an active fry?

Reply

SamSunday 14th January 2018

Hi all

Nit tried this recipe yet as my daughter is not keen on beef. Would you be able to swap the beef for chicken and use chicken stock instead? Help
Guys as I’m new to pon recipes. Thanks in advace

Reply

Elaine DunneFriday 12th January 2018

Hi. I’m making this for dinner tonight.. I only have plain flour can I use that. Thank you

Reply

John PalmerThursday 11th January 2018

Fantastic recipe. Made it a couple of times now

Reply

elaine haycockMonday 8th January 2018

hi can you use cornflour instead of sr flr ?

Reply

LauraSaturday 6th January 2018

Assuming this could be done with chicken too?
It sounds amazing but my family prefers the chicken over beef. Can’t wait to try it!

Reply

Shauna GSaturday 25th November 2017

Hi, I have made this before and it is amazing. This week I couldn’t get spring onions. Are scallions similar? Could I use them in this dish or should I just leave them out? Thanks

Reply

Lesley UndrillMonday 13th November 2017

I made this for friends at the weekend and they really loved it. I did make more sauce than shown as I made before and felt it could do with a bit more. A big hit, thanks Pinchofnom.

Reply

MargaretSunday 5th November 2017

Hi if I make this with Chicken instead of beef would I need to use chicken stock??

Reply

tara mcnultySunday 22nd October 2017

hi id love to make this but have no buffalo sauce i do have just a ht sauce do you think it work as well? thanks

Reply

Mrs CoxWednesday 9th August 2017

Do you need to add the sweetener the one you recommend is very expensive thank you

Reply

    Emma TMonday 11th September 2017

    Hi Mrs. Cox,

    You can use any sweetener you like – we like Sukrin so use that in all our recipes ????

    Reply

denise PettittSaturday 22nd July 2017

Fab recipe whole family loves it!

Reply

    Emma TTuesday 12th September 2017

    Hi Denise,

    So glad you enjoyed it!

    Reply

Ann MarronSunday 16th July 2017

Did mine with chicken as not a fan of beef, was amazing. Am always dubious when I’m told “it’s just like the one from the Chinese”, but this really is!!! Thank-you PON!!

Reply

    Emma TTuesday 12th September 2017

    Hi Ann,

    So glad you enjoyed it!

    Reply

Jayne grimesSaturday 15th July 2017

Hi how many people does this recipe serve please xx

Reply

    Emma TTuesday 12th September 2017

    Hi Jayne,

    The serving size is available on the recipe ????

    Reply

JoMonday 15th May 2017

Could you use coconut flour ?

Reply

    KateTuesday 16th May 2017

    Hi Jo
    We’ve not tried, but I would imagine coconut flour wouldn’t crisp up as much

    Reply

CassieSaturday 8th April 2017

Hi can I use tabasco sauce instead of the frank’s sauce? Xxx

Reply

    KateTuesday 11th April 2017

    Hi Cassie
    We prefer Franks, but you can use whatever hot sauce you like.

    Reply

Cate GoddardSaturday 1st April 2017

This looks lovely. Do you think it would work with pork steaks chopped up?

Reply

    KateWednesday 5th April 2017

    Hi Cate
    Yes it would work with pork, although pork does tend to be a little drier than beef or chicken

    Reply

SusanThursday 16th March 2017

Has anyone worked the calorie value – just was curious ?

Reply

    KateFriday 17th March 2017

    Hi Susan
    The calorie count is just above the ingredients in the recipe itself

    Reply

TracieTuesday 7th March 2017

Made this as part of a Chinese ‘banquet’ for my mum and dad. Dad LOVES crispy beef from the Chinese…..I don’t have Sukrin so I used a spoonful of sugar and I used gluten free flour but other than that…I followed the recipe. Dad declared – “that’s the best crispy beef I’ve ever had” so….thank you Pinch of Nom…it truly was an epic part of the Meal!

Reply

    KateFriday 10th March 2017

    Hi Tracie
    Glad you all liked it

    Reply

LyndaWednesday 8th February 2017

Very nice. Very authentic tasting. Took me way longer to make than suggested time though. Thanks for the recipe!

Reply

AliThursday 26th January 2017

Just wondering if the weight watchers points are pro points or smart points? Thanks

Reply

    KateThursday 26th January 2017

    Hi Ali
    They are Smart Points

    Reply

KayThursday 19th January 2017

SO glad you enjoyed it – one of my favs too!

Reply

Karen McAleeseMonday 9th January 2017

I’m just beginning my sweet journey and have been following a couple of th groups for a few weeks to familiarize myself with the plan…Your recipes are fabulous. Thank you.

Reply

plasterers bristolTuesday 13th December 2016

Oh wow this looks delicious. I love this type of food. Thanks simon

Reply

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