Taiwanese Braised Beef Noodle Soup
Quick answerRed braised (hong shao) beef noodle soup is a Taiwanese dish from the Kaohsiung area, where soy sauce gives the broth its colour. Sear 500 g beef chuck, fry ginger and the spices, add tomato sauce, bean paste and soy sauce, then 2 litres of water with carrot and radish, simmer for 60 minutes and serve over noodles. Also called hong shao niu rou mian (红烧牛肉面), red braised beef noodle soup.
The craves for Taiwan Beef Noodle Soup was real when I was spending my time as a private chef in Taiwan. Due to my cravings, I decided to go ahead in an attempt to replicate this Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup recipe! Read more on Taiwan Beef Noodle Recipe!
What type of noodles is Taiwanese Beef Noodle?
Well, to begin with, there is plenty of variety of beef noodle soup throughout the whole world. To name a few, there is this Vietnamese Pho, Hong Kong Beef Brisket Noodle, Tomato Beef Noodle, and lots more (my craves for beef noodle is real), the Taiwanese version is the red braised soup base. Where is the soup is made from sauteeing the beef cubes with some tomato sauce.
What is the Key for a Good Beef Soup?
What does it take to make the best beef noodle? Of course, the raw ingredients, more importantly, the beef quality itself, the quality of the soup all depends on the quality of the meat. Whereas in Taiwan, their local beef quality is actually pretty good. If you could not get your hands on Taiwanese beef (I think they export their beef abroad), worry not, I made this recipe with USDA beef, which I think is easily accessible to many people is many countries in the world.
Best Red Braised Beef Noodle
Red braised or “Hong Shao”, is when soy sauce is added during the process of making the soup and this red braised beef noodle soup was invented in Taiwan. I did some research to find out what makes Taiwanese Beef Soup Noodle different from the others? To my findings besides using good quality meats, they actually added a little bit of tomato sauce into the soup which makes it slightly red in color and also improves overall aroma!
In order to find out the best recipe, I actually went around asking my Taiwanese friends and they shared their family recipe with me, which I combine all of it into a master recipe below!
Author have a say…
Red Braised Beef Noodle is Taiwanese dish created during the civil war era in the Kaohsiung area. There is variety of beef noodle around the world and here are some of the well known beef noodle – clear soup beef noodle, beef brisket beef noodle, Vietnamese Pho, red braised beef noodle, tomato beef noodle and I believe there is plenty more variation that I have not come across. Anyhow, here is my take to the Taiwanese Red Braised Beef Noodle!
Source : Wiki
The recipe
Taiwanese Braised Beef Noodle Soup
Red Braised Beef Noodle is a Taiwanese dish created during the civil war era in the Kaohsiung area. There is variety of beef noodles around the world and here are some of the well-known beef noodles – clear soup beef noodle, beef brisket beef noodle , Vietnamese Pho , red braised beef noodle, tomato beef noodle and I believe there is plenty more variation that I have not come across. Anyhow, here is my take to the Taiwanese Red Braised Beef Noodle!
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 1 hr 30 min
- Total
- 1 hr 45 min
- Course
- Main Course
- Cuisine
- Chinese
- Keywords
- beef noodle, beef noodle soup, beef soup, taiwan beef noodle, taiwan beef noodle soup
Ingredients
Instructions
Cut beef into cubes.
Cut red carrot and radish in to bite-size.
Clean and roughly cut ginger with skin on.
Preheat stockpot with cooking oil.
Add beef cubes and sear to brown.
Switch heat to medium and add cut ginger and fry to aromatic.
Add cinnamon stick, clove, star anise, bay leaf, and five spice powder in and lightly toss it.
Add tomato sauce and bean paste and thoroughly fry it.
Add soy sauce and then switch heat to high.
Add water.
Add red carrot and radish. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 60 minutes.
After 60 minutes, taste the broth and season with salt and sugar to your personal preferences.
Watch how it's made
Notes
Serving Suggestion
- Serve with hand-pulled noodles and chopped scallion over it. (Make your own noodles at home)
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 506 kcal
- Carbohydrates
- 16 g
- Protein
- 37 g
- Fat
- 34 g
- Saturated fat
- 10 g
- Cholesterol
- 115 mg
- Sodium
- 1968 mg
- Fibre
- 4 g
- Sugar
- 9 g
Estimates only.
Questions
What does "red braised" mean?
Hong shao: soy sauce goes into the soup as it cooks, which gives the red-brown colour.
Which beef should I use?
Beef chuck. USDA beef works well and is easy to find.
What is taucu in English?
Fermented soybean paste. The recipe takes dou ban sauce or taucu.
How long does it take?
About 1 hour 45 minutes, 90 minutes of it braising.
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6 comments
Charles Lim · 20 Oct 2018
Hi Ethan.
Just watched the video on the Taiwan beef noodles…its awesome! It’s one of my comfort food and will definitely going to try it. Looking forward to more awesome recipes from you.
Regards
Charles Lim
Ethan WongEthan · 20 Oct 2018
Hi Charles!
I am glad that i like it! Beef noodles has always been one of my go-to-comfort food! ?
Trinar · 17 Nov 2018
Hey Ethan,
Thanks sooo much for this recipe, it’s such a lovely comfort dish! I tried it out and am soo happy with how it turned out!
I’m looking forward to learning more of these traditional recipes that remind me of my grandma !! ?
Ethan WongEthan · 19 Nov 2018
I am happy that you like it! Yes it is one of my comfort food too! Love it!
Ed McCord · 21 Mar 2022
This entry seems to follow trends toward the romanticizing ethnic food by emphasizing the quality of the ingredients, with the observation that “the quality of the soup all depends on the quality of the meat.” The quality of beef in Taiwan when this dish became popular was not in fact very good (think beef from water-buffalo that outlived their usefulness as plow animals). Indeed, red-cooked beef noodles owed its popularity, as an inexpensive and filling meal for common people, to the way in which it could transform low quality or lesser cuts of beef into a tender and tasty meal. (Something that is true of beet stews the world over). Even so many people saved money by asking for red-cooked beef noodle “soup”–which used the broth without any actual beef added–and still very good. The secret to good “hongshao niurou mian” is the spices for flavor and the long braising to make the beef tender. The other significant feature of these noodles as I recall then was that they were “hot” (peppery). This recipe seems to have been altered (to suit Western tastes?) by removing the heat. This heat should come from “hot bean paste (ladoubanjiang)” (not in place of but in addition to regular black bean paste). This should be substituted for the tomato sauce in this recipe–which seems an odd non-traditional addition. But the main point again is that wonderful results do not require top quality beef.
Ethan WongEthan · 23 Apr 2022
Hey Ed, yes, I agree that this noodle dish actually tasted good even without the beef itself.
Regarding the “hot” (peppery) that you’ve mentioned, not all shops/stalls in Taiwan make their soup “hot”.
In fact, I’ve been to many hung shao niu rou mian shops in Taipei (I was in Taipei for over a year as a personal chef, spend my time there trying lots of local delicacies), and I tasted more tomato paste than douban jiang.
Some heavier with spices, some more with douban jiang.
In general, from my observation, most shops have chili sauces for you to add yourself, which I think is logical as everyone’s preferences/tolerance towards “hot” differs.
anyway, great input, hope more readers like you participate in the comment section.