Air fryer crispy chilli beef
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Serves 4
The air fryer is brilliant for making foods with crispy textures, so this takeaway-inspired recipe works a treat.
By Jules Mercer
Ingredients
- steaks: 4 x 150g/5½oz minute beef steaks, very thinly sliced into strips
- soy sauce: 1 tbsp soy sauce
- peppers: 2 peppers, red or yellow, seeds removed and cut into chunks
- onions: 2 onions, cut into 2cm/¾in chunks
- chilli: 1 red chilli, seeds removed, sliced
- vegetable oil: 1½ tbsp vegetable oil
- cornflour: 3 tbsp cornflour
- five-spice powder: 2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
- spring onions: 2 spring onions, sliced on an angle, to serve
- noodles: freshly cooked rice or noodles, to serve (optional)
For the glaze
- sesame seeds: 2 tbsp sesame seeds (a mix of black and white, or whatever you have)
- white wine vinegar: 5 tbsp white wine vinegar
- balsamic vinegar: 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- soy sauce: 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- brown sugar: 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- ketchup: 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
Method
Mix the beef strips with the soy sauce in a bowl. Set aside to marinate for 10 minutes.
Heat the air fryer to 190C. Toss the pepper, onion and chilli in ½ tablespoon vegetable oil and cook for 10 minutes.
To make the glaze, set aside about a teaspoon of the sesame seeds for sprinkling. Mix the remaining seeds with all the glaze ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over the vegetables and return to the air fryer for 2 minutes. Remove and set aside in a bowl.
Heat the air fryer to 200C. Add the cornflour, Chinese five-spice and remaining vegetable oil to the marinated beef mixture and mix well to coat. Lay the coated beef slices in the air fryer in a single layer, with space around them for the air to circulate. You may need to do this in two batches.
Cook for 7 minutes until the beef strips have crisped up. Remove the tray halfway through and shake so that the beef pieces cook evenly.
Once all the beef is cooked, pop the pepper and onion back in the air fryer for 2 minutes to heat up, then remove and mix with the crispy beef. Top with the spring onions and reserved sesame seeds and serve with rice or noodles, if using.
Recipe tips
This recipe will work well with chicken too.
To prepare this dish ahead of time, marinate the beef up to 3 hours in advance. The vegetables can be cooked the day before.
The beef is best eaten just after cooking.
