Braised beef brisket and tendon is the number one comfort food in China. In the province of Guangdong, (Southern China) it ranks the same as Wonton in most noodle houses. Some noodle houses even advertise beef brisket as their specialty. It is always on my to do list every time when I travel to Hong Kong – finding a bowl of noodle with a perfect beef brisket and tendon!
Note:
- Use boneless beef short rib plate, (牛坑腩) just ask your butcher to remove the long bone
- It takes time, about three hours; it’ll taste even better when you eat it the next day
- Blanch the beef and tendon first before cutting them to cube
Ingredients:
Beef short rib plate (boneless) 2 lbs 牛坑腩
Beef tendon 2 lbs
White radish 1x cut to small cubes
Ginger 1 big piece-cut to pieces
Garlic 6 cloves
Shallot x1 cut to pieces
Dark soy sauce 4 tablespoons
Light soy sauce 4 tablespoons
Rock sugar 50 gm
Oil 4 tablespoons
Cooking wine 4 tablespoons
Water 8 cups
Making the magic sauce:
Salted Red bean curb 3 tablespoons 南乳
Hoisin sauce 1 ½ tablespoons
Ground bean sauce 3 tablespoons
Oyster sauce 1 ½ tablespoons
Sugar 1 tablespoon
Garlic (minced) 1 tablespoon
Shallot (minced) 1 tablespoon
Ginger (minced) 1 tablespoon
Oil 2 tablespoons
Method:
Browning the beef and tendon:
- Blanch the brisket and tendon in a big pot of boiling water for ten minutes. Take beef out and go through a cold water bath immediately. Cut up brisket and tendon to small cubes.
- Heat oil in wok and put in ginger, garlic and shallot. Put in beef brisket and tendon cubes once you can smell the garlic and ginger smoking. Brown the brisket and tendon for five minutes and turn over often to avoid burning.
- Splash the cooking wine to the edge of the wok and let it evaporate. Keep turning the brisket so essence of the wine can mix in with the beef.
- Take everything out from the wok and separate the brisket and tendon. (Tendon takes an extra hour to cook)
Prepare the magic sauce:
- Heat wok to medium heat, put in two tablespoons of oil. Add minced garlic, ginger, and shallot to the wok and let it cook for a minute but avoid burning. Put in red bean curb sauce, hoisin sauce, ground bean sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Mix well and let it simmer for two minutes so everything can blend in together.
Braising the tendon and the brisket:
- Place tendon in the wok with four cups of water, dark sauce, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and add rock sugar, stir well till it boils again. Turn heat down to medium low, cover it with a lid and let it simmer for an hour.
- Turn heat to high. Add beef brisket at the end of an hour. Mix well with the tendon and allow liquid to boil again. Cover with a lid and turn heat down to medium low and let it simmer for another hour.
- Add white radish at the end of the second hour, mix well. Cover it with the lid and allow simmer for another hour. If the brisket is not tender enough, you can cook it for another half an hour. Turn heat to high to reduce excess liquid if necessary.
- As an option, mix four teaspoons of cornstarch with four teaspoons of water to thicken the sauce. Add a few chopped scallions and cilantro on top before serving, dinner is served.
- You can serve with wonton noodle, fan rice noodle, ramen, or plain rice. It’ll be a happiest place in the house!
eddy's kitchen 
Thank you for this very detailed recipe. The Cantonese style braised beef is one of my absolute favorite. I recently discovered a Chinese meat shop that sells this prized cut of brisket (牛坑腩). I’ll be trying out this recipe very soon. Thanks for sharing!
This’ my favorite dish in Chinese restaurants. I’ve tried to cook it several times in my own way. Not too bad but absolutely not perfect. I’ll try your recipe next time I cook this!
Hi Eddy,
In the step where you start to add the tendons to the wok, you instructed to add water, soy sauces, sugar and oyster sauce. How much oyster sauce should I add? The recipe calls for 1.5 tblsp but that went to the magic sauce. Thanks!
This is by far the best braised beef recipe I’ve made. My family and even my picky 8 year-old loved it. Definitely a keeper!
Hi Eddy, I asked my mom if your recipe was a good one and her reply was that my grandmother always made it this way. I’d say that’s a pretty good compliment!
Thank you Eddy! This is the first recipe that reasonably cooks all the components to extract the maximum flavor and texture. I especially love the detailed pictures and techniques for successful execution. I haven’t cooked this yet, but I can tell this is going to be phenomenal. I am blessed with easy access to many Asian grocers. During this unprecedented pandemic, I’m going to cook some amazing food with your invaluable help.
My friend and i first had beef tendon done this way when we went to a restaurant in Arlington Virginia. Our Chinese guest said that it was the best he’d had since he was in Canton. This recipe is the first I’ve found that comes as close as I can remember to that dish.
By the way, the beef tendon seems to help reduce the usual muscle soreness that follows the day after a hard physical workout.
I love Cantonese-style braised beef brisket but I never knew that I should have been buying beef short rib plate – I always wondered why my brisket cuts didn’t look as fatty! Thank you for all the photos, too – I would never had identified this cut of meat otherwise!
Very helpful. Will try the recipe.
Eddie, when do I add the other 4 cups of water?
Dear Eddy,
我剛構思
“薑葱陳皮栗子炆鴨”
不知能否用 “燒鴨” 代替??
想慳工夫免去炸鴨的麻煩。
但不知用多少時間去炆 請指教。
謝過了。
Tom
Hi Tom,
你可以用燒鴨來到做炆鴨，很多中下餐館用賣不出去的燒鴨做「鴨腿麵」以減少成本！但是燒鴨本身乃用花椒八角五香粉肉桂等等做香料，這種香味會走入你想做的粟子陳皮炆鴨，同時燒鴨的鴨皮不會一開就化. 這樣會影響你的陳皮鴨. 同時燒鴨多用三磅左右的鴨做，三磅鴨燒好後有二磅半，做炆鴨太細了！。我都是提議你用新鮮4磅光鴨，用老抽上色再炸，然後再用上等蠔油頭抽粟子陳皮炆兩小時, 收乾醬汁然後上碟食用，鴨不用切開，可完隻上，在桌上用刀叉在客人面前分開，大方得體！
Eddy
Best dish! I’ve made this several times for the healing properties of the beef tendon.
Thanks for the recipe!
3 quesions :
– instead of wok, can I use regular stainless steel pot?
– instead of wok, can I use instant pot (pressure cooker)? If so, how long should I leave it in for?
– can I add Chu Hou paste? If so, do I need to reduce other paste in the recipe?
Answers:
1) yes, you can use a stainless pot instead of a wok.
2) if you use a pressure cooker, you can reduce the cooking time. However, different pressure cookers provide different pressure setting. Also, depending on the sea level elevation of where you live can also determine the cooking time. One thing for sure, pressure cooker only tenderizes the meat quicker. It won’t allow the sauce (taste) to penetrate the meat quicker. You should leave the meat in the pot for at least an hour after the cooking time.
3) yes you can add Chu Hou paste. just reduce the other sauces in the recipe. The unique sauce combination in the recipe provides the same taste effect as the chu hou sauce.
Enjoy your beef brisket and I hope the above answers help.
Eddy
Thanks Eddy!
If I use 1lb of beef brisket and 1lb of tendon, do I need to cut the recipe in half?
Hi Eddy,
How many cups of water do you use for this recipe? It says 8 cups in the list of ingredients. In the recipe, you say to add 4 cups of water when adding tendon to the wok.
Hi Julie,
Sorry for the confusion! The yardstick to measure the amount of water to use is simple. You need to use enough water just to cover the tendon first during the first part of the braising using four cups of water and add four more cups water when put in the brisket. So the total amount of water used is eight cups, four first and four later. My apology for the mix-up! Enjoy this recipe!
Many thanks for sharing this childhood favorite.
It is still my all-time favorite dish! Glad you like it!
Best recipe! Everytime I cook this dish for gathering, it’s only the empty pot I go home with!
Glad you like it!