Beef Pepper Rice (à la Pepper Lunch)

Let's channel everyone's favourite Pepper Lunch order: beef pepper rice is a simple but comforting dish with only a handful of ingredients!

Pepper Lunch is a Japanese chain restaurant, or 'fast-steak' restaurant as they call themselves. In terms of the history of the restaurant, it was first created in 1994 by Kunio Ichinose, chef and inventor. He was responsible for the cooking method using very hot metal plates whereby raw meat, vegetables and rice are placed on and cooked in front of the customer. There are Pepper Lunch stores worldwide, over 350 in fact! While they have a wide ranging menu including curries and pastas, their signature dish is the beef pepper rice.

Beef pepper rice is a simple, but delicious dish combining thinly sliced beef, corn kernels, onions, and spring onions, with a sweet and salty sauce. There are countless recreations of this dish online - it's easy to make and you can serve it in this pan you've cooked it in.

The sauce combines soy and oyster sauces with honey for sweetness, minced garlic and ginger and black pepper. It provides the dish with a rich, umami flavour that soaks into the rice and beef as it cooks in the pan. For my recipe, I used a piece of rump steak, which I froze and then allowed to defrost for an hour or so. This short amount of defrosting time makes the meat soft enough to cut through but still firm enough that you can slice incredibly thin pieces. For your beef pepper rice, thin strips of beef are essential so that they cook quickly.

Watch the video for this recipe here. If you make this one, don't forget to tag me on TikTok or Instagram. I love to see it!

Beef Pepper Rice

Let's channel everyone's favourite Pepper Lunch order: beef pepper rice is a simple but comforting dish with only a handful of ingredients!

5 from 1 vote

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Cuisine: Japanese

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 2 serves

Author: Andrea Love

Ingredients

Sauce

• 3 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1.5 tablespoon honey
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 2 teaspoon knob ginger, minced (about 2cm piece)
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Rice

• 1 tablespoon neutral oil
• ½ onion sliced
• 250 g beef thinly sliced
• 1.5 cups cooked short grain rice
• ¾ cup corn kernels
• 2 spring onions sliced
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Instructions

• In a small bowl combine all of the sauce ingredients and stir together.
• Heat oil in a pan over high heat. Add sliced onion and cook until browned and soft. Push into the centre of the pan. Turn the heat down to medium.
• Press your cooked rice into a small bowl and then turn out on top of the cooked onions.
• Lay your thinly sliced beef around the rice. Pour over corn kernels and sliced spring onions, and then place the cube of butter right in the centre atop the rice.
• Pour over your sauce and then start mixing everything together. Spend about five minutes or so mixing all your ingredients so that the rice can absorb the sauce and your beef is cooked through. Serve immediately.

Notes

• Before serving, press the rice into the pan while still on the stove top to crisp up the bottom layer a little.
• At Pepper Lunch, you can also add cheese your your beef pepper rice and if this is your thing (personally I am about it), then sprinkle over mozzarella and allow to melt before serving.