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Marinated in the most delicious umami flavors of soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and of course a touch of coconut sugar for sweetness, this wok seared Vietnamese Shaking Beef (Bo Luc Lac) is served with the most amazing marinated onions and Vietnamese dipping sauce (nuoc cham).
The first time I had Bo Luc Lac, or Vietnamese Shaking Beef as it's often called, was at a restaurant called Phnom Penh in Vancouver. It was awesome.
I knew it existed before then, but to be honest, it always looked kind of boring so I never ordered it. I was wrong. SO wrong. This recipe is AWESOME.
Marinated in the most delicious umami flavors of soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and of course a touch of coconut sugar for sweetness, the beef is wok seared to perfection and served with yummy, yummy marinated onions. The flavors are similar to this Vietnamese Caramel Pork.
What is Bo Luc Lac?
Bo luc lac just means shaking the beef around the pan to cook it (hence the name Shaking Beef). The beef is typically marinated, stir fried, and served with pickled vegetables and rice.
The Ingredients
When choosing the beef for this recipe, you want to make sure you get a tender cut. I use Choice sirloin when I make it, but tenderloin would be even better if you're a baller.
And while the Nuoc Cham is optional, I highly recommend it as it adds a wonderful flavor. Don't worry, it's SUPER easy to make, and will last in the fridge for practically forever so you can use it for this Bun Thit Nuong (Pork Noodle Bowl) or this Beef Noodle Bowl. You can get the recipe for nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) HERE.
And lastly, my favorite part of this dish is actually the vinegar marinated onions. They complement the bold umami flavors of the beef perfectly. Pickled onions are also incredible served with this Bun Bo Hue or Chicken Pho.
The rest of the ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. I've also included Amazon links to buy them online.
Step by Step Instructions
Cut beef into 1-2" pieces. Then mix all your marinade ingredients in a bowl, add the beef, and refrigerate overnight.
About 30 minutes before you plan to start cooking, remove the beef from the fridge to let it come to room temperature.
While the beef is coming to room temperature, combine the vinaigrette ingredients in a bowl and add sliced onions.
Let the onions marinade for 30 minutes while you do you. Take a nap, do your toenails, watch some TV, play with kids. Whatever, you've got 30 minutes.
Once you're done playing around, drain the beef in a colander. We want to get as much of the excess marinade off the beef as we can, WITHOUT rinsing it.
Heat a wok or large cast iron skillet over high heat until it almost starts to smoke. Add the cooking oil.
Learn how to season a wok!
Add your beef in 2-3 separate batches and stir fry about 3-4 minutes, or until seared on all sides and cooked through.
**if you add all the beef at once, it crowds the pan and the beef will just simmer in juices instead of browning on the outside. Be patient - cook in at least 2 batches**
Once it's done cooking, remove your beef from the wok and serve on a plate with steamed white rice, sliced cucumber and the marinated onions.
To top it off, drizzle the bo luc lac with nuoc cham and serve a bowl of the nuoc cham on the side for dipping if desired. This step is optional.
How to Serve Bo Luc Lac
- With Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese fish sauce based dipping sauce).
- A Chili Soy Sauce or a simple lime, salt and pepper sauce work great also. Make lime dipping sauce with 3 teaspoons of FRESH lime juice, ½ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper.
- Serve it over watercress or any other green.
- While this is traditionally served with white rice, you can also try this Fried Rice recipe.
Expert Tips
- While the marinated onions can technically be optional, I highly recommend making them as they go with this dish so well.
- Marinade the beef for at least 12 hours - 24 hours will give you the best results.
- Fry the beef in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. This is important to get a nice crust and caramelization on the outside of the beef.
Tools Used
- I got this wok for my birthday a few years ago and I LOVE it - Buy a Wok.
- I love to use a skimmer strainer to remove the beef (and any thing else) from the wok - Buy a Skimmer Strainer.
Did you make this Bo Luc Lac (Shaking Beef)? Rate it and leave a comment below to let me know how it turned out!
Bo Luc Lac (Vietnamese Shaking Beef)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds beef sirloin or tenderloin, cut in 1-2" pieces
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 onion halved and sliced
- ½ cucumber sliced
- 2 tomatoes sliced
- 3 tablespoons sliced green onion
- 1 cup Nuoc cham (optional)
Marinade:
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
Vinaigrette:
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (1-2 limes)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
Instructions
Shaking Beef:
- Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl with meat. Stir thoroughly and refrigerate overnight (18-24 hours).
- Drain excess marinade from beef and let it come to room temperature (about 30-60 minutes).
- Heat a wok or large cast iron skillet over high heat until it almost starts to smoke. Add the cooking oil.
- Add half the beef and stir fry until cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside.
- Do the same with the second batch of beef.
- Top with marinated onions (see below) and garnish with green onions.
- Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce). (optional)
- Serve with steamed white rice, sliced cucumbers tomatoes and the remaining nuoc cham..
Marinaded Onions:
- Mix vinaigrette ingredients together with sliced onions. Let sit for 30 minutes.
Video
Expert Tips:
- While the marinated onions can technically be optional, I highly recommend making them as they go with this dish so well.
- Marinade the beef for at least 12 hours - 24 hours will give you the best results.
- Fry the beef in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. This is important to get a nice crust and caramelization on the outside of the beef.
Nutrition
Shelby
I don't cook very often but this turned out as good as I had at the restaurant! Thank you!
Danielle
I'm so glad you liked it!
Amanda J Gaskin
The onions in this are life changing. I seriously can't get enough of this dish, and your recipe is so perfect and easy to follow. I like using grape tomatoes cut in half because they are easy to school up and have tried it over rice and over rice noodles and both are fantastic (I prefer the noddles).
Danielle
Love the idea of using grape tomatoes, I'll have to try that. I'm so glad you liked the recipe! Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
Cheyanne @ No Spoon Necessary
I haven't had Shaking Beef since we moved from Orlando to NC, and your photos have me seriously CRAVING it IMMEDIATELY (and drooling)! For some reason I've never made it myself, and clearly I am missing out! Can't wait to try this!! Cheers!
Danielle
It's literally one of my favorite dishes to eat! I order it all the time in restaurants too. I hope you enjoy it Cheyanne!
Thao @ In Good Flavor
The photos are stunning, Danielle! The Bo Luc Lac is absolutely mouthwatering! I need to get some beef this weekend and make some!!
Danielle
Thanks Thao! It's one of my favorite dishes to order out, so I figured why not start making it at home LOL!
Claudia Lamascolo
Wow that beef looks fork tender !
Danielle
It totally is so tender!
Helen of Fuss Free Flavours
This sounds like a truly delicious dish. I imagine the flavours go perfectly with the beef. So easy to make too, ideal for an any day kind of meal.
Danielle
Thanks! It really has such a great flavor.
Neriz @ food and journeys
You had me at 'shaking'. 😀 I have never heard of this before, but then again, I don't know that much about Vietnamese food.
It looks amazing and I cannot wait to try it! I have all the ingredients EXCEPT coconut sugar. Sorry, I know you're hooked on it now. I only have palm sugar (yep, I'm hooked into thai cooking nowadays ;-)). You think it would affect the result?
Danielle
I think palm sugar would be perfect! I don't think it would affect the flavor much as the coconut sugar is not much different than palm sugar. Palm sugar is used in a alot of Vietnamese cooking too 🙂 I hope you enjoy it!
Jane
I will definitely be trying this recipe, it has some of my absolute favourite flavours in! Than you 🙂
Danielle
I hope you enjoy it Jane!
Linda
This has me drooling! I love Vietnamese food, well, really any Asian food, and this sounds absolutely awesome! I know it has to be good because when someone uses fish sauce and oyster sauce they know what they're doing. Toppings of onion, tomatoes and cucumbers and a dip in nuoc cham and I'd be in food heaven. Really nice recipe.
Danielle
Thanks Linda! I love all Asian food too, it just has so much great flavor. I'll literally use fish sauce on anything I can get away with!