This One Pan Mongolian Beef Noodles is a family-size meal where the noodles cook with everything else in the same pan – no need to cook them separately! Tossed with my favourite Mongolian Lamb sauce and loaded with broccoli , this is a complete dinner in 15 minutes, start to finish.
One Pan Mongolian Beef Noodles with Broccoli
It seems like only yesterday that I first shared a cheeky method where I cook noodles in the same pan as the beef, vegetables and sauce rather than boiling them separately (it was 2019!!!). I was a little skeptical about how it would be received – one pot pasta was widely accepted, but noodles?? That was pretty outlandish back then!
But it was really well received, and I was relieved – firstly, not to be disgracefully admonished (it does happen!), and secondly, because the method does work. Unorthodox, yes. But it doesn’t compromise the end result for convenience, and it’s darn tasty.
Since then, I’ve shared a chicken one, Thai peanut one, mushroom one and chow mein. Today’s sparkling new addition is beefy, flavoured with the tasty sauce from Mongolian Lamb, with bright green broccoli tangled through flavour-coated noodles. It’s a big batch that will serve a family of four, and will take you 15 minutes from start to finish to get on the table.
Ingredients in One-pan Mongolian Beef Noodles
Here’s what you need to make this.
FOR THE NOODLES
This recipe calls for instant noodle cakes, also called 2 minute noodles here in Australia and ramen noodle cakes in the States. These are dried pre-cooked noodles that cook quickly in liquid, and are basically designed to be indestructible!
Instant noodle cakes – As noted above, these are also known as 2 minute noodles (Australia) or instant ramen noodles (US), about 70g/2.5oz each, though you can use noodle cakes up to around 100g/3.5oz. They cook in 2 minutes and are designed to be bulletproof (think, uni student friendly!!) so it’s impossible to stuff this recipe up. I buy plain noodle cakes in sleeves of 10, if yours has seasoning packets, just discard them. Our sauce is so much nicer. 🙂
Other noodles – I can’t think of other types of noodles that will work here as other noodles need to be rinsed after soaking or boiling, to rinse off excess starch so they don’t become gluey in the pan. Whereas instant noodles do not. You could also prepare any other type of noodles per the packet and toss with the sauce (don’t add the water), like you would any other stir fried noodles!
Beef mince (ground beef) – Any fat percentage is fine here, the higher the fat, the juicier and beefier the dish! (The fat contains good beefy flavour). You could also use other proteins – chicken, turkey, pork or lamb. This sauce will suit all of these, though just bear in mind chicken and turkey are leaner so the bits of meat littered throughout the noodles will be a little firmer.
Broccoli – Use one very large head or one and half regular ones. Other vegetables – carrot, cauliflower, capsicum, mushroom, green beans, baby corn or other vegetables that can hold up to 3 – 4 minutes in the pan will work just fine here.
Garlic and onion – Essential flavour base for this noodle dish!
FOR THE SAUCE
Here’s what you need for the sauce. The combination is very specifically chosen for maximum flavour with minimum ingredients! If you don’t have Mirin or can’t consume alcohol, don’t worry, there’s an easy alternative.
Dark soy sauce – This has strong soy flavour and stains the beef and noodle a deep mahogany colour. Carried at most large grocery stores these days. Substitute with light soy, all-purpose soy sauce, or tamari, however, expect the beef and noodles to be lighter in colour and slightly less soy flavour.
Hoisin sauce – A thick, sweet-savoury Chinese sauce with lovely Chinese five spice flavour. Key flavouring for the Mongolian Lamb sauce we’re adopting in this recipe! Substitute with oyster sauce plus an extra 1/4 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice.
Mirin – This is a sweet Japanese cooking rice wine that adds depth of flavour and is why this simple sauce is so tasty! Carried at regular grocery stores in Australia these days. For alcohol free, substitute half the water for chicken stock. It’ll give the sauce a bit of depth of flavour you lose by leaving out the mirin.
Chinese Five Spice Powder – A combination of five spices that adds warm, fragrant, distinctly Chinese flavour. easy to find at regular grocery stores these days.
Sesame oil – Use toasted sesame oil (brown, the default carried at Australian grocery stores) not un-toasted which is yellow and doesn’t have as good a sesame flavour.
Water – We add water straight into the pan with the beef and sauce for the noodles to absorb and soften.
How to make One-pan Mongolian Beef Noodles
You need a large deep pan for this recipe – noodles for 4 is a lot to toss! I use a 30cm / 12″ non-stick pan (Pyrolux Ignite Chef Pan, not an affiliate link 🙂 ), pictured in this post. It has a glass lid, stay-cool handles and is deep enough for a double batch of bolognese. One of my favourite pans!
If you don’t have a large deep pan, use a large pot. The smaller surface area is fine – you’ll have deeper sauce for the noodles to cook in, plus nice tall walls for enthusiastic noodle tossing!
Cut the broccoli into fairly small pieces, to ensure they cook through quickly (these noodles cook fast!) and also smaller pieces don’t get in the way as much when squidging the noodle cakes into the liquid to cook.
Don’t forget to use the broccoli stem too! Cut off the tough outer skin, then cut into batons.
Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
Cook – Give the onion and garlic a bit of a head start first, then add the beef and cook, breaking it up as you go. Once the beef is no longer red, pour the sauce over and stir until all the beef is nicely coated in the sauce
Add broccoli then stir just until the broccoli is lightly coated in the sauce.
Add water – Pour the water in, give it a stir then let it come up to the simmer.
Break the noodle cakes in half along the direction of the noodles, so the noodle strands stay intact.
Squidge the uncooked noodle cakes into the sauce, burying them into the beef and sauce as best as you can. I find it’s easiest to put them in upright on their side, because we’re trying to put a fair amount of noodles into one pan.
Don’t fret about precision here, like submerging them evenly or rushing. We will be shuffling them around and tossing as they start to soften. These noodles cakes are built to be bombproof.
Start tossing to soften noodles – After you get the last noodle cake in, leave them for 30 seconds to start softening. Then use tongs to flip the noodles over so the other side can start softening. Leave them again for around 30 seconds, then start untangling the noodles and tossing them around so they soften fully. By the time all the sauce in the pan is absorbed by the noodles, the noodles will be fully soft – it takes about 2 to 3 minutes.
And look at that! A big pan of noodles coated in a tasty sauce with beef and broccoli – a complete dinner. Divide between bowls and serve!
So there you go. Dinner on the table in 15 minutes. Really! Once you start cooking it will take 7 to 8 minutes, assuming you’ve got a good heavy based pan and a strong burner. That leaves 7 minutes to chop the broccoli, slice an onion and mix the sauce.
But if you’re trying to watch The Bachelor while FaceTiming five of your besties, refereeing a sibling fight and chasing a Jaffle dragging a pot plant through the house, then you might want to allow a bit of extra time. 🙂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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One-Pan Mongolian Beef Noodles with broccoli
Ingredients
- 4 instant noodle cakes , ~70g/2.5oz each (aka 2 minute noodles, instant ramen noodles), UNCOOKED, (Note 1)
Mongolian Beef Sauce:
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce (Note 2)
- 3 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 2 tbsp Mirin , or Chinese cooking wine + 2 tsp sugar (Note 3)
- 1/4 tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder (not critical if you don't have)
- 2 tsp sesame oil
For cooking:
- 2 tbsp oil – anything plain flavoured (eg canola, vegetable, peanut)
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 1 onion , halved then sliced
- 500g/ 1 lb beef mince (ground beef)
- 5 cups broccoli florets, cut small , not too big else they get in the way and won't cook through (Note 4 for other veg)
- 2 1/4 cups water
Instructions
ABBREVIATED RECIPE
- Mix sauce ingredients in a bowl. Heat oil on high heat in a large deep pan. Cook onion and garlic 30 sec, then cook beef. Stir in sauce, then stir in broccoli. Add water, bring to simmer, break noodles cakes in half and squidgy in. Leave 30 sec, turn, leave 30 sec, then toss 2 – 3 minutes until noodles are soft and all sauce is absorbed. Serve!
FULL RECIPE
- Sauce – Mix the ingredients in a small bowl.
- Cook beef – Heat the oil in a large, deep 30cm / 12" pan over high heat (or use a large pot). Add the garlic and onion, cook for 30 seconds. Add the beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until you no longer see red. Add the sauce and cook until the sauce has coated all the beef well.
- Add the broccoli and stir it through to coat I sauce. No need to give it cooking time, I promise it cooks through in the next step!
- Noodles – Add the water. When it starts bubbling, push the noodles in (break in half along direction of noodles so they fit more easily). Leave for 30 seconds, then turn the noodles. Leave another 30 seconds, then start tossing the noodles with two spatulas or tongs until the noodles are softened and there's no sauce left in the pan (2 – 3 minutes). If the noodles need a little longer, just add a bit more water.
- Serve – Divide between bowls and enjoy! A drizzle of sriracha for some heat wouldn't go astray here. 🙂
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Jaffle
Jaffle the Shoe Thief. Can someone explain to me why dogs only take one shoe from each pair?? At least if he took both it’d halve the number of shoes taken out of action!!!
Then of course, the shoe rescue part becomes a thrilling game for him as he bolts around the yard, letting me get just close enough to take a swipe at the shoe only to prance off again gleefully…..
….. until he tires out and falls asleep protecting his prize.
Life of Jaffle.
Life of Nagi! 😂
Made this for a school-day lunch right away (for which the kids come home, where I live)!
I can confirm the 15 minutes from start to finish (apart from washing the veggies), and the kids absolutely love it. Thanks, Nagi, as always 😉
What noodles would you use for a gluten free recipe
Hi Joe! I’m afraid I haven’t tried this with gluten free noodles, but I’d probably reach for rice vermicelli over flat rice noodles as they will likely get sticky in the sauce (normally you have to rinse off excess starch after soaking else it gets very gluey in the pan). Sorry I can’t help!
I like rice noodles too, per Nagi’s comment, but trying to ease up on rice carbs, so I use glass noodles (the sweet potato ones) and rinse them after cooking, per Nagi’s comment. They’re always fine.
Whipped this up yesterday, when the recipe was still hot off the press! We make other Nagi-one-pan-ramen-noodle recipes, and loved this new mongolian version. Very tasty. I overcooked the broccoli – entirely my fault, I popped a lid on after adding the broccoli and cooked for an extra couple of mins before adding the noodles and continuing per the recipe. Turns out it didn’t need the extra cooking time, should have trusted Nagi!
Served the noodles scattered with finely sliced shallots (aka green onion / spring onion / scallions) and unsalted roast cashews for freshness and crunch.
Aww!! I love the finishing touches Ali. I’m so glad you enjoyed this!! thanks again for helping out the other readers! – N x
{jafflecentric comment} ah yes. the prancing with the single shoe, his ears akimbo. it’s 3.5 years since my golden doodle died, and i STILL have odd shoes whose mates have not turned up… which makes me happy, in fact. so did the multiple muffin subject-lines: human error is something to treasure these days. thank you from Canada, nagi, you & muffle/jaffin are always an inspiration.
I can’t have the hoisin or the Chinese 5 spice powder. Spicy pepper allergy 🥴. I would love to make this though. It looks so good. What could I use for flavor instead ? Please and thanks.
Hi Julie, if you’re keen on mongolian flavours while avoiding szechuan pepper, my suggestion would be:
* based on other Nagi one pan noodle recipes, sub hoisin with oyster sauce,
* add a teaspoon or so of sugar (as hoisin is much sweeter then oyster), and
* add mongolian spice flavours using your own spice mix, sub with black or white pepper instead of szechaun.
>> Chinese five-spice traditionally contains equal quantities of powdered star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorns, and fennel seeds
Thank you so much for helping Julie out AliB! – N x
I love the all-in-oneness of this recipe, I have a bad back so lifting a big pot of noodle water is rough. However, I’m not a fan of the star-anise flavors in five spice or housin. Is there a good substitute for either, even if it changes the flavor profile?
Hi Erin, Nagi’s post notes that notes that Hoisin sauce has a “lovely Chinese five spice flavour. Key flavouring for the Mongolian Lamb sauce we’re adopting”. If you’re not a fan of five spice you could try Nagi’s original beef and ramen noodles recipe (there are also similar chicken or mushroom noodle versions). Those recipes are flexible with oyster sauce and hoisin sauce in any combo (50/50 or 100% of one type) https://body-metrics.news/asian-beef-and-noodles/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
And Erin too! 🙂 – N x
I just used garam marsala and it was fine.
Hi, is there a substitute for mirrin please?
Yep, Nagi provides 2 substitutes for Mirin in her recipe
*Ingredients: 2 tbsp Mirin , or Chinese cooking wine + 2 tsp sugar
*Recipe Note 3: sub Chicken stock for alcohol free
And Donna! I feel like you’re my secret food editor Ali!! 🙂 – N x
Jaffle is such a beautiful color!
I have a question please: Is there a particular name for the Chinese Five Spice Powder? When I look up that name at my local Kroger, it shows me Cumin, Curry, Garlic. Just want to figure out what to use here as this recipe looks terrific! My brother gave me one of your cookbooks, and your recipes are great!
Chinese five-spice contains star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, and fennel seeds.
Nagi says it isn’t critical for the recipe, so maybe make it without?
You can find it on Amazon and in Asian grocery stores if you really want it.
It can be hard to find at a lot of US grocery chains, but Publix (if you live in a state with one) has McCormick five-spice (not authentic tho).
Thanks, Mia. I still consider myself a relatively new cook and following recipes as much as I can, and little by little, I’m building my confidence in the kitchen. Thanks for answering my question.
I, for one, am truly grateful for the mix-up in recipe links, because it inspired me to cook (bake!) not only one, but two of your wonderful recipes!
I literally whipped up a batch of your Cheesy Zucchini Muffins, and while they were baking to a golden crust in the oven, I cooked your Mongolian Beef Noodles, albeit without the beef because of my vegan daughter. 😂
Both recipes were a complete hit with my kids (11, 14 & 20), which is really quite the achievement!
Thank you once again, and keep up the impressive work 🥰
Well this might be the best outcome from my newsletter blunder!! 😂 Two recipes in one hit AND all three kids approved – I’ll take that! So glad you enjoyed them Natalie. – N x
I LOVE this Jaffle story…my Irish Setter, Delilah, does the same exact thing, always steals left shoes only, and hides them under the bed if I don’t catch her in the act. I made your beef with rice noodles Saturday (after making cookies and apple bread for church all afternoon) and we both loved it so much. This recipe reminds me of that, but different vibes, and I can’t wait to try it! I really love FAST during the week and you make fast taste so good.
Left shoes only!! 😂 What goes on in their little heads?! So glad you loved the beef rice noodles too, Cynde! – N x
Cannot wait to try out this recipe One-Pan Mongolian Beef Noodles with broccoli.
Jaffle so adorable and still such a happy puppy
Hope you love it Sharon! Jaffle is one very happy boy 😂 – N x
I don’t like broccoli. What other vegetables could I use-bok choy, mini corn?
Absolutely Holly! Bok choy, baby corn, snow peas, capsicum or green beans would all work well. – N x
Hi Nagi, Jaffle and the French Wizard! (Plus all the unseen helping hands. Today I spent 5 hours cooking a huge Curry! I was exhausted by the time I finished. It was great, but only made 4 meals to freeze. I sat down to check my e-mails and found a “Nagi” I had everything except the noodles for the Mongolian “quicky”. A 15 minute cooking time was as enticing as the photo! My husband has a terrible case of the dreaded “Man” flu but offered to come with me to Coles. I sent him to bed and off I went at 20 past 8! The shopping list sadly grew and finding the noodles was a big task with so many to choose from, but finally found the curly guys with 10 in the pack… I thought I was on the home run but, no happy check out chicks! Oh no!!! the self serve, I always get into trouble there and need help. Same thing tonight. No staff after 7pm. I’ll remember that! Finally home and opened my freezer to thaw the mince. No mince!!! I’d forgotten I made a meat loaf last week! So off to Coles tomorrow. Ho hum. At least the check outs will be manned or womaned. Jaffle probably already loves his mummy and is taking your shoes because they remind him of you LOL. Just like the nappy stage, this too will end…one day! Thanks for being you and working so hard for so many fans! We all love you. I will definitely make the Mongolian Beef Noodles tomorrow night. Dianne.
Dianne!! 😂 All that effort and NO MINCE! I hope tonight’s attempt goes much more smoothly – at least the actual cooking will only take 15 minutes! And I rather like your theory about Jaffle and my shoes. ❤️ – N x
Oooh looks soooo good but 1039 mg of sodium is quite unhealthy.
Got any workarounds here?
Hi Lisa! You can definitely use reduced-sodium soy sauce to bring it down. Also, the nutrition calculator is only an estimate and tends to err on the higher side. – N x
Hi Nagi, do you have any instant noodle brands you recommend here in Australia? I can’t seem to find any one that I like that doesn’t give a plasticky-feel in my mouth! Thanks
Honestly, I am ok with Fantastic Instant noodles!! 🙂 – N x
Anyone know of an instant noodle that doesn’t use palm oil? I prefer my orangutan habitat intact.
What a great way to make people think . . . clap, clap!
Hi Jay, I have seen some instant rice noodles online that don’t list palm oil, I actually ordered one online the other day to give it a try 🙂 – Nix
What’s happened with muffins’ on these days?🤔
Thank you for the recipe I really like one-pot noodles like this Nagi . .
Oh, Jaffle is very cute, isn’t he?🤗
I’m having the worst run!! 😩
Let’s just Nicknae Nagi “MUFFIN “ because she is so adorable? All in Favour???
😂
Let’s just Nickname Nagi, “MUFFIN “ because she is so adorable? ‘All in Favour?????
Yes, let’s!