Easy to make Ground Beef Mongolian Noodles is sweet, spicy, and perfect for busy weeknights! You can make this in 30 minutes or less and it tastes even better than the restaurant version.
There is no food group that I love more than pasta! Recently, I’ve been enjoying Asian flavors and wanted to create an easy beef noodle recipe. This recipe can be made so quickly, it has become a staple on our weeknight table.
I modeled my recipe after PF Chang’s Mongolian Beef with a sweet soy glaze, garlic, and green onions. However, instead of flank steak, I used lean ground beef. This is the perfect dish to satisfy all your quick fix Asian/Chinese food cravings and it’ll make your house smell amazing while cooking!
If you notice, there’s no salt in the beef and sauce mixture. Hoisin sauce tends to be salty and I haven’t found a low-sodium version of it yet. That’s also the reason I recommend using low-sodium soy sauce for this recipe.
GROUND BEEF MONGOLIAN NOODLES
- For the ground beef – I used 90% lean ground beef, you can also use ground turkey, pork, or chicken.
- For the minced garlic – I recommend fresh garlic or jarred minced garlic in water instead of dried granulated garlic or dried garlic powder. Fresh has much more flavor than dried.
- For the ginger– If there’s one ingredient that you simply must use fresh it’s ginger. Dried ginger tastes nothing like fresh ginger. Ginger is a root and it adds so much flavor to recipes. A little ginger goes a long way! It’s in the produce section of your grocery store. It’s inexpensive and you’ll just need a very small knob. As well, it’ll last 3 to 4 weeks on the countertop.
- For the soy sauce – I highly recommend you use low-sodium soy sauce.
- For the hoisin sauce – Hoisin is an Asian barbecue sauce and can be found on the International food section at your grocery store. There’s really no substitute for hoisin.
- Red Pepper. A reader recommended Assi brand red pepper which is an authentic Asian brand. If you want to try it, you can purchase it here.
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Ground Beef Mongolian Noodles
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Save To Your Recipe BoxIngredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 4 teaspoons ginger minced
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup beef broth
- ½ cup soy sauce low sodium
- 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce if you can find low-sodium, I recommend it.
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 10 ounces noodles linguine, fettuccine, or spaghetti
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 4 medium green onions sliced
Instructions
- In a large skillet with high sides brown the ground beef on the stovetop. Add the ginger and garlic the last 2 minutes of browning the ground beef. Break up the meat as it cooks.
- While the ground beef is cooking, cook the pasta according to the package instructions. (I recommend you do not salt the water.) Drain.
- Drain the ground beef and return it to the skillet along with the soy sauce, beef broth, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, pepper, and hoisin sauce. Stir to combine.
- Dissolve the cornstarch in the water and add it to the ground beef mixture. Stir and bring the mixture to a low boil. After the sauce has thickened slightly add the drained noodles to the beef mixture. Stir to combine.
- Allow the noodles to sit in the sauce a few minutes to absorb flavor. Serve hot with a garnish of sliced green onions.
Nutrition
Shenika says
I made this recipe last night and it turned out great!!!! My family loved it. Using fresh ginger and garlic gave it so much flavor. I read many of the reviews before making this dish and I will agree on cutting back on the brown sugar because it can become to sweet. Other than that I will be making this one again.
Kimberly Brosius says
This was very good and easy. I did have to make some changes cause that’s what I do. I used 1/4 tsp of ground ginger for every tsp of fresh I didn’t have fresh and wasn’t going to the store 8 miles away just for that. I also didnt have low sodium soy sauce so I used the same measurements with the regular as the low sodium and it was fine but don’t use salt anywhere else in the dish. I cooked the ground beef half way then added fresh mushrooms and onions I also used the powder beef stock and mixed it with water for a half cup cause it’s what I had I did not drain my ground beef it didn’t have much grease and the mushrooms and onions soaked it up. I cut the brown sugar to 1/4 cup because hoisin is also sweet to me I added frozen peas and carrots it was great thank you
Kim B
Kim says
This is the first recipe I’ve tried by this site. I will definitely look for another one to try. This is definitely a keeper for a quick, weeknight meal. And…i had all the ingredients on hand. Even some left over fresh ginger waiting to be used. Nothing better than fresh! I did cut back a little on the brown sugar. And very glad you said not to put rice in the noodle water. Plenty of salt with the other ingredients! Even with using low sodium soy sauce. I only had regular hoisin but that’s ok. I did cut up some baby carrots into thirds sliced on a diangle, put those with a small bag of baby pea pods, a small amount of water, and did lightly salt those in a bowl and microwaved until tender, and added those to the pot. Broccoli would have also been awesome. Will definitely make again and share this recipe. I’m ready to try something else now.
Paula says
I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe. It’s one of our favorites. And, yes, I LOVE broccoli in this. It’s about the only way I can get my boys to eat broccoli. lol
Christine says
This is really good, I made it as written the first time. The second time I made it as written and added a medium head of coarsely shredded cabbage and a large sliced onion. I’m trying to incorporate more veggies and this was a perfect recipe to do that with.
Vickie says
Could you’ve use Gochujang Paste instead of the red chili flakes? If so, how much?
Paula says
I’m not familiar with Gochujang Paste
Robin Prososki says
This is such an easy and delicious recipe! One of my weekday go to meals!!
Cathy says
Delicious! I subbed monkfruit for the brown sugar and you couldn’t even tell the difference and only used 2 tablespoons of hoison and it was plenty sweet. And protein pasta for regular pasta – very yummy!
Mary says
We tried it today for lunch…we had all the ingredients so it easily went together. Used linguine but next time will try rice noodles. Added spare veggies: pea pods, onions, peas. Very colorful dish.
Donna Purvis says
My husband loved this one! I also added some stir-fry veggies and a bit of lime juice at the end.
Definately a keeper!
Cynthia says
I made this for the first time last night. It was fantastic. I did cut the brown sugar to 1/3 cup. Not much difference but in my mind it was. I will definitely make this again. Simple and delicious. Thank you so much for the recipe
Aretha McCrae says
This meal turned out great! The flavor was good and I will recommend this recipe to anyone! I did not use ginger.
Richard Alley says
I made it and it was delicious. I will definitely make it again!
Deb says
Made this, very easy, good flavor. Will add more red pepper flakes next time. Its a keeper.
SAMANTHA L FISCHER says
Made this tonight. Was so good and so easy.
Julie Bauchwitz says
Wow!!! Want something different to make with ground beef-this is a winner! I was going to try this recipe for my husband and I and last minute, invited our neighbors to join us and everyone loved it! Definitely making this one again!!!
Willgrant says
Very good recipe. Wife and granddaughter liked it. That’s a plus in itself. Probably double the sauce next time. Like a more saucy noodle dish
Lori says
Can the leftovers be frozen?
Paula says
Yes, it can.
Linda says
This was so easy to make. It was a little too hot for my liking but the family LOVED it. Will make again! Thank you!
Matthew says
It was delicious, but way to sweet. Next time I’ll cut the amount of sugar in half.
Shelby says
This is very good! It is very sweet and salty, and I think cutting the brown sugar in half wouldn’t be a bad idea. If you don’t have hoisin sauce on hand, oyster sauce works well too. Definitely add extra red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon is hardly detectable.
Donna says
I would like to take this to a potluck, would it be ok in a slower cooker to keep warm? Or does it need to be served right away?
Paula says
Yes, that’s okay to do. If it will be warming a long time I would slightly undercook the noodles so that they don’t become too mushy.
Donna says
I made this tonight , as I found it a little one sided in the flavor so I added some sweet chili sauce which evened it out. Try it you’ll like it. 😉
Sonie says
Omgoodness!
This was delicious!
it was simple to prepare, too.
I followed recipe exactly as written.
I used lo mein noodles. The only thing I think I’ll do next time is add some steamed broccoli to it
AJ says
Yes yes and yes! Easy and seriously packed with flavor. I love how you can easily adjust the spice just by adding some extra garlic, ginger, or red pepper flake. Mmmmmmmmmmm. And this works with any long pastas…linguine, fettuccine, spaghetti. Whatever I have on hand. I personally love adding cilantro and fresh lime juice at the end really gives an acid pop and fresh burst.
Maria says
So good! Great recipe! And I do agree, do not salt the pasta…if you want it less salty use the low sodium like the recipe says. I used regular and it was salter than expected but overall great recipe.
Paula says
Thank you, Maria. It’s def a family favorite around here. Thanks for commenting.
Susan says
This recipe is the best. I make it exactly as written and it’s a family favorite!
April says
I loved it! Only thing I did different was a sprinkle of sesame seeds, many thanks!
JENNIFER SPENCER says
This was really good! My really picky eater did not like it but my second picky eater did. When I was making it, I thought a 1/2 cup of brown sugar was to much. And I was right. It was way to sweet. Next time I will use less. But I will make it again.
Bonita Kennedy says
Totally agree, would cut the brown sugar to 1/2 of what recipe called for as too sweet for me…next time lol
Lynn says
This was awesome. I added mushrooms and zucchini and used lo mein noodles. I doubled the sauce ingredients all except the brown sugar only did about 3/4. Fantastic!
Jemma C says
Had this in my recipe collection for a while, wanted something quick and easy and this fulfilled the requirements. My husband and I really enjoyed this and will be making it more often! It was delicious and makes a lot, we will be cutting the recipe down for the two of us.
Kathy says
I discovered I could use the dial down serving feature at the top of the recipe heading page after the fact so I made a lot. But we will have leftovers. It is a very good recipe and the flavor was delicious. I will definitely be making this again.
Dee says
Was looking for a new recipe with ground beef and found this one. We enjoyed this with rice noodles. Followed recipe as is and enjoyed the flavor but it was too sweet (thus four stars). The recipe is a keeper but I will use less sugar.
Alva says
Thank you for sharing this. This was our dinner last night, my family loved it. The best part quick & easy.❤️
MR_MARINARA says
I sincerely thank you for this and the many recommended recipes. this and the other look really good, I haven’t been able to find many recipes like this.
Ellen says
I made this for dinner last night and it was awesome!
Deb says
We loved this recipe. Made it like exactly like written except red pepper flakes… we are wimps when it comes to spicy hot foods. I can see this recipe being made many times in the future but we are such mushroom lovers that we will be adding them. This recipe seems made for them. We might even go all out and try a few red pepper flakes!!
Katie says
Yum this is so good! I added about half a chopped yellow onion to the beef while cooking to add some flavor, used chicken instead of beef broth because that’s what I had, and used white pepper instead of black but otherwise cooked as instructed! Used spaghetti noodles and it’s so good! I probably could have used less sugar though, it’s pretty sweet.
Renee says
We really enjoyed this dish. I used lo mein noodles which absorbed the sauce wonderfully. The only change we plan to make next time is to use half of the brown sugar
Susan says
I have to tell you, my husband came into the kitchen when I was preparing this, and said, “Ooh, Mom’s making dirty noodles!”. 😄 Needless to say, we really like this dish. Tomorrow the leftovers will be even better!
Paula says
Love it!!! I love these noodles too!
Kristi H. says
Great recipe! My family loves it. Anyone ever try using glass noodles(japchae) instead of the linguine?
Jeanne says
This is fantastic! I’ve made it twice. The second time I used stir fry beef instead of ground and it turned out good too. Your recipe is a keeper!
Nancy Patterson says
Loved this recipe. Made it as printed except cut down on the red pepper. Making it again tonight but will actually add the full amount of red pepper per recipe. A real winner that I will rotate along with my other go to recipes.
Ruth M Cardenas says
Love this recipe, it is delicious. Family asked for it to be made again. Thank you!!
Michelle says
Really good! I made with ground pork and the leftovers were great the next day
Teresa says
This was great! Really good flavor. I cut back on the red pepper flakes. I wanted a small amount. Best thing of all is my husband loved it!
Heather says
Absolutely delicious! The whole family loved it. My 11 year old daughter told me to write it in my recipe book. And then asked if she could have my recipe book when I died. haha
Definitely will be making this again. It was so easy and quick to make. Which is a win in my book. Thanks!
Paula says
I’m so happy you and your daughter like it! Tell her she can save it to a recipe box right on my site and she’ll never lose it. 😉
Kayla says
This is very good, however I couldn’t find a serving size?…
Chrissy Watson says
Just made this it was a huge hit served it with garlic bread. Will definitely be making it again its so easy and tastes amazing
Betsy Bee says
Delicious. I am watching my carbs. I used 1/2 the sweetener. I used xylitol. I also made my plate and then added the hoisin. I used zoodles and ground chicken.
So, if it was this delicious with my keto-type modification, I know it is delicious as written. I just wanted people to know it can still be a keto friendly meal. 18 carbs +/- for a 8oz portion over steamed zoodles
Paula says
Thank you!! I’m sure this will be helpful to a lot of readers that are watching carbs. Thanks for commenting.
KD says
My family loves this dish…I’ve made it several times. Thank you for sharing!
DawnTrush says
Really enjoyed this! Sweet and savory and easy to throw together. Passed along to my Mom. She is going to be trying this too!
Rona G. says
My husband absolutely loves, loves this recipe! So much so that for his birthday he wants me to make this!! 100 percent excellent!!
Paula says
thank you so much!
Sandra says
I think I did something wrong. 😒 Used fresh ginger and garlic but all I can taste is RAW ginger and garlic. 😕 I am cooking it longer right now but worry that the noodles will be mush.
Ellie Porter says
Made this with ground pork, was very tasty. Will definitely make it again!!!!
Linda C says
Made the Mongolian beef for dinner tonight except I used chicken and chicken broth in place of beef. It came together very quickly, taste was amazing. For me I need to decrease the amount of red pepper and black pepper, it was a tad spicy. I definitely will make this again maybe with beef the next time.
Amy says
Very tasty and easy to make. It was a hit with the whole family (my toddler and my picky mom included). My husband only barely handled the heat so I would use less crushed red pepper less time. (It wasn’t too hot for me or the toddler though). I’ll be adding it to the weeknight dinner rotation 🙂
mavee125 says
This Ground Beef Mongolian Noodles is so delicious! I used Assi Red Pepper Powder and San-J Tamari Soy Sauce that I bought from Karman Foods. Using only authentic ingredients is just different! It’s my fam’s new fave noodle dish.
Paula says
Ooh thanks for those tips, I’ll try them. I’m happy you liked the recipe.
Beth G. says
Just made this for dinner. My family absolutely LOVED it! It’s definitely going into rotation.
Thank You 😊
juanita says
I’m making this tomorrow. Cannot wait to try. I just happen to have all the ingredients on hand as I’ve been adding different seasonings and spices to my grocery cart each time I shop, so for once I’m prepared to make a delicious sounding recipe. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Paula says
I’m hungry thinking about it. Let me know how it turns out.
Barbara A Elliott says
Very good. My husband loved the sauce and I loved the whole thing.
Crissy says
This is delicious! I added broccoli and mixed all the sauce ingredients together, including the cornstarch and water before adding to the ground beef. I omit the red pepper flakes for my daughter and used probably 12-14 ounces of linguini. Yum!
Lydia says
Love this recipe! I’ve made it with steak and pork, with and without the hoisin sauce, and I actually prefer it better without the hoisin sauce.
Sally-Dawn says
I only gave this a five because 10 wasn’t an option. Delicious!!!!!
Sharon Seiber says
My older son is quitting smoking and got two plates. I’m saying it was so delicious my sons wanted more. I have a couple of things I will be adding. Water chestnuts, mushrooms, and some viladia onions chopped. Gotta add more to the recipe because if I don’t I won’t get any!!
mavee125 says
This Ground Beef Mongolian noodle is absolutely flavorful and delicious! Glad I already got my needed authentic Asian ingredients bought at Karman Foods earlier just before I saw this recipe. I’m so happy how it turned out.
Paula says
Yay!! Thank you! Happy you enjoyed it!
Suz says
My husband made a similar version and served it over rice, instead of noodles, and then I found this recipe and we love it even more than the rice version. The second time making it, though, I added chopped up mushrooms and shredded carrots. It’s so tasty that it’s hard to just eat one serving, oops!
Kay says
I made this just as written except I made a pound of angel hair pasta and served the meat mixture on top of it instead pf mixed through. It was DELICIOUS! Cut the red pepper in half or better if you don’t like heat.
I think the meat and sauce mixture would also be awesome on a bun, like a sloppy joe, maybe even a sweet roll/bun of some sort. Or on tortilla chips to change up traditional nachos.
Grizgirl says
Sweet then spicy, delicious! I added toasted sesame oil to the pasta and sesame seeds to the beef mix. Adds another flavor layer to an already yummy dish!
Maaya says
Can I substitute the beef broth with vegi broth?
Paula says
Yes
MJ says
My husband and I really enjoyed this. It was nice to have something new to do with ground beef. I used 2t of ginger and 2T of brown sugar and thought the sweetness turned out perfect. It was a too salty for us though (and I LOVE salt). So next time I think I will try the reduced sodium soy sauce.
Jessica says
My whole family (school age kid) loved it. Used less red pepper flakes to keep some spice down for the kids but other that followed it exactly. So yummy 😋
PHILLIP MULLEN says
It was delicious. Instead of spaghetti, I had lo-mein noodles on hand. I am a diabetic, so 1/2 cup of sugar was not an option, I use 1/4 cup of monkfruit. I’ve also cutout meat, I substituted with ground “meatless” meat. I will make this again, next time cut down on the ginger, my husband thought it over powered the dish. With all my substitution, it makes a nice vegetarian dish and was quite delicious! Thank you for a nice, middle of the week recipe.
Paula says
I love your substitutions. I’m not a big meat eater either. I’m going to try it your way!
Kim says
Delicious!!! I did reduce the brown sugar to 1/4 cup and used low sodium soy sauce and it was delicious. I will make this again!!!
LUCYG says
Love this quick, easy recipe. I will just cut the sugar in half next time. I did make it all in one pot, the same way I do my spaghetti and meat sauce … I cooked the noodles first, then rinsed and drained them in the sink. Rinsed out the pasta pot with hot water, put it back on the burner, and made the meat and sauce in the same pot, then added the noodles back in at the last minute. I’m too lazy to wash two big pots if I don’t have to. 😊 Thanks for a great recipe that we will enjoy over and over again.
Emily says
This was good but we didn’t love it. I don’t think my sauce got thick enough to coat the noodles and beef so the flavor wasn’t outstanding. I followed the recipe except I added carrots and broccoli for added substance and to make it go farther.
Tamara valdiserri says
The flavors in this dish were amazing. Unfortunately, we had to toss it after a few bites. It was way too spicy, even for my teens who enjoy some heat. I wanted to make a full pound of pasta so I increased the sauce by half, but kept the red pepper flakes at 1/2 teaspoon and it was still too hot. Please list the red pepper flakes as optional. I hope to try this recipe again.
Paula says
I will make that change. Thanks for the feedback.
Henry Martin says
Most recipe ingredients are always optional.
Rona says
This the most amazing flavorful Asian dishes I’ve ever made. Hubby loved this more than takeout! I agree with the cook, in that, using low sodium is the way to go. I did not, because I always like to try the recipes “as is” to judge for myself. Next time I’ll use low sodium.
Gemma says
I loved this recipe… I did, however, only use 2 t. of fresh ginger as it is very strong. That was perfect. Also, I only used about 2 T. of brown sugar. I didn’t want it super sweet. The hoisin sauce is sweet too so 1/2 c. of brown sugar seemed too sweet. I used thick spaghetti and that worked out great. I think a few more green onions would be great too. Wonderful recipe.
Linda says
I used stir fry beef grounded, only did 1/3c brown sugar, grounded carrot, squeeze jar of ginger and garlic. Followed the recipe and this dish was perfect. Not sweet at all.
Lavinia Roy says
I have made this dish 3 times in the last month. We love it!!! And my daughter, who is very picky, loves this dish!! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Lisa says
This is absolutely delicious! I made it exactly as written. I used linguine and took suggestions and used low sodium soy sauce, I used regular hoisin sauce and it was not too salty. My fussy hubby loved it and asked me if he could have the leftovers the next night. Definitely will become a new go to.
DeeDee says
It was delicious! I will not use as much brown sugar next time. Fast and easy!
LaTonya Teferra says
I delicious recipe! I cooked almost exactly as written on reducing the res pepper a bit. My kids ate it up and if only I weren’t insulin resistant, I would have eating the entire dish. Just the small taste I had impress me quite a bit. I’ll definitely try more of you recipes! Great job!!
Sammy G says
Fast and easy. Very simple to add other ingredients to also. Fresh basil would be wonderful.
I cut the brown sugar in half & it was still plenty sweet. Will be making this again!
Gretchen says
I was looking for something new to make with a pound of ground beef and a full pantry – this was a HUGE hit with my teen and husband! I used bottled minced ginger and doubled the red pepper flakes, also garnished with green onions and white sesame seeds. This came together fast, in one large cast iron skillet and there was very little leftovers, even though there are only 3 of us! Making it again, I’d double the recipe. I served it with store-bought egg rolls and had the whole meal on the table in 30 minutes. I look forward to trying more of your recipes and am following you on twitter!
Carooyn says
I was looking for something different to do with ground beef and I came across this recipe. I didn’t have any pasta but we had some soba noodles so I used those. I halved the amount of brown sugar but otherwise followed the recipe. When I was almost ready to serve it my husband stir fried onions, Napa cabbage and a few orange pepper slices. It was delicious. Great flavor with all the ginger and garlic.
Michelle B says
I made this for the second time. This time I used finely chopped chicken and added peanuts at the end. This recipe is amazing.
Sue Hebert says
Made this and went exactly by Paula’s recipe. It was to die for. Hubby loved it and had enough to share! I’m sure it will be just as tasty warmed up. I used regular soy and I did not find it to be too salty. This is one I will make again and again.
Paula says
I’m so happy you liked it, Sue!
Lily says
Made this for the family, I used ramen noodle instead, honestly, it’s sooo goooood!! Kind of wish I used a thicker type of noodle, but the ramen still hit the spot!
Kristin says
This was excellent and easy! I am not a huge fan of ginger so probably used about 1 tsp. I omitted hoisin because I have a son w a nut allergy and I couldn’t find a safe brand. Will definitely make again!
FabSB says
Very good. I would suggest halving the ginger though – that much is overpowering and makes it very spicy as well. I doubled the sauce and added a bag of asian frozen vegs and a can of sliced water chestnuts. We garnished with sliced cucumbers and peanuts.
Megan says
This is good, but way too sweet. Next time I will try half the amount of brown sugar.