Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup Recipe!

During the covid-19 pandemic, I temporarily moved home to my parents. That meant eating my mom’s cooking on the daily, and about once a month she’d make the family something real special: her version of beef noodle soup. I took snapshots, posted on Insta stories, and a lot of friends wanted to know how it was made. So here it is! This recipe makes 4-6 servings, and the bone broth is made a bit separate from everything else. Prep time: 10 hours (including broth); Cook time: 1 hour.

Ingredients

1 black cardamom 1/2 stick of dried cinnamon bark 2-3 bay leaves 1 teaspoon fennel seeds 1 tablespoon Sichuan prickly ash 5-6 whole star anise 1 teaspoon dried cloves 6-8 garlic cloves 8 inches of ginger

4 stalks of green onion 2 tablespoons of chili sauce 1/3 cup of soy sauce 1 lb beef shank 1.5 lb beef flank 2 tablespoons of butter 1/4 cup rock sugar 1 tablespoon chili flakes 2 lb beef bone

Beef Bone Broth

1. Put the beef bones into a pot of cold water and bring to boil.
2. Once the water becomes cloudy, dump that out and cleanse bones with more water.
3. Put bones in a larger pot (6-8 quarts) bring water to boil.
4. Add 4 inches of sliced ginger and 2 whole star anise
5. Simmer for 6-8 hours on low heat.

Beef

1. Take spices (black cardamom, cinnamon bark, bay leaves, fennel seed, Sichuan prickly ash, star anise, dried cloves) and put into a tea bag.
2. Cut meat into 3 inch pieces (try to cut in angles and chunks).
3. Throw 1 tablespoon of butter into a pan and sauté the meat on medium-high heat until brown (you may want to break the meat up into two batches).
4. Once seared, put meat into a separate 6 quart Dutch oven.
5. Add cooking oil or butter as needed and sauté ginger slices for 1 minute, add garlic, a pinch of Sichuan prickly ash, chili sauce, soy sauce, rock sugar, and chili flakes.
6. Once cooked, add this to the Dutch oven, along with whole green onions, spice bag, and 2 quarts of water.
7. Add a bit of the beef broth over as well.
8. Cover Dutch oven and bring to boil.
9. Simmer on low heat for at least 2 hours – Can be longer depending on how tender you like your beef. Now you will have 2 sets of broth, one of which is very concentrated (beef broth). 
10. For the noodles we handmake ours from scratch, but you can buy them from the store. Prepare noodles how you normally would, along with boiled bok choy or your vegetable of choice. Traditional Taiwanese beef noodle uses bok choy.  
11. Serve in a bowl with 3/5 bone broth and 2/5 meat broth – mix to taste. Garnish with any extra green onions. 

Final Comments

It’s advised that you remove and toss the whole green onions, ginger slices, and tea bag of spices. Cover your Dutch oven to leave overnight, and the next day your leftover soup will be even more flavorful. After a day, pack into glass Tupperware and refrigerate! 

My mom’s recipe is a mix of years of her own cooking plus looking at online videos/tutorials. She then meshed it all together to create a pretty darn good bowl of beef noodle soup. She’s always said that the more complicated it is, the better it will probably taste 🙂  

xx Sam