Slow Cooker Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (Rich Version) – 紅燒牛肉麵

Growing up, one of my faaavvvvvoorrite things to eat was Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup. And since I basically lived in Little Taipei (Rowland Heights, CA), it was not a problem. Now that I live in NorCal, where there is a general lack of Taiwanese food, I need to be creative and proactive to satisfy these cravings.

This week, one of my fellow ex-socal friends requested this recipe from me. I promised to finalize my draft version, test it out, guinea pig it out and then send it to her. She lives even further away than I do from good Taiwanese food… so I definitely want to make this as authentic and yummy as possible for her!

If you’ve looked up this recipe online before, undoubtedly, you’ve seen quite a few different recipes for Taiwanese Beef Noodles. This recipe has more spices and ingredients which I feel gives it more depth than the others — thus I title it my “Rich Version”. One of these days I will work on my less work intensive version and post it… so look out for the “Lite Version”! :)

NOTE: I recommend making the soup one day in advance!! It requires skimming and it’s much easier to skim after being refrigerated. I also recommend slow cooking over pressure cooking, especially if you’re using stew meat. Slow cooking will ensure more tender & moist meat.

Slow Cooker Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (Rich Version) – -紅燒牛肉麵 serves 6-7
– 3 pounds beef shank (can sub stew meat, tho it won’t be as tasty)
– 2 bunches of green onion, cut into 3 inch pieces
– half cup of sliced fresh ginger
– 1 head of garlic, smashed and chopped
– 1 large onion, chopped

- 1/4 cup rock sugar (can sub raw or brown sugar)
– 2-5 dried chinese peppers (or 2-4 tablespoons korean pepper flakes)
– 4 whole star anise
– 1 cinnamon stick
– 4 bay leaves
– 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
– 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
– 2 tablespoon peppercorns
– 1/4 teaspoon five spice powder

- 5 tablespoons tomato paste
– 5-7 tablespoons douban paste (can sub with red miso)
– 4 cups beef broth
– 2 cups chicken broth
– 1 cup dry sherry, rice wine or sake
– 1 cup soy sauce

- 2 can diced tomatoes
– fresh Chinese noodles (I recommend shanghai style) or dried Chinese knife cut noodles
– spinach, baby kale, bok choy, or other Chinese leafy greens (I like Taiwanese lettuce)
– chopped green onion and cilantro for garnish

Equipment
– large pan
– slow cooker
– spice bages or large tea bags (optional)
– medium-large sieve

On the Stove
1. Cut the meat into 1.5-2″ cubes. Keep the bone marrow part.
2. Separating the meat into 2 batches, brown the meat and the bones on med-high heat in a large pan. Use ~2 tablespoons of oil and 1 teaspoon of raw/brown sugar per batch. Put browned meat into the crock of the slow cooker.
3. In the same pan, caramelize the green onions and ginger. Use more oil if needed.
4. Once the green onion and ginger is fragrant and caramelized, add in the garlic and onion and cook until the onion is browned. Add these veggies to the meat in the crock.

Dry Stuff
5. Measure out all the dry spice and sugar ingredients and add them to the slow cooker. You can use spice/tea bags if you’d like. The soup will be strained out later so it isn’t necessary, but it can make cleanup easier.

Liquidy Stuff
6. Measure out all the liquid stuff and add them into the slow cooker, starting with the pastes.
7. Give the mixture in the slow cooker a few stirs to mix things up.
8. Turn on the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Mine was perfect at 7 hours, but I would start testing the meat at 6 for tenderness. The meat should be tender, but it shouldn’t be falling apart (i.e. shredded/pulled meat).

Post Slow Cooker
9. Gently remove the chunks of beef and place them into a separate tupperware or bowl. Cool, cover and refrigerate until use.
10. Using a sieve over a 4.5 qt sized pot, strain out all of the spices.
11. Add the 2 cans of diced tomatoes to the soup and simmer for another 20 minutes.
12. Cool soup and refrigerate a few hours to overnight. Skim off the fat layer after it has hardened.
13. Cook noodles according to directions on the package. Instead of draining noodles, “spoon” out noodles into bowls using a spaghetti server or chopsticks and then blanch veggies in hot noodle water. Add veggies to noodles.
14. Heat up the beef soup. While the soup is heating up, measure out 1/2 cup of beef per bowl and add to the noodles. When the soup is hot enough, ladle the hot soup over the beef/veggie/noodles in each bowl.
15. Garnish with green onion and cilantro as desired.

It is quite a bit of work… but it is soooo worth it! :) I don’t make this too often, but it is quite a treat when I do. If you have room in your fridge, the soup and beef do freeze well. However, it never lasts long enough in our house for me to freeze it.