Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
Deeply savory braised beef shank in a five-spice soy broth over noodles.
Meat
⚠ Contains: Gluten, Soy, Mustard. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
How this varies: This is the red-braised (hong shao) style — the mainstream version across Taiwan, adapted from Sichuan "small-bowl beef" by Nationalist veterans in the 1950s. A rival tradition, clear-broth (qing dun) beef noodle soup, skips the soy sauce and doubanjiang entirely, relying on a pale, delicate broth of simmered bones and beef seasoned mainly with Sichuan peppercorn and white pepper — a style credited to Hui Muslim noodle-makers who settled in Taiwan.
Ingredients
- 800g beef shank, cubed
- 2 tbsp doubanjiang
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rock sugar
- 1 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 tbsp ginger, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic
- 4 cups beef stock
- 400g fresh wheat noodles
- Bok choy, scallions, and pickled mustard greens, to serve
Steps
- Blanch beef shank in boiling water 3 minutes to remove scum; rinse.
- Heat oil in a pot, saute onion, ginger, and garlic until fragrant. Add doubanjiang, fry 1 minute.
- Add beef, soy sauces, sugar, and spices, stir to coat.
- Pour in stock, bring to a boil, then simmer covered 1.5-2 hours until beef is fork-tender.
- Blanch bok choy and cook noodles separately.
- Assemble bowls with noodles, beef and broth, bok choy, scallions, and pickled mustard greens.