Beef Brisket With Peppers and Hou Sauce

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Beef Brisket with Chu Hou Sauce 柱侯牛腩 (Cantonese: chu hou gnau lam) is a classic Cantonese dish that is extremely popular at any Cantonese restaurant.  You can find it as a rice, noodle or clay pot dish.  Chu Hou sauce is the southern Chinese version of bean paste 豆瓣醬 (dòu bǎn jiàng).  Chu Hou sauce is smoother in texture and has a stronger soy sauce flavour.  It's a good sauce to add when braising or steaming meats.  Since it's thick, it can also help bind marinades to meat when marinating.

Chu Hou sauce was invented during the Qing Dynasty in Foshan, Guangdong by a chef named Leung Chu Hou. Beef wasn't popular at the time, but he used his special house sauce to create delicious meat dishes.  His restaurant was very busy and he eventually also opened a sauce shop.  It wasn't until after he died, to commemorate his culinary skills, people started calling his sauce Chu Hou sauce so that his name could live on forever.

Beef Brisket with Chu Hou Sauce 柱侯牛腩 traditionally uses beef brisket, beef tendons and white radish then braised until tender.  Brisket, however, has one fatty part and one lean part.  The lean parts can be quite tough no matter how long you braise it for.  Nowadays, with beef being more economical and consumers having higher income, other parts of beef that have a more even marbling of fat are used.  These meats include rib finger meat which is the meat between the ribs and also boneless short ribs.  In Chinese butchery, the finger meat is also part of the brisket, 牛抗腩 (niú kāng nǎn).

In my Beef Brisket with Chu Hou Sauce 柱侯牛腩, I'll show you how to make a delicious dish that will turn you from a cook to a chef!  I can assure you that most chefs couldn't compete with this recipe.  And, it's not difficult to make either.  I used a combination of simmering boneless short ribs (from Costco), rib finger meat and beef tendons to make this dish.  I think it's the perfect fat to lean ratio with good marbling.  Adding tendons is not only good for you with its high collagen content, it can also help thicken your sauce.  For me, the white radish brings it over the top good!  You've got to try this one!

Looking for more recipe ideas? Check out my Hong Kong cafe recipe section, the Hong Kong Style Borscht with Oxtail 牛尾羅宋湯 is one of my favourite soups!

Beef Brisket with Chu Hou Sauce 柱侯牛腩

You can use any cut of beef or meats for this recipe.

Chu Hou Sauce would also be suitable for braised goat meat.

Besides white raddish, carrots and potatoes may also be used. Any kind of firm vegetable that will not fall apart during braising could be a suitable substitute.

You may choose to make this the night before so that the sauce gets better absorbed and becomes even more flavourful. This is a common practice at restaurants.

Approximate cost (CAD) $30

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 5 mins

Boiling / Braising Time 2 hrs 15 mins

Total Time 2 hrs 40 mins

Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine Cantonese, Chinese

Servings 6 Servings

Calories 573 kcal

• 450 g Rib finger meat
• 450 g Beef tendon
• 450 g Simmering short ribs (boneless)
• 800 g White radish (lo bak)
• 1 stalk Green onions , chopped
• 4 slices Ginger
• 4 cloves Garlic , chopped
• 2 Shallot , halved
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 4 Star anise
• 2 tsp Fennel seeds
• 2 tsp Black peppercorn
• 6 Bay leaves
• 20 g Rock sugar
• 2 L Water

• Cut meats and tendon into 3.5 cm or 1.5" pieces. Set aside

  

• Pour 2 L water into a pot. Add cut tendons. Bring to a boil. Cook at low-medium heat for 1 hour

  

• Prepare ginger, shallots and garlic. Set aside

• Combine 3 tbsp Chu Hou sauce, 2 cubes fermented bean curd, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tsp dark soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar in a bowl. Set aside

  

• Prepare 1 cinnamon stick, 6 bay leaves and 20 g of rock sugar and set aside

  

• In a spice bag, add 4 star anise, 2 tsp fennel seeds and 2 tsp black peppercorn and set aside I used a tea bag and it worked well

  

• After 1 hour, add the rest of the meats to the water and cook for another 15 minutes

  

• Remove meats and tendon from the pot and set aside. Do not discard water

  

• In a wok or pot, add 2 tbsp oil. Fry ginger and shallots for 20 seconds on medium-high heat. Add garlic and fry until aromatic

  

• Add all the meats and tendon into the wok. Stir-fry for 1 minute

  

• Add sauce mixture to the wok and stir-fry for 1 minute

  

• Add the saved water until most of the meat is covered. Discard any remaining water I don't cover all the meat with water since I'm braising at low temperature. I don't anticipate too much evaporation and too much water will dilute the sauce. Mixing it every 15 minutes will prevent the meat from drying

  

• Add all the ingredients in step 5 and the spice bag to the wok

  

• When the liquid begins to boil, turn the heat down to low and cook for 1 hour. Mix with a spatula every 15 minutes for even cooking

• Peel and roll cut the white radish to approx the same size as the meat or slightly larger. Set aside Roll cut is cutting a vegetable at an angle and rolling it 90 degrees after every cut. This allows for faster cooking time and regardless of the size of the white radish, you can cut them to a fairly uniformed size

  

• After 30 minutes of braising the meat, add the white radish, mix well. Continue braising for another 30 minutes and mixing every 15 minutes

  

• Chop green onions and set aside

• When time is up, check the meat for tenderness. If the meat is still tough, you may braise it for another 15-30 minutes

  

• Taste test to make any adjustments if necessary

• Fish out the spice bag, cinnamon and bay leaves

• If there is too much water, you can turn the heat to high and allow for some evaporation to thicken the sauce. This may be the case if you didn't add any tendons. Tendons are high in collagen that help the sauce thicken. You may also choose to make a slurry from corn starch and water to thicken the sauce

• Serve with rice or noodles. Sprinkle with chopped green onions

Calories: 573 kcal Carbohydrates: 18 g Protein: 53 g Fat: 33 g Saturated Fat: 12 g Trans Fat: 1 g Cholesterol: 89 mg Sodium: 1077 mg Potassium: 765 mg Fiber: 4 g Sugar: 10 g Vitamin A: 54 IU Vitamin C: 31 mg Calcium: 100 mg Iron: 4 mg

Keyword Bay Leaves, Bean Curd, Beef, Beef Brisket, Chu Hou Sauce, Cinnamon, Fennel, Garlic, Green Onions, Oyster Sauce, Peppercorn, Shallot, Short Ribs, Star Anise, Tendon, White Radish

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