Bo Loc Lac (Shaking Beef)
Bo Loc Lac, also knowing as Shaking Beef, is a delicious stir fry from Cambodia and Vietnam served with fresh vegetables and an incredible black pepper and lime dipping sauce.
What you’ll love about this recipe:
- Super Quick: Dinner is ready in 15 minutes (and leftovers taste great)!
- Easy Clean Up: I’ve adapted the recipe to use just one pan, so there are fewer dished to wash.
- Savory, Tender Beef: The stir fry technique keeps the beef incredibly tender while a savory sauce adds loads of flavor.
From a Cambodian Roadside Stand to My Weeknight Table
One of the best, and most surprising, things I’ve ever tasted came from a tiny roadside stall in Cambodia. We stopped for a quick lunch on a packed day, and our guide recommended that I try one of Cambodia’s national dishes, loc lac. I ordered it, knowing nothing other than that it was beef and that it cost something like $3.
I was rewarded with an amazing plate piled high with fresh vegetables (lettuce, cucumber, and okra), saucy and tender beef, rice, and a fried egg. There was also a little dish of peppery-but-not-spicy dipping sauce that immediately stole my heart.
I asked a million questions, because I knew this was a recipe I was going to want to recreate at home.
You might have heard of lok lak by it’s other name, “Shaking Beef,” which is how it’s commonly referred to in English-speaking areas. The name comes from the shaking motion that you do with the pan as the beef cooks. Keeping the beef moving means you get a great sear without overcooking it, so it stays super tender.
The beef and the dipping sauce are traditionally made with Cambodian Kampot peppercorns, which are a mild black peppercorn with subtle floral and eucalyptus notes. Despite my efforts to find it locally back home, I came up empty handed. You can buy it online, but it’s pricy. For this recipe I used tellicherry pepper instead and, which it isn’t exactly the same, I will say it tasted just as good as the plate I ate in Phnom Penh.
Ingredients you’ll nee
Stir-Fry Beef Strips: Traditionally, this dish is made with filet or sirloin, and you can abolutley use either of those cuts. I used pre-sliced stir-fry beef strips to save time and money, and I have zero regrets.
Cornstarch + Water: You’ll use this mixture to lightl coat the beef, locking in moisture and helping the sauce cling to each bite.
Oyster Sauce, Soy Sauce, Fish Sauce, and Mirin (Rice Wine): It feels like a lot, but this trio results in a umami-packed sauce that will have you wanting to lick the plate.
Sugar: Don’t let the sugar in this recipe scare you. It isn’t sweet or sugary tasting at all, but it’s key to building a beautifully glossy sauce and balancing out the heat of so much black pepper.
Black Pepper: And a lot of it! You’ll use this in the stir fry itself as well as in the dipping sauce. It’s probably the most black pepper you’ll ever use in one recipe. It’s absolutely necessary and worth it. For the best results, use freshly cracked pepper, and crack it on the coarsest setrting you can.
Fresh Lime Juice: For your new favorite dipping sauce.
Frequently asked questions
Keep the beef in a an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat the beef gently in a pan or microwave.
Nope—it’s a nice-to-have but has a subtle flavor. You can swap in a splash of any rice wine (NOT rice wine vinegar), white wine, apple juice, or skip it.
Cambodian food isn’t spicy the way Thai food is, but it is quite peppery. On a scale of 1-10, I’d put this at a 2. That said, if you’re the kind of person who thinks black pepper is super spicy, it might not be the dish for you.
Absolutely! In fact, the sauce is traditionally used as a marinade. You can mix everything together and let the beef marinate for up to 24 hours in the fridge.
Crisp fresh veggies like butter lettuce and cucumbers and rice (steamed or fried). It’s also commonly topped with a fried egg!
Other recipes you might like:
- Air fryer Nashville hot chicken sandwiches
- Ginger-soy sheet pan salmon and asparagus
- Homemade teriyaki sauce
- Skillet French onion chicken breasts
Bo Loc Lac (Shaking Beef)
Ingredients
For the steak:
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 ½ pounds stir fry beef strips
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 8 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 red onion thinly sliced
- ⅓ cup oyster sauce
- 3 tablespoons mirin or other rice-based cooking wine
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
For the dipping sauce:
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 2 limes juiced
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
For serving: butter lettuce leaves, cucumber, tomato, cooked white rice
Instructions
- Combine the cornstarch and water in a large mixing bowl. Add the beef and toss to coat evenly.
- Heat the oil in a large pan or wok over high heat.
- Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the beef strips, shaking the pan frequently, until the beef has a brown sear (about 5 minutes.)
- Add the red onion, oyster sauce, soy sauce, mirin, fish sauce, sugar, and pepper. Cook until thick and saucy and the onion is softened, shaking pan frequently to prevent burning, 2-3 minutes.
- To make the dipping sauce, in a small bowl, stir together the lime juice, pepper, and salt.
- Serve the beef over lettuce with cucumber, tomato, white rice and dipping sauce on the side.
