Pepper beef rice skillet is my take on the famous restaurant "Pepper Lunch" meal! It's a complete one-pan meal you can make quickly and easily right in your own home and you're going to want to make all the time! Loaded with beef, veggies, and rice and served with honey garlic sauce, it's full of comfort and totally hits the spot!
If you've heard of the fast food chain Pepper Lunch, you're going to know exactly how this recipe was inspired!
Pepper Lunch serves up hot meals in sizzling cast iron plates, their most popular dish being their beef pepper lunch which is made up of thin sliced beef, rice, and corn. All the ingredients are added to the cast iron plate and all you have to do it stir everything around to cook it through and then eat! It's hot, fast, hearty, and delicious!
I'm going to show you how you can make it home, minus the sizzling cast iron dishes, but it's quick and easy and delicious just the same!
How To Make It
Ingredients
This meal really couldn't get much simpler. You'll need:
- Thinly sliced beef (sometimes referred to as "hot pot" beef)
- Onion powder, salt and pepper for seasoning the beef
- About 4-5 cups hot cooked rice (approximately 1.5 cups uncooked)
- Corn and peas
- Butter
Then there is the Garlic Honey Sauce, which is a simple combination of
- Soy sauce
- Garlic
- Tapioca starch
- Honey
- Water
Make the Garlic Honey Sauce
Combine the water, soy sauce, garlic, honey, and tapioca starch in a small pot or saucepan and whisk together.
Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat and cook for about a minute. That's it! Set the sauce aside to cool.
Prepare The Beef
Cut the thinly sliced beef into bite-sized pieces and mix with the onion powder, salt and pepper. The dry seasoning will give the beef some extra flavor for the dish.
Cook the Meal
Everything comes together really quickly once the cooking starts!
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add a couple tablespoons of neutral-flavored oil.
Add the thinly sliced beef and once it is cooked partway, it's time to dump in the hot cooked rice, canned corn, peas, butter, and some extra pepper.
Mix everything thoroughly and once the beef is cooked and the butter melted and distributed, it's done and ready for serving!
How To Enjoy It
You can definitely eat this meal as is, but drizzling some of the honey garlic sauce over it takes the flavors up a notch! Some chopped green onion on top also adds a bit of freshness to the meal, and you can even sprinkle on some more pepper if you like!
You can also reduce the portion size of this recipe to a single serving and eat straight out of the pan...how fun is that?
This meal is sufficient enough to stand on its own, but you can't go wrong if you serve it with a bowl of miso soup or a small side salad.
Other One-Pan Meals
If you're looking for more easy one-pan meals, be sure to check out these recipes! Not all of them are cooked on the stovetop...meals cooked in a baking pan in the oven also counts as one-pan!
Skillet Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs
Garlic Shrimp and Spinach One-Pan Pasta
One-Pan Roast Chicken and Kale
Sweet Potato Cauliflower Shepherd's Pie
Cook up the flavors of Pepper Lunch right in your own home with this pepper beef rice skillet. And if you've never tried a Pepper Lunch meal or don't even know what they are, this is all the more reason you have to give this a try! You don't know what you've been missing!
~ Lisa.
Pepper Beef Rice Skillet
Ingredients
Garlic Sauce
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup light soy sauce
- 3 garlic cloves, minced or grated
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon tapioca starch (cornstarch also works)
Seasoning the beef:
- 1 lb. hot pot beef slices, cut into thirds or bite-size pieces
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
Cooking the Pepper Beef Rice Skillet:
- 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil (or any neutral flavored oil)
- 4-5 cups hot cooked Japanese/short grain rice (see Recipe Notes below for uncooked rice measurements)
- 1 cup frozen peas, parboiled
- 1 cup canned corn, drained
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
Equipment
Instructions
- Cook rice (rice must be cooked before you start cooking the beef). Once rice is cooked, keep warm until ready to use.
Garlic Sauce:
- Combine water, soy sauce, minced garlic, honey, and tapioca starch in a small saucepan over low heat. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside and let cool.
- If desired, pour sauce into blender and pulse a few times to blend in the garlic.
Pepper Beef Rice Skillet:
- Combine salt, pepper and onion powder and mix with the beef; set aside.
- Heat large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add 2 tablespoons light olive oil.
- Add beef and cook until half-done, loosening the pieces in the pan to cook evenly.
- Add cooked rice, peas, corn, black pepper, and butter. (If using regular frozen peas, parboil the peas before adding to the pan.)
- Keep stirring ingredients until beef is completely done and mixture is heated through.
- Serve with garlic sauce.
Notes
- 4-5 cups of cooked rice is approximately 1.5 cups of uncooked rice, using a standard measuring cup.
- This recipe uses Japanese/short grain rice, but if you don't have any, long-grain rice will also work.
- This dish is also good with chicken, pork belly, or salmon.
- If using chicken or pork, be sure they are completely cooked before adding in the rice and vegetables.
- Use only corn or only peas if desired.
- I used canned corn and frozen peas. For the frozen peas, I put them in a bowl with just-boiled water to heat them through before adding to the pan.
- Use mixed frozen vegetables, if you'd like, but parboil them before adding them to the pan to make sure they're heated through completely.
- Make a single serving of this recipe in a small skillet and eat straight from the pan!
- Leftovers keep well in the fridge and can be reheated in the microwave.
This post was originally published on September 3rd, 2017, but was republished in September 27th, 2022 with an updated recipe and notes, new photos, instructional photos, and writing.
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