Jamaican pepper steak is one of my favourite meat dishes. I used to love when my grandmother would prepare this dish for Sunday dinner. Strips of beef cooked with bell pepper in a savoury sauce, which takes let than 30 minutes.
Pepper Steak Recipe – Jamaican Style
This pepper steak recipe yields a Jamaican stir-fried dish made with sliced beef steak cooked with colourful bell pepper strips, seasoned with thyme, ginger and other Jamaican seasonings.
Because of the colourful bell pepper strips, I used to think this was the most decorative main dish when I was a little girl. Although I never liked eating bell pepper, I would when having pepper steak.
What Goes In It
A few stir fry ingredients along with a few ingredients you would typically find in any Jamaican cuisines – for that added Jamaican flavour.
- Steak: I’m using sirloin steak, which is considered one of the best steaks for making this dish. If you can get sirloin steak, you can also use flank steak or round steak.
- Bell pepper: It wouldn’t be pepper steak without the bell peppers.
- Browning sauce: For that Jamaican effect, use browning sauce, but if you can’t get browning sauce or prefer not to use it, you can also use soya sauce.
- Powder seasoning: Any meat, beef, or steak powder seasoning will do. For a taste of Jamaica, I’m using Easispice all-purpose seasoning.
- Cornstarch: To thicken the gravy.
- Beef broth: There is a likelihood you may not need this as the meat will release water once it starts cooking, which may be enough water for this recipe. I used ¼ cup of beef broth and mixed it with the cornstarch before adding it to the pot.
- Green seasoning found in every Jamaican cuisine: scotch bonnet pepper, thyme, ginger, scallion and onion.
How To Make Pepper Steak From Scratch
Making Jamaican pepper steak from scratch is much easier than you may think. The hardest part of cooking this dish is waiting for it to finish.
After washing and cleaning the meat, cut into strips and season.
- Cut into strips: Cut the meat into even strips, 3 inches long and about ½ to 1 inch thick.
- Add the marinade to the meat: Add everything to the meat except the cornstarch, beef broth and bell pepper. Coat the meat well with the marinade and leave to marinate
- Leave to Marinate: Honestly, you don’t have to marinate for long. I let it marinate for like half an hour are so.
- Separate the marinade: Now comes the tedious task of separating the marinade from the meat. Don’t try to perfect here because you won’t get all the garlic, ginger or scallion off the beef, and that’s not a problem. You don’t have to use a separate plate to place the meat on. Place the meat straight into the pan to brown. I only use the plate for the photo.
- Quick brown: Add the strips of meat to hot oil in a pan and brown on all side, which won’t take long because the beef change colour as soon as it touches the hot oil. Stir it so that all the strips are brown. You will notice that the meat starts to release water into the pan.
- That marinade again: As soon as all the strips are brown, stir in the marinade from earlier. Let it cook for about 3-4 minutes.
- Pepper to the steak: Now add the bell pepper to the pan. Add a little more browning sauce to darken the gravy. If needed, add the beef broth. Whisk the cornstarch into the beef broth before adding it.
- Let the sauce thicken: Cook for another 5 minutes until the gravy thickens, then serve!
What To Serve It With
Any rice dish will go well with Jamaican pepper steak. My favourite to serve with pepper steak is plain rice. If you are having pepper steak for Sunday dinner, why not make it a Jamaican Sunday and have it with rice and peas.
It time to try Jamaican pepper steak, I promise you will enjoy the recipe below.
Storing Leftovers And Reheating
Store leftover in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days. If you are the type to freeze everything, pop it in the freezer to store it longer.
Reheating the pepper steak in a microwave takes only 4 minutes. If you are reheating it on the stovetop, try not to overcook it because the beef will get chewy.
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Jamaican pepper steak recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lbs (907.18 g) Sirloin steak
- 1 Green bell pepper Sliced into thin strip
- 1 Red bell pepper Sliced into thin strip
- 2.1 oz (59.53 g) Sliced onion
- 3 Cloves garlic Crushed
- 0.7 oz (19.84 g) Chopped scallion
- 1 tsp Grated ginger
- 4 Sprig of thyme
- 1 tbsp Beef seasoning or all-purpose seasoning
- 3 tsp Browning sauce
- 1 tsp salt Or the amount to your taste
- ¼ cup (59.15 ml) Beef stock
- 1 ½ tsp (1.5 tsp) Cornstarch
- 2 tbsp Cooking oil
Instructions
- Wash, clean and cut the beef into strips.
- Add the thyme, onion, garlic, scallion, ginger, beef/all-purpose seasoning, salt and 1 tsp browning sauce to the beef strips and combine. Leave to marinate
- Place a skillet pan with the cooking oil on medium heat and let it hot. Separate the marinade from the beef and add the beef strips to the cooking oil.
- Stir until all the beef strips are brown on all sides.
- Once all the beef strips are brown, add the marinade that you separated from the beef to the pan. Cook for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the bell pepper, the rest of the browning sauce, beef broth and cornstarch. whisk the cornstarch in the beef broth before adding it to the pan. Leave to cook for another 5-7 minutes, until the sauce thickens.
Notes
- You can use flank or round steak if sirloin isn’t available.
- If you find there is too much water from the meat in the pan, you don’t have to add the beef broth. In this case, take some of the sauce from the pan to use to whisk the cornstarch, then pour it back in.
Hi there under number III it states expect the onion to the beef, please clarify..thanks
I have changed it, it should have been 1.
Sounds pretty simple. Will try tonight.
Thanks!!
Love this recipe, I cooked it last Sunday was amazing!
Making this on Sunday. Love it!
It was awesome I loved it, thank you
You are welcome Milagro
Hi will try recipe which cut of steak works best for this dish .
It was great! I enjoyed it.
Lovely easy to follow recipe with authentic flavours . The family enjoyed Thankyou !