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Taiwanese beef noodle soup (Niu Rou Mien)

written by Marvellina Updated: March 23, 2024
7.8K
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Taiwanese beef noodle soup – Comforting beef noodle soup packed with umami flavor and incredibly tender beef pieces will conquer any freezing weather coming your way. Recipe for Instant Pot and stove-top included.

Taiwanese beef noodle soup (niu rou mian) #instantpot #beef #noodlesoup

The part that I love about picking up my daughter from school is when I see her walking towards the car with her ear-to-ear grin. I know something (good) is going on. Two days ago, she wore that sweetest smile on her face. I opened up the car door and told me “Mama, I can’t wait to show you what I make for you for Christmas” Aww…!!! My heart melted!! She couldn’t wait to get home and to have me open the handmade gift. I asked her if we should wait until Christmas and she said “I won’t be able to sleep at night thinking about it!” LOL. Okay…I don’t need a sleepless child!

Taiwanese beef noodle soup made in Instant Pot
I pressure-cooked the beef in Instant Pot
Taiwanese beef noodle soup(niu rou mian) #instantpot #beef #noodlesoup

We got home and she sat me down and handed me a bag stuffed with colorful tissue paper. I carefully unwrapped the gift that is also wrapped in white tissue paper. She was squealing with joy when I was about to unravel the gift! (oh…priceless expression). It was a handmade coaster! With the photo of her cute face on it!!
“Do you like it mama? Do you?”
I said “I don’t like it. I LOVE IT!”
“I’m sooooo happy you like it mama”

Taiwanese beef noodle soup(niu rou mian) #instantpot #beef #noodlesoup

She later told me “Mom, it feels so good to give something to somebody. It makes me happy”. I couldn’t be happier to hear her say that. I have to agree with her that it does feel so good to be able to make someone happy! I’ve told my kids before that Christmas is not just about getting gifts, but it’s even better if we can give and help out others in need! Perhaps they were still too young to understand that. Well, my 4 year old still doesn’t understand that concept, but I’m glad my 7 year old experienced the joy of giving!

Taiwanese beef noodle soup(niu rou mian) #instantpot #beef #noodlesoup

Anyway, sorry to bore you with a little Christmas story of mine. I just thought it’s precious! Now..onto the food. This Taiwanese beef noodle soup is one of my most favorite food since college time. I remember this one small Taiwanese eatery near campus that served REALLY good Taiwanese food. My sister and I often went there for lunch or dinner.
The Taiwanese takes great pride in their beef noodle soup, and they should. I’ve been tinkering with the recipes and trying to come up with the one that is not too complicated to make but yet still have that authentic taste to it. I think I’ve found a keeper. So, you would ask what so special about this beef noodle soup ? The beef noodle soup is flavored with great aromas from star anise, bay leaves, ginger and seasonings that are commonly used in Chinese cooking such as dou ban jiang or known as broad bean paste and the Taiwanese BBQ sauce. These last two seasonings to me really make the soup base! Without these two, I’d say don’t even bother to make it. I’m serious ! Another special thing about this noodle is, it is usually eaten with pickled Asian mustard greens.

So, there you have it…savory, somewhat spicy, slightly tangy with a hint of sweetness. I usually just bought a canned pickled mustard greens. I would definitely not eat this noodle without the pickled mustard greens. All in all, give your taste buds some chance. If you don’t like it spicy, you can always adjust the seasonings. I like it the way it is but we all have a different preference and there’s nothing carved in stone when it comes to cooking. Experiment with it and you might find yourself crazy about this Taiwanese beef noodle soup! who knows! 😉

Taiwanese beef noodle soup(niu rou mian) #instantpot #beef #noodlesoup

I’ve tried cooking on stove-top and pressure-cooked in Instant pot and I like the pressure-cooked beef so much better. So tender but still very flavorful. I can tell the difference with when I cooked it on stove-top!

Taiwanese beef noodle soup

Taiwanese beef noodle soup (Niu Rou Mien)

Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 1 hour hr
Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins
Servings 6 servings
5 from 3 reviews
REVIEW & RATE PRINT

Ingredients

Soup base:

  • 3 lbs beef shank/shin cut into large chunks, don’t cut too small or they will break into small pieces
  • Cooking oil
  • 3 tsp brown sugar
  • 1 large onion peeled and halved
  • 8 stalks of green onions remove roots and halved
  • 3- inch knob of ginger
  • 2 star anise
  • 4 fresh bay leaves or 6 dried bay leaves
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 cup store-bought low-sodium beef broth
  • 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 lb of Asian noodles of your choice flat rice noodles, thick wheat noodles, or linguine/fettucine is a good choice too

Seasonings:

  • 3 Tbsp dou ban jiang Chinese broad bean paste
  • 2 Tbsp Taiwan BBQ Sauce Sha Cha jiang
  • 2 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 cup of Chinese rice wine

Garnishes:

  • 2 stalks of green onion finely chopped
  • 2 cups Pickled Asian mustard greens roughly chopped

Instructions
 

  • *Recipe is written for 6-quart Instant Pot. Cooking time should remain the same for 8-quart size but will take longer to pressurize. For mini duo (3-quart), I suggest to half the recipe and use the same amount of time to cook*

Preparing base stock and the noodle soup for both Instant pot and stove-top method:

  • For Instant Pot user, you can use the saute mode and brown the beef in the pot, but I prefer to brown the meat with cast iron skillet. Preheat dutch oven or any heavy-bottom pot. Separate the beef into three batches. Add in 1 Tbsp of oil and put in first batch of the beef and let it brown on all sides. Do not overcrowd the pot or the beef will not brown nicely. Repeat until you are done browning all the beef. Place the beef in a large platter and set aside for now
  • Place the onion (cut-side down) on the open fire on stove-top. If your stove is electric, you can char the onion in the oven. Add another 1 Tbsp of cooking oil into the pot you use to brown the beef earlier. Add in the charred onions, green onion stalks, ginger, star anise, fresh bay leaves and stir fry until you smell nice aromas, about 5 minutes. Add in the seasoning ingredients and stir fry for another 2 minutes

Continuing cooking on stove-top:

  • Add the browned beef into the pot and stir to mix everything. Pour in water, beef broth, and rice vinegar. Bring back to boil and once it boils, lower the heat, cover the pot and let it cook for the next 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until the short ribs are tender and you can easily pull it apart with fork. I actually need almost 3 hours to get to this point. So, observe yours
  • Once the beef is ready, carefully pick the beef out from the pot and place them back on the platter. Strain the soup base into another clean pot and discard the rest of the solid. Adjust taste by adding more salt if needed

Pressure cook with Instant Pot:

  • Transfer all the thing you have just sauteed into the pot followed by the browned beef pieces. Pour in water, beef broth, rice vinegar. Close the lid and press pressure cook, high pressure and set timer to 30 minutes (tender) or up to 40 minutes for really tender beef. Wait 10 minutes and then release pressure
  • Once the beef is ready, carefully pick the beef out from the pot and place them back on the platter. Strain the soup base into another clean pot and discard the rest of the solid. Adjust taste by adding more salt if needed

Serving:

  • When ready to serve, cook the noodles of your choice to al dente. Rinse the noodle with water, portion it out into serving bowl. Add pieces of beef, pickled mustard greens and ladle the broth over the noodles generously. Topped with some green onions and tuck in !

Marv’s Recipe Notes

1. You may try to use brisket cut into large chunks instead of beef shank too. We prefer shank.
2. Both dou ban jiang and Taiwanese BBQ sauce can be easily found at most Asian grocery store.

*Nutrition facts are just estimates and calculated using online tools*

Nutrition Facts
Taiwanese beef noodle soup (Niu Rou Mien)
Serving Size
 
1 serving
Amount per Serving
Calories
586
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
8
g
12
%
Saturated Fat
 
2
g
13
%
Trans Fat
 
0.01
g
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
1
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
4
g
Cholesterol
 
53
mg
18
%
Sodium
 
768
mg
33
%
Potassium
 
924
mg
26
%
Carbohydrates
 
79
g
26
%
Fiber
 
4
g
17
%
Sugar
 
7
g
8
%
Protein
 
35
g
70
%
Vitamin A
 
312
IU
6
%
Vitamin C
 
15
mg
18
%
Calcium
 
91
mg
9
%
Iron
 
5
mg
28
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Did you make this recipe?Let me know how you like this recipe and consider rating it! Tag me @whattocooktoday I’d love to see your photos/videos on Instagram

Did you make this Taiwanese niu rou main recipe?

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Taiwanese beef noodle soup(niu rou mian) #instantpot #beef #noodlesoup
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3 comments

Amy July 15, 2022 - 3:09 pm

Is it best that I use regular rice vinegar instead of “seasoned”? All I have is the seasoned kind.

Reply
Marvellina July 15, 2022 - 9:10 pm

Hi Amy, I think you can still get away with using seasoned rice vinegar.

Reply
Danielle August 2, 2018 - 7:47 am

I most definitely want to make this recipe. Beef noodles soup is amazing. I’ll have to hunt down that taiwanese BBQ sauce though, it’s the only thing I dont have!

Reply
5 from 3 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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