This beef tendon recipe is so flavourful and a fantastic source of collagen protein to support the health of bones, tendons and skin. I am sharing a version that replicates the popular chilled beef tendon appetizer I grew up with, while keeping the process simple for the western household.
This Chinese chilled beef tendon appetizer (凉拌牛筋) is cooked to tender, and then marinated in a delicious garlic-soy-vinegar dressing. In China, this is a classic dish you can find on restaurant menus and dinner tables at home. Watch the video below for how to make this beef tendon appetizer.
Beef Tendon Is Full of Collagen
Do you know that beef tendon is about 80% collagen? This is the type of protein you can’t easily get from muscle meats and plants, yet the most used in human body in building bones, tendons and skin. But as we age, our body doesn’t produce as much collagen as it used to. Therefore, it’s important to consume collagen in our diet.
Collagen supplements have become very popular for older people especially women, for maintaining healthier joints and better looking skin. Eating collagen from whole food sources, however, is more economical than from supplements. Besides, we are getting not just the collagen protein, but a variety of minerals and nutrients from eating real food, such as the beef tendon.
I also supplement my diet with collagen from time to time. Perfect Supplements is my favourite brand of high quality supplements extracted from whole foods. My discount code “YANG10” gives my readers 10% off entire purchase (stackable with other discounts on the site for up to 40% off) when shopping at Perfect Supplements.
How to Cook Beef Tendons
Traditional Broth
In the tradition recipe, the beef tendons are boiled in an aromatic broth infused with Chinese spices and flavours, consisting some or all of the soy sauce, cooking wine, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorn, green onion, tangerine peels, etc. I am listing the ingredients here, in case you want to give it a try.
My Adapted Method
However, I am sharing an alternative method below, because I feel it’s more convenient in my Canadian kitchen and more suitable for my western readers.
Instead of cooking in the traditional broth, I boil my beef tendons when I am making a big batch of beef bone broth in the Instant Pot. This works well because beef tendon takes a long cooking time to become tender. It’s perfect to cook them along with the bone broth, and in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot. Because I make bone broth fairly regularly, it’s not hard to plan ahead and make them together. This saves me effort and gives me extra gelatinous beef broth at the same time.
One thing to note here is that, I do blanch the beef tendons quickly (and discard the blanching water), before boiling them in the bone broth. This is a very common practice and technique in cooking Chinese meat and broth dishes.
As for the concern of whether I can achieve the right flavour, since I am not boiling the beef tendons in a traditional broth? I still love how the dish turned out every time! I am making a traditional dressing in this recipe, which gives the tendons the most flavour, therefore the end result is still absolutely delicious and tastes authentic.
Chilling, Storing and Cutting The Beef Tendons
When you take the cooked beef tendons out of the pressure cooker or Instant Pot, they should be very tender and have the almost-melt-in-your-mouth texture when they are hot. This is a good outcome, because you don’t want your tendons to be undercooked and chewy. But to make this beef tendon appetizer, we will need to cool down the beef tendons next.
Place the beef tendons in an airtight container, and transfer them into the fridge. Once the beef tendons are chilled, they should firm up again and become easier to cut with a knife. It only takes a few hours of cooling in the fridge before you can proceed to the next step, but if you would like to make the dish a little later, you can store the cooked beef tendons in the fridge for up to 3 days.
As you can see in the video, I boiled 4 beef tendons and chilled them in the fridge. I used 2 of them to make this dish right away, and stored the other 2 in the fridge for a later day.
Now that the beef tendons are chilled and firm again, slice them thinly with a knife, as shown in the image below.
Beef Tendon Recipe Ingredients
- Beef Tendons
- Soy Sauce
- Black Vinegar
- Garlic
- Cilantro
- Green Onion
- Sesame Seeds
- Sesame Oil
There are many spicy versions of the beef tendon dish, where people add ground Sichuan peppercorn, and chopped up fresh bird’s eye chili or Sichuan chili oil in the dressing. I don’t like my food too spicy these days, so I omitted the chili. However, if you prefer a spicy kick, you can add them to your taste.
Eating Your Skincare
I made this beef tendon appetizer as part of my recipe collection called “the little-known beauty food series”. Check out other dishes in the series for beautiful radiant skin.
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Chinese Chilled Beef Tendon Appetizer (凉拌牛筋)
Ingredients
- 2 beef tendons
- 4 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon black vinegar
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tablespoon thinly-sliced green onion
- 2 tablespoons finely-chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Place the beef tendons in a medium pot, cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil, and you may see scum floating on the water surface. Remove the pot from heat, discard the water, and rinse the beef tendons.
- Add the blanched beef tendons in a pot with clean water and aromatics, and cook the beef tendons until tender. I boil my beef tendons along with my bone broth in the Instant Pot. See notes below for an alternative broth.
- Remove cooked beef tendons from the broth, and place them in an airtight container. Transfer the beef tendons into the fridge. Let the beef tendons chill in the fridge for a few hours, then they should firm up again and become easier to cut with a knife. You can store the cooked beef tendons in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Thinly slice the beef tendons with a knife, then place them in a deep plate. Add soy sauce, black vinegar, minced garlic, green onion, cilantro, sesame seeds, and sesame oil.
- Mix everything well and serve.
Video
Notes
- In traditional recipes, the beef tendons are often boiled in a broth containing water, soy sauce, cooking wine, ginger, star anise, cinnamon; you may also add other aromatics such as Sichuan peppercorn, green onion, tangerine peels, etc. The leftover broth the beef tendons were cooked in is flavourful and nutritious, and you can repurpose it to make other dishes.
- If you like a spicy kick, you can add thinly sliced fresh bird's chili or Sichuan chill oil to the dish. You can also add ground Sichuan peppercorn for a numbing spicy taste.
Nutrition
How long do you cook them in the instant pot?
I usually cook them along with my bone broth, which I cook for 4 hours. This is longer than you really need, but the tendons will not fall apart and I like them extra extra soft because once they cool down, they will harden quite a bit. I am not concerned about losing collagen into the broth during long cooking, because I will drink the broth. If you are just cooking the tendons on their own and want to finish with the least amount of time, you can go for 1 to 2 hours.