An easy chicken and broccoli stir fry recipe that yields juicy chicken and crisp broccoli in a rich brown sauce, just like the one at a Chinese restaurant. {Gluten-Free Adaptable}
Chicken and broccoli should be on your weekday dinner rotation menu, because it’s so easy to prepare and the result tastes even better than takeout. If you rarely cook Chinese stir fries at home, this is a great dish to start with. It only requires one protein, one vegetable, and one sauce. The cooking doesn’t require a wok and the process is very simple. Start your steamed rice while preparing this dish and your dinner will be ready in 30 minutes.
Cooking notes
1. What cookware to use
I’ve discussed why not to use a wok and how to set up your stir fry station in the past in great detail.
Before moving to the US, I always cooked with a small cast iron wok and gas stove in my Chinese kitchen. I switched to a heavy nonstick skillet when I moved to Austin, because it heated up faster and held heat better on the electric stove. Now that I finally have a gas stove again in my New York kitchen, the flame is so weak that sometimes I have trouble boiling water. Now I use both nonstick and carbon steel pans depending on the dishes I make.
If you just started cooking Chinese food, or if you have a similar kitchen situation to mine (electric stove, IH stove, or not-so-powerful gas stove), cooking with a nonstick skillet or carbon steel skillet will be the best option. It’s easier to learn to use, heats up better, and creates great results.
2. Key ingredients
Aromatics – It’s very important to use fresh ginger and garlic to create the authentic Chinese food experience. Sometimes I add a handful of chopped green onion to further add fragrance to the dish.
Oyster sauce – In my world it’s a sauce that is quite close to hoisin sauce, only it tastes much better. It adds a rich, savory umami (from oyster extract) and a slightly sweet note to the stir fry sauce.
Shaoxing wine – Used in most Chinese stir fry dishes, including vegetables. It adds a deep fermented savory taste. If you do not want alcohol in your dish, you can use chicken broth to replace it. The flavor of the sauce will fall flat a bit, but you will still get a great result.
Dark soy sauce – It has a darker color and tastes less salty than soy sauce. It’s commonly used in Chinese stir fries to add a beautiful caramelized color to the meat. You can replace it with soy sauce if you don’t have any on hand. Your dish will come out lighter than mine, but still taste great.
3. Easy prep
Getting your working station organized is key to making good stir fries. Different from many Western style cooking techniques, the Chinese stir fry process happens very quickly. Once you heat up the pan, it usually takes less than 5 minutes to cook a dish. Be sure to cut all the ingredients, make the sauce, and have all the ingredients ready near your stove.
When I prepare my stir fry, I like to go one step further and group the ingredients according to the cooking steps, so I can use fewer prep bowls. It makes your working station less crowded, prevents you from forgetting to add ingredients during cooking, and makes clean-up faster.
In the case of the chicken and broccoli stir fry, you should have 5 items near your stove:
- Mixed sauce
- Marinated chicken
- Chopped broccoli
- Chopped ginger and garlic
- Cooking oil (not shown in the picture)
4. Cooking process
Making chicken and broccoli is super easy. All you need to do is:
- Steam the broccoli in the stir fry pan using a bit of water. I do this instead of blanching the broccoli in a separate pot. It cooks faster this way and you only use one pan in total.
- Heat up your pan very hot. Sear both sides of the chicken. It helps to brown the chicken better if you spread it in the pan in a single layer and don’t touch it until the bottom is browned.
- Add the aromatics.
- Add the cooked broccoli and the sauce, then cook until sauce is thickened.
That’s it!
5. One word on oil
The amount of oil you need largely depends on the type of pan you’re using. If you use a nonstick pan, you can cut the oil to 1 tablespoon without any problem. If you use a carbon steel or cast iron pan, you might need to use more oil, so the bottom of the pan is covered completely with a thin layer of oil to prevent the chicken from sticking to the pan.
More delicious take-out style recipes
- String Bean Chicken
- Crispy Chinese Honey Chicken (without Deep Frying)
- 15-Minute Chicken Chow Fun (Chicken Fried Rice Noodles)
- Black Pepper Steak
- Easy Beef Fried Rice
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Chicken and Broccoli (Chinese Takeout Style)
Ingredients
- 1 lb (454 g) boneless skinless chicken breast (or thigh)
Marinade
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Sauce
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Stir-fry
- 1 head (600 g) broccoli , chopped into bite-sized florets
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 4 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon ginger , minced
Instructions
- Slice the chicken against the grain into thin bite-size pieces, no thicker than 1/4” (1/2 cm), transfer into a medium-size bowl. Add the marinade ingredients. Stir to mix well. Let sit for 10 minutes while preparing other ingredients.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Stir to mix well.
- Bring 1/3 cup of water to a boil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the broccoli and cover. Steam until the broccoli just turns tender and the water evaporates, about 40 to 50 seconds. Transfer the broccoli to a plate. Wipe the pan with a paper towel held in a pair of tongs if there’s any water left.
- Add the oil and swirl to coat the bottom. Spread the chicken in the skillet in a single layer. Allow to cook without touching for 30 seconds, or until the bottom side is browned. Flip to cook the other side for a few seconds. Stir and cook until the surface is lightly charred and the inside is still pink.
- Add the garlic and ginger. Stir a few times to release the flavor and fragrance.
- Return the broccoli to the pan. Stir the sauce again to dissolve the cornstarch completely and pour it into the skillet. Cook and stir until the sauce thickens, about 1 minute. Transfer everything to a plate immediately.
- Serve hot with steamed rice or boiled noodles as a main dish.
This was delicious! I had trouble getting my skillet hot enough, but that only meant each stage just took a few minutes longer, which was not a big deal. I could not find good Shaoxing wine without salt like you recommend, so I settled for the cooking wine version (ordered off Amazon) and simply reduced the salt to a pinch in each place it was called for. This worked fine. The flavor was excellent — a lovely, rich savoriness – I would not call it bland at all, as one reviewer did, but I would suggest that if one enjoys a bit of heat to add some red pepper flakes to the sauce when mixing. Maggie, I really appreciate how clearly you have laid out each recipe and your explanations of techniques and ingredients are so incredibly helpful! I also appreciate the Amazon links to ingredients — I feel much better knowing that I have bought the correct item and will not ruin a dish, which is a relief for me! This is the first recipe I have tried, and I will be back to learn more! Thank you very much.
Excellent recipe! Much better than the one I was using. Love the step by step instructions. So easy and delicious!!
The kids and adults in my family loved this. We made it gluten free. I can’t wait to make it again.
This recipe is great! I make a quadruple batch to feed everyone – also like to do a light grill on the chicken before adding to the Wok – adds a great smoky grill flavor!
Great recipe, easy to make. Only had fish sauce, & WOW is it strong. Only used half of called for & tasted it.
This was just what I was looking for—delicious and simple to make, tastes like Chinese takeout (but not as salty, which I prefer). I used sherry cooking wine as a sub for the shaoxing wine because I didn’t plan ahead, and I used lower sodium tamari.
I’m curious, you have so many sauce recipes (XO, General Tso’s, Orange Sauce) but no Brown Sauce? Would the sauce portion for this recipe be considered Brown Sauce? If so, if I wanted to make this in bulk and keep it in the fridge could that be scaled up? Also, I’d love to see a White Sauce that usually is for shrimp or seafood stir fries. Usually I’ve seen them without soy/oyster/dark soy sauce and no stock, but water and sometimes in combination with shrimp shells and Shaoxing wine, thickened with a cornstarch slurry. Would you create one for us?🥰
Cracks the code on Chinese style chicken!!! Definitely a repeat!
Does this freeze and reheat well?
The sauce might thin out a bit (the cornstarch will lose its potency usually after reheating) but the dish should still be very tasty!
Use arrowroot or another non-grain starch if planning to freeze, so thickening power won’t be lost on reheating.
That’s so interested! I have no idea. Can’t wait to try it out myself.
Thanks for sharing this tip 🙂
From Kitchenwise by Shirley Corriher, “The starch freezes into a firm sponge network while the liquid drains out, producing a dry sponge in a puddle. However, sauces, custards, or gravy made with root starches like arrowroot freeze beautifully.”
Absolutely Delicious!!! The whole family loved. We will definitely be making this one again.
Turned out great. The picky kids even ate some! I added a little Korean chili paste for a bit of heat and it was really good.
Adding Korean chili paste sounds so good! Happy to hear that your kids liked it as well and thanks for leaving a positive review 🙂
Oh my… I live in Shanghai, and avoid eating out for several reasons so I do enjoy cooking healthy Chinese/Asian dishes once in a while, and this one is an absolute banger! I love recipes with shaoxing wine and ginger so I was excited about this one. It may be a simple dish, but the flavors, dayum.
I made some adjustments by doubling the sauce (hey! Don’t judge me) and most likely quadrupling the ginger.
Thank you for sharing this Maggie.
Great recipe – quick question:
Why cook the broccoli first? Typically meat then vegetables when cooking stir fry. I wasn’t sure if there was a method to the madness .
Thanks for all the help
Broccoli takes longer to cook than things like onion and pepper. And if you add it after the meat, it takes too long to cook it and the meat will definitely over cook by a lot and turn tough. Also, stir frying broccoli does not have the best texture because the inside might still be tough when the outside is charred. Broccoli is usually blanched first in Chinese stir fry recipes and add back after the meat. I find it too much trouble to use two pots and simplified the process using one frying pan. Hope that makes sense!
Awesome, thank you for the tip – love your recipes!
I made this for my family tonight and both my kids and my husband polished off their plates! Perfect for a mid-week dinner with a few staples I always have on hand.
Thank you for the recipe. I made the dish. It was delicious, however, you might want to reduce the soy sauce or omit the salt in the recipe. It was a bit on the salty side. Soy Sauce is very salty on its own. I omitted the salt and it was sooooo much better.
I love this recipe. I doubled the sauce as I often do with your recipes. Its so good. I use Quorn vegetarian chicken and it’s soooo good! Thank you!
Not sure what I did wrong but the sauce didn’t thicken up.
It’s hard to judge without knowing more details.
The cornstarch in the sauce should help the the sauce to thicken. But they tend to separate from the liquid if being set aside too long. It might have affected it. Or, if your pan somehow ended up without more liquid (released from the chicken or broccoli), or the pan was not hot enough to bring the sauce to a simmer, the sauce will stay thin.
If you decide to try this again, one safe bet is to dissolve extra 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 1 tablespoon water to make a slurry in a separate bowl. If the sauce doesn’t thicken, slowly pour in a bit slurry, just a teaspoon at a time and stir in fast. You should able to see the sauce thicken up pretty fast, and stopping adding more if the sauce is thick enough.
Wowza!! This is an amazing recipe! I am sure i will make this over and over again. I did cut back on the broccoli and added sugar snap peas. Absolutely delish!! Thank you!!
Very good. We used thighs and skipped the marinade, added red pepper/green onions, and doubled the sauce. Will make this again!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was so easy and full of flavour, going to visit our local Asian store to purchase more ingredients to cook up a storm. Thank you Maggie