This quick and easy Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry uses the minimum ingredients you can get away with but still deliver a dish that stacks up to Chinese restaurant standard! Plenty of savoury homemade stir fry sauce – because broccoli florets are a sponge for sauce plus I need extra for rice soaking. It’s essential!
Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry
If you descended upon your local Asian Market armed with my Asian Market Shopping List and stocked up on the Level 1 essential sauces, you have the 3 sauces you need to make this.
How good is that!!?
And if your weekly grocery shopping is as predictable as mine, then chicken and broccoli made it into your trolley on the weekend.
Which means you’re armed and dangerous, ready to cook up this big batch Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry. Complete with extra sauce!
Big batch??
I call this a “big batch” Chicken Broccoli stir fry because most of my stir fry recipes tend to be made on a smaller scale serving 2 to 4 people max, being that crowding the pan = stewed veggies which is one of the greatest sins of stir frying.
We don’t have that problem with this one because we steam the broccoli first before making the stir fry as it won’t cook in the short time it’s on the stove. So we can crowd the pan and make a big batch that easily serves 5, possibly even 6!
Also, broccoli holds up better than most vegetables with leftovers, so this is a terrific meal prep option (which I normally don’t recommend for stir fries) which is why I don’t mind having leftovers.
What you need for Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry
Here’s what you need for this:
Cooked broccoli – as noted above. Steamed or boiled, whichever you prefer.
Chicken – breast or thigh. If you’re using breast, I recommend tenderising the chicken using the secret Chinese restaurant method for “velveting chicken” – just toss sliced chicken in baking soda, leave to tenderise for 20 minutes, rinse, cook like normal chicken, marvel at how tender the meat is! Directions are included in the recipe card.
Soy sauce – use either light soy sauce or all purpose soy sauce. Do not use dark, flavour will be much too intense;
Chinese cooking wine OR Mirin – used by the gallon in Chinese restaurants, it’s the secret ingredient that makes stir fry sauces so good. Mirin or dry sherry are perfect substitutes, see recipe notes for non alcoholic option – just replace the water which chicken stock/broth;
Oyster sauce – adds a stack of flavour and a touch of sweet. Vegetarian option: Use Vegetarian Oyster Sauce, it’s pretty good! Ayam is a good brand, sold at large everyday grocery stores. Also, here’s a homemade Vegetarian Oyster Sauce recipe by Omnivore’s Cookbook, a Chinese recipe website. I was extremely impressed with it;
Sesame oil (toasted) – for a lovely hint of sesame flavour;
Cornflour/cornstarch – to thicken the sauce and make it shiny and glossy; and
Garlic and onion – stir fries rarely happen without these two essential flavour bases. Tip: Chop the garlic with a knife rather than using a garlic press (crushing makes it wet so it doesn’t sauté properly).
How to make Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry
It comes together in about 5 minutes on the stove, so make sure you have everything chopped, next to the stove, ready to toss in. This can be made in a (large!) wok though I find it easier just to use a skillet for this particular stir fry because it makes a big batch.
This recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of water which sounds like a LOT! But extra sauce is essential here because the broccoli florets are a sponge for sauce.
Serve it over rice though if you’re pushing through a low carb phase, then try cauliflower rice instead. It really is not as bad as you think, it’s got a very neutral flavour and the tasty stir fry sauce does wonders to disguise any remnant of cauliflower flavour.
Also another good low carb option is Egg Foo Young (Chinese Omelette) which you could make then smother with this Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry instead of making the Egg Foo Young brown sauce.
And for fellow chicken and broccoli tragics, see below the recipe card for a somewhat lengthy list of various other chicken and broccoli this-and-that recipes I’ve shared. – Nagi x
PS I say “tragics”, but being that broccoli is a powerhouse veggie, we should give ourselves a pat on the back for packing so much broccoli into our diets! 💪🏼
Watch how to make it
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Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry (extra sauce!)
Ingredients
Tenderised chicken (Note 1)
- 500g/1 lb chicken breast, thinly sliced (or boneless thighs, do not tenderise)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda / bi-carb soda (Note 1)
Sauce (Note 6 for using Charlie all-purpose stir fry):
- 2 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce , or all purpose soy (Note 2)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (shaoxing wine) or Mirin (Note 3)
- 3 tbsp oyster sauce (Note 4)
- 2 tsp sesame oil , toasted (Note 5)
- Dash of white pepper (sub black)
Stir Fry:
- 2 tbsp oil , peanut, vegetable or canola
- 1/2 onion , sliced
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced with knife
- 400g/ 14 oz broccoli florets , broken/cut into small bite size pieces (2 medium heads, ~5 cups)
- 1 1/4 cups water
For serving:
Instructions
- Tenderise chicken: Consider tenderising chicken breast using this method. (Not needed for thigh)
- Broccoli: steam or boil using preferred method until cooked to your taste (it won't cook any further in the stir fry). I usually microwave steam 3 minutes on high. Drain well (waterlogged florets = diluted sauce).
- Sauce: Mix cornflour and soy sauce until lump free, then mix in remaining ingredients.
- Cook aromatics: Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add garlic and onion, stir for 10 seconds until garlic starts to go golden.
- Cook chicken: Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked through.
- Thicken sauce: Add broccoli, Sauce and water. Stir well and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until the Sauce thickens and becomes glossy, and coats the ingredients.
- Serve over rice!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More Chicken and Broccoli recipes
For fellow chicken and broccoli tragics.
And some of my favourite stir fries
Life of Dozer
Bed hair. Turns out nobody wakes up looking perfect – not even Dozer!
This is the BOMB!
Absolutely delicious 😋
Fantastic! Kids and partner loved it and have asked me to put it on rotation
I made this for the second time tonight – it’s fabulous! Thanks Nagi!
Simp,y devine
Husband: Where did you get that?
Me: What do you mean?
H: Did you make that? How’d you do that?
M: ??
H: It tastes like a restaurant! It’s so thin.
M: Yeah. I made it. I sliced it. And I did this thing called “velveting”.
Thank you, Nagi, for sharing another great one!! This one actually made me feel proud bc my husband thought it was restaurant quality. Being of Asian backgrounds (i’m Filipino, he’s Thai), we were both raised to eat home cooked meals daily. Being the first generation American born, my parents didn’t teach me how to cook any traditional filipino meals (nor did he learn any thai dishes), so it’s extremely satisfying and gratifyin9 to be able to cook way beyond just pasta, pot roast, and chicken breast.
Woot!!! Sounds like you nailed it Tony!!! N x
Absolutely delicious. I had no oyster sauce(found out when started cooking) so used fish sauce and not enough broccoli so added carrot and snow peas. Devine. Thankyou so much. Ps I also velveted the chicken breast.
Delicious. This is my go-to chicken stir fry. Actually, this is my go-to website for the best recipes.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing! This meal has the exact same flavours and textures as what you’d get from a Chinese restaurant. Delicious and I can’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!
delicious I made this tonight! Absolute hit!!
It had a delicate soothing flavour , my guest could not stop having more , I can’t thank you enough for your exquisite no fail recipes , I had tried several ones , and they turned just delicious, my kids are happy with this new food experience, trying different cuisines is igniting my enthusiasm towards cooking , uptill now I have made your recipes for butter chicken, Rogan Josh ,flat bread , aloo pathara, and a couple of chinese and thai recipes, not going to stop trying new recipes from your blog , best of luck.
This is SO delicious! The ‘velveting’ tip is ace. I don’t usually like chicken breast because I find it dry and fibrous. Not this! Sauce is yummy.
It’s every restaurants secret tip Philippa! N x
i would like this recipe, but it wants me to print 27 pages.
Hi Marjorie – click the “print” button in the recipe card and it will print the actual recipe and not the whole blog post 🙂 N x
Hi, I have the same print issue, resolved by sending the recipe to my email address, going to my emails and printing from link sent, prints only recipe.
Delicious. I had a takeaway version last week. And then made this one. This was nicer. I used arrowroot, as I had no cornflour. Worked great.
This was great, thank you! Veggified it with tofu, halved the broccoli and added mushrooms/peppers. Sauce is delish and super easy.
Haven’t made this yet, but itsit seems like it’s screaming for crushed cashews..
Cashews are great in it…BUT If you want that crunch with fewer calories than cashews, water chestnuts are great in it too
I added mushroom and cashews to mine!!
It is now one of my family’s FAVOURITE recipes! (And that is saying something!)
Nagi is my cooking hero! With a heart of gold.
Harriet
Great recipe and super easy to follow. Used the velveting method to tenderize my chicken breast which worked wonders.
I don’t remember if I commented on this recipe yet, but in the last two weeks, I’ve made this recipe three times and my entire family (including kids) and friends LOOOOOVE it, especially the amount of sauce. (And kids even appreciated the broccoli, saying that “THIS broccoli is good, mom,” which is by itself a miracle) 😀
Thanks Nagi!
Thank you for this recipe! 🙂
Omg Nagi you’ve done it again! Didn’t think anything could come close to my favourite of yours, chow mein ramen, but this is right up there!