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Broccoli Beef - Best homemade recipe featuring tender beef in a brown sauce. You'll never need to order it for takeout ever again, and it's healthier.
Broccoli Beef
Beef and broccoli is the most popular Chinese beef stir-fry dish in the United Status. It’s the poster child of American Chinese food so much as that the most popular item in Panda Express is this dish!
The rich brown sauce with tender beef and healthy broccoli has captured the hearts and palate of many people. This recipe is from my Easy Chinese Recipes cookbook, the best selling and top rated Chinese cookery book.
Unlike spicy Szechuan beef, beef and broccoli tastes mild with its savory sauce. It’s not spicy, hence, it’s a popular choice for everyone.
Another of my favorite beef stir fry recipe is ginger and scallion beef.
If you don’t have beef, make my classic Garlic Broccoli or Shrimp and Broccoli recipes instead!
Beef And Broccoli Ingredients
- Beef tenderloin
- Broccoli florets
- Water
- Oil
- Ginger
- Soy sauce
- Rice wine
- Sesame oil
- White pepper
- Cornstarch
Ingredients For The Brown Sauce
There are two types of sauces in Chinese stir-fry: white sauce and brown sauce. Here are the ingredients for delicious and authentic brown sauce.
- Soy Sauce
- Oyster Sauce
- Sesame Oil
- Cornstarch
- Sugar
- Water
Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full details on each ingredient.
How To Make Beef And Broccoli
Step 1. Marinate the beef with all the marinade ingredients for about 15 minutes.
Step 2. Bring the water to a boil and add a few drops of oil. Blanch the broccoli florets in the hot water for about 10 seconds. Remove the broccoli immediately with a strainer or slotted spoon, draining the excess water. Set aside.
Step 3. Prepare the sauce in a small bowl. Stir to mix well. Set aside.
Step 4. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Stir-fry the beef until it is 70% cooked. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Step 5. Heat the remaining oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Add the ginger and stir-fry until fragrant. Transfer the beef to the wok or skillet and stir-fry until cooked through and the center of the meat is no longer pink, about 1-2 minutes. Add the broccoli and then the sauce, stirring to combine the ingredients well.
Step 6. As soon as the sauce thickens, remove from the heat and serve immediately.
Tips For The Best And Tender Broccoli Beef
Here are the techniques and tips used by Chinese and Cantonese chefs in the best restaurants, and I am sharing with you the secrets:
- Cut the beef against the grain. This will ensure that the beef is tender and not rubbery.
- Velvet the beef to make sure you have silky, smooth and tender beef. Velveting is a secret techniques used by Chinese chefs to seal in the moisture of protein while stir-frying. The key ingredients for velveting is corn starch.
- Blanch the broccoli in hot boiling water first before stir-frying.
- During the stir-frying process, quickly toss the broccoli with the beef. Do not overcook the broccoli.
- The brown sauce should be light and not starchy or sticky. It should just barely coat the beef.
For perfect wok stir fries, please check out my Chinese stir-frying techniques.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe is only 397 calories per serving.
What To Serve With Beef And Broccoli
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Other Recipes You Might Like
Beef and Broccoli
Ingredients
- 8 oz (230g) beef tenderloin, flank steak or flap meat, cut into pieces
- 6 oz (170g) broccoli florets
- water, for boiling
- 2 1/2 tablespoons oil
- 2- inches (5cm) ginger, peeled and sliced
Marinade:
- 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice wine , or sherry
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, optional
- 3 dashes white pepper
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 4 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Marinate the beef with all the Marinade ingredients for about 15 minutes.
- Bring the water to a boil and add a few drops of oil. Blanch the broccoli florets in the hot water for about 10 seconds. Remove the broccoli immediately with a strainer or slotted spoon, draining the excess water. Set aside.
- Prepare the sauce in a small bowl. Stir to mix well. Set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Stir-fry the beef until it is 70% cooked. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- Heat the remaining oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Add the ginger and stir-fry until fragrant. Transfer the beef to the wok or skillet and stir-fry until cooked through and the center of the meat is no longer pink, about 1-2 minutes. Add the broccoli and then the sauce, stirring to combine the ingredients well.
- As soon as the sauce thickens, remove from the heat and serve immediately.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can i make the marinade and the sauce a couple days ahead of time before using.
Sure you can! Just keep in the fridge.
This recipe has a very high sodium content. Is there any way of making it more heart healthy?
The sodium content comes from the oyster sauce…you can reduce the quantity of the oyster sauce.
I do wish you had a more compressed way to print your recipes. I don’t like having to print three pages.
You can opt out of printing the picture, and nutrition info. Mine is only 2 pages, even with that. And not even a full 2.
I have been on the search for a sauce with depth Of flavor. This is it. Thank you
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A nice version of beef and broccoli. I also added some button mushrooms cooked in oyster sauce (since I wanted to use them up) and all was excelllent. This is one of the better (maybe best) beef and broccoli recipes I have tried (and I have tried many.)
The whole family enjoyed!
You can hardly go wrong with one of Bee’s recipes! Recommended!
BobB
Thanks for your support!
Cooked for my teenage grandson & he loves it esp broccoli, best tasted broccoli.
What would be the best substitute for oyster sauce?
There is no substitute, if you use other sauce, it will not taste the same.
What if you allergic to shellfish and cannot have oyster sauce? Should I just not make this recipe? Would hoisin sauce work?
Use soy sauce instead.
I would never disagree with the author of the recipe, but if you are asking due to an allergy, there exists a Vegan version of Oyster Sauce at places like Whole Foods or online.
Wow, made your chow mein and now found this one. Will be making this week. So grateful I found your website. Will be trying a whole bunch of recipes.
Thanks.
Hi can i use frozen broccoli
You can but not ideal.
I don’t have Oyster sauce but see many people suggesting a 1:1 combination of soy and hoisin sauce, was thinking a dash of fish sauce might make it even closer to oyster sauce. What are your thoughts?
Fish sauce is better.
I have found when it comes to the sauces, the biggest mistake Americans make in Chinese cooking. Is adding water, and cornstarch. The meat should still have plenty of cornstarch to give even after it is cooked. I add Chinese Cooking wine, instead of the water. I heat the sauce and get it bubbly then toss in the meat until well coated. Then when you toss in the vegetables, they will give plenty of moisture to the sauce to thin it out a little. When I add water to the sauce, when the vegetables go in, the thick rich sauce turns into a diluted broth.