Tender beef steak, stir fried with broccoli and a heavenly Chinese-style stir fry sauce. Simple, quick and delicious!
It's all ready in 20 minutes, so it makes a great mid-week meal for the family.
Gotta love a quick dinner that basically tastes like a tasty takeaway!
This recipe uses a reasonably inexpensive cut of beef, sliced extra thinly - so it's nice and tender. It's fried quickly before being smothered in a delicious Chinese-style savoury sauce along with lots of crunchy broccoli. I love serving it on a big pile of fluffy white rice for a comforting weeknight dinner.
📋 What do we need?
- Steak - I like to use feef skirt or flank as it's a fairly inexpensive cut of meat with good flavour. It does have to be cut thinly though. If it's cut too thick, it will be chewy. If you prefer you can use sirloin or ribeye steak. These cuts are more tender (and more expensive!) - so they can be cut a little thicker if you prefer.
- Broccoli - I use tenderstem broccoli (or broccolini) as we're only cooking it for a few minutes, so you want nice thin broccoli stalks to give a bit of crunch - rather than regular broccoli florets that will be too thick to chew through.
- Soy sauce - I use a mixture of light and dark. Light for salty seasoning, and a dark for that wonderful colour and a little sweetness.
- Chinese rice wine - A REALLY important ingredient to add depth to the sauce. Sherry is a good replacement if you haven't got any rice wine.
- Sesame oil - for a golden toasty-ness and delicious aroma.
🔪 How to make this Chinese Beef and Broccoli
**Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post**
- Mix together the sauce ingredients and put to one side. The sauce is a combination of beef stock, light and dark soy sauce, Chinese rice wine (you can swap for sherry if you haven't got rice wine), sesame oil, sugar, white pepper and black pepper.
- Fry up slices of very thinly sliced flank/skirt steak. Remove from the pan, then fry up plenty of tenderstem broccoli. We only need to fry for a couple of minutes - so it retains that lovely crunch. Remove it from the pan too.
- Next we fry up a little ginger and garlic, just for 30 seconds or so (so the garlic doesn't burn), then add in the sauce and bubble it all together.
- Thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch slurry, then add the steak and broccoli back to the pan and toss together.
👩🍳PRO TIP To ensure you get really thin slices of steak (which is important, so the steak isn't chewy), place the steak in the freezer for 10-30 minutes before slicing. This will make the meat firmer and easier to slice thinly.
Serve with rice and top with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
🍽️ What to serve it with
📺 Watch how to make it
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Beef and Broccoli
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil - (or swap for any other high smoke point flavourless oil)
- 500 g (1.1 lbs) skirt/flank steak - sliced very thinly, against the grain *Tip 1
- 450 g (1 lb) tenderstem broccoli - (broccolini) any thicker pieces sliced in half length-ways
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 2 cloves garlic - minced
Sauce Ingredients:
- 250 ml (1 cup + 2 tsp) hot beef stock - (water + 1 stock cub is fine)
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine - you can swap for sherry if you like
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 3 tbsp light brown sugar
- ⅛ tsp white pepper
- ⅛ tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp cornflour - cornstarch, mixed with 5 tbsp cold water to make a slurry
To finish:
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
INSTRUCTIONS
- Start by mixing together all of the sauce ingredients EXCEPT the cornflour (cornstarch) slurry in a bowl. Put to one side.250 ml (1 cup + 2 tsp) hot beef stock, 3 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine, 2 tsp sesame oil, 3 tbsp light brown sugar, ⅛ tsp white pepper, ⅛ tsp black pepper
- Heat 2 tbsp of the oil over a high heat in wok or large frying pan.3 tbsp vegetable oil
- Add the sliced steak and cook for 2-3 minutes, turning once or twice, until the steak is just cooked.500 g (1.1 lbs) skirt/flank steak
- Transfer to a bowl using a slotted spoon (leaving any oil behind in the wok).
- Add the broccoli to the wok and stir fry for 2 minutes, stirring often. Then transfer to the bowl with the steak. (see Tip 2 re: frying for longer if you like your broccoli softer).450 g (1 lb) tenderstem broccoli
- Turn the heat down to medium and add in the remaining tablespoon of oil.
- Add the ginger and garlic and fry, stirring often, for 30 seconds.1 tsp minced ginger, 2 cloves garlic
- Add in the sauce mixture, turn up the heat to high and stir together.
- Allow the sauce to come to the boil, then slowly pour in the cornstarch slurry, whilst stirring, until the sauce thickens. You may not need all of the slurry.2 tbsp cornflour
- Add the beef and broccoli back into the wok and toss together. Cook for a further minute, then turn off the heat.
- Serve with boiled or fried rice and topped with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.1 tsp sesame seeds
Video
✎ Notes
I like to use Beef skirt/flank as it's a fairly inexpensive cut of meat with good flavour. It does have to be cut thinly though. If it's cut too thick, it will be chewy.
If you prefer you can use sirloin or ribeye steak. These cuts are more tender (and more expensive!) - so they can be cut a little thicker if you prefer. Nutritional Information is approximate and is per portion, without rice.
Nutrition
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Raquel says
This recipe has been a part of our weekly rotation for almost a year now. We love it. The beef is a really chewy unless I sous vide cook it. Great flavors! When I cook per the recipe instructions it always takes min 45 min. Cooking is my favorite hobby so I’m not a beginner lol! Thank you for sharing
Karen Reed says
Very easy recipe ! Very tasty..
Debbie says
Substitute honey for sugar and added a little Sriracha
Diana says
Big hit in my house. Made some home made egg rolls to go with it. Will make again
Leah B. says
This was fantastic! I have a very picky 6 year old that couldn’t get enough of it. I made the suggested cauliflower rice with it and was really excited about how delicious it was! Thank you, great recipes!
bailey says
it took me an hour, not 20 minutes! im not a speedy chef though! it turned out great though, love this recipe!
Debbie says
Very good! The family loved it. Nice flavor and also has lots of eye appeal! Will make it again!
Zoe says
This recipe is amazing. I’ve never liked stir fry or broccoli. I made this for my boyfriend. But I loved it myself. Definitely a keeper. Thank you for sharing.
Frankie Travis says
I used deer meat in this recipe. I'm not fond of deer meat, so I prepare it in dishes that have marinades or sauces. We really enjoyed this. The flavors are a little different than my usual beef and broccoli stir fry and it was a nice change. The family said I need to make this one again!
Holly says
It looks so hearty and delicious. Better than any Chinese takeout! Yummy!
Roger Kille says
I don't think my butcher will have any "feef"! 😂
Richard says
So simple and and easy and absolutely delish! I think my Annabelle my 4 legged furbabie could make this!😂😋😋😋
Maureen Stockdale says
Do you have to add the sugar as I’m trying to go sugar free at the moment