Takeout cravings are satisfied with this stir-fried chicken and broccoli recipe, and you can feel good about feeding your family it because it’s healthier than going out. This stir-fried chicken is sure to please if you enjoyed our beef and broccoli dish.
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, or to taste
- 3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into chunks
- 1 onion, sliced
- 3 cups broccoli florets
How to Make Broccoli and Chicken Stir Fry:
To make the sauce, combine all the ingredients and stir until the sugar is dissolved. The sugar will dissolve more readily in the warm broth.
Finely chop the Chicken into bite-sized pieces, about 3/4′′, and sprinkle with a little black pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a big, heavy skillet over medium-high heat.
Cook the chicken for 1 minute without stirring, then stir-fry it for 5 minutes, or until it turns golden and is cooked through. Place the chicken in a bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon oil, broccoli florets, sliced onion, and mushrooms to the same skillet over medium-high heat. Stir-fry for 3 minutes, or until the mushrooms are softened, then lower the heat.
Stir-fry sauce should be added to the skillet after a brief stir to prevent any settling. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the sauce for 3–4 minutes, or until the flavor of the ginger and garlic has softened. Add water as needed to thin the sauce, and taste and adjust with additional soy sauce.
Put the chicken back in the pan and stir until it’s heated through. If preferred, serve the chicken over white rice with sesame seeds on top. You can watch the video below to get a clearer presentation of how to make your stir-fried chicken and broccoli recipe perfectly.
What Vegetables Can I Add?
The simplicity of this recipe for chicken and broccoli is delicious, but you can change up the vegetables to suit your tastes, what’s in season, or what’s on sale.
To keep the veggies/sauce ratio the same, you should replace the broccoli on par with the other vegetables. The following are some excellent stir-fried veggies:
- Carrots
- Mushrooms
- Bell Peppers
- Snow Peas
- Snap Peas
- Zucchini
- Celery
- Asparagus
- Baby corn
- Edamame
- Bean sprouts
- Cabbage (green or red)
- Spinach
- Bok choy
What Chicken is Best for Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry?
For this recipe for Chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry, you can use either chicken breasts or chicken thighs; both will come out tender because of the velveting technique.
Though leaner than chicken thighs, boneless, skinless chicken breasts nevertheless come out of the velveting buttery tender. We never get disappointed when we use velvets and chicken breasts together.
Because dark meat tends to be naturally juicier, boneless, skinless chicken thighs are difficult to overcook, dry out, or overcook. If you want to omit the velveting, thighs are your best bet; however, we highly suggest velveting because it gives the chicken a ton of flavor.
Consider trying cubed tofu, pork, or shrimp instead of just poultry. If you’re using shrimp, add them toward the end of cooking because overcooked shrimp will become rubbery.
What are the Tips and Tricks for the Best Chicken and Broccoli?
The following are some tips to make the best stir-fried chicken and broccoli recipe.
1. Prepare your broccoli, sauce, ginger, and garlic while your chicken is marinating. Stir-frying only requires a few minutes of cooking time, so you want to have everything ready before you begin.
2. To prevent it from overcooking and drying out, the chicken should be chopped to be between one and two inches thick. Err on the side of larger.
3. You can use your other favorite vegetables in place of the broccoli, or you can use other vegetables to replace part of the broccoli.
4. You can actually taste the difference when you use QUALITY oyster sauce like Lee Kum Kee or Kikkoman.
5. The temperature of your pan should be just right to allow the chicken to sizzle, but not so hot that adding oil causes it to smoke excessively. Take the pan off the heat, give it a little time to cool, and then put it back on the heat if it’s smoking hot.
6. Another neutral oil, such as olive oil, can be used in place of vegetable oil.
7. Avoid overcooking chicken for the juiciest results! While it’s browning in the skillet, let the sauce finish cooking it.
8. The broccoli will continue to cook in the sauce, so be careful not to overcook it. When stir-frying, it’s preferable to undercook rather than overcook.
9. Adjust the heat by adding more chili or sriracha sauce. Heat is most likely lacking from the Chicken and Broccoli dish if it seems lacking something.
How Do You Make Chinese Chicken & Broccoli Tender?
There are only three stars in Chinese Chicken and Broccoli—the chicken, the broccoli, and the sauce—so the chicken had better be amazing.
If you’ve ever wondered how Chinese restaurants manage to achieve such silky, soft chicken, it’s all thanks to a little procedure known as velveting. There are several methods, but I prefer the simplest, which uses baking soda. The texture difference is detectable, but the baking soda is not.
To protect it from the intense heat of stir-frying, the chicken is essentially coated in baking soda along with the other ingredients of our marinade, which include soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, Asian chili sauce, and cornstarch
The name comes from the way the baking soda breaks down the fibers in the chicken, making it appear softer on the inside and resembling “velvet.”
Furthermore, the chicken fulfills its name. The chicken is as soft and velvety as your favorite takeout, and you will be blown away by how delicious it is.
The best part is that it only takes a few minutes to put the ingredients together for this restaurant-quality chicken, after which you can let it rest while chopping your vegetables.
Bottom Line
This recipe for Chinese chicken and broccoli is QUICK and simple, with succulent chicken and tender, crisp broccoli all encased in a flavorful sauce of ginger and garlic, served with hot, steaming rice.
You have to taste Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry to believe the smooth, tender, and melt-in-your-mouth chicken that is made using the simple restaurant velveting technique.
This recipe for Chicken and Broccoli is simple to make at any time, as it only requires easily found ingredients from the grocery store and a large skillet rather than a wok. And you’ll want to make this satisfyingly filling, adaptable, and healthful stir fry often!
