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Jan 14, 2024

Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli

This stir-fried beef and broccoli is so much more flavorful than any take-out version. 

Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli in a bowl with a red rim.


Serve this stir-fried beef and broccoli over rice for an amazing lunch or dinner. 

Every time I make this stir-fry, everyone goes back for seconds. The beef is succulent and the broccoli, while cooked through, is still fresh, bright green, and crunchy. The flavors from the sauce are incredible. 

Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli in a white bowl.


Ingredients: 

Secret ingredients include fermented black beans, oyster sauce, and dark soy sauce. 

Oyster sauce is fairly easy to find. My two favorite brands are Lee Kum Kee (the bottle with the picture of a mother and son in a boat) and Mega Chef. If you are lucky enough to have an Asian grocery store in your area, the prices are probably better than purchasing them online. 

Dark soy sauce, also called black soy sauce, is a Chinese soy sauce that has been aged longer and is dark and thick. My favorite brand is Pearl River Bridge. My Ralph's/Kroger grocery store now carries it. 

You'll probably have to visit an Asian grocery store to find the fermented black beans, also known as Chinese dried black beans or preserved beans. They're sold in shrink-wrapped plastic. Once you open the container, you can pretty much keep the contents in a sealed container in your refrigerator almost forever. Before using them, rinse them thoroughly. 

If you can't find the fermented black beans, you can substitute black bean sauce. 

Other ingredients include standard soy sauce, minced ginger, Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry, cornstarch, salt, pepper, sesame oil, chicken broth, broccoli, and thinly sliced onions (I used sweet onions). 

For the beef, I used flank steak.

Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli in a bowl with a red rim.


To Make this Stir-Fry:

Sear the flank steak in the wok after a brief marinade in minced ginger, soy sauce, rice wine, cornstarch, salt, pepper, and sesame oil. Toss the beef in the wok with garlic and mashed fermented black beans.

Parboil the broccoli for just a minute to bring out its gorgeous green color. Once the beef is seared and the broccoli is par-cooked, toss everything together in a sauce of chicken broth, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, and and Shao Hsing rice wine. 

This recipe generously serves four as a main dish over rice. It can also serve more as part of a multi-course meal. 

Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli in a white bowl.


My Adventure in Wok Cooking: 

From 2013 to 2016, I participated in a Facebook group, Wok Wednesdays, where we cooked our way through Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge by Grace Young, (published in 2010) under Grace's watchful eye. It was a delicious adventure. 

It's really difficult to pick my favorite recipes from the book.

I guess if I had to pick just one recipe, this stir-fried ginger tomato beef would probably be it. The recipe is Grace's take on a dish her mother used to prepare to get her and her brother to eat more rice. It actually includes canned tomatoes. Trust me. It's incredible. 

Another favorite dish from the book is this Lomo Saltado, a Chinese Peruvian stir-fry. Like many of the recipes in the book, it's a perfect example of how Chinese emigrants adapted local ingredients to their cooking style. 

And of course this Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli. 

Other lessons I've learned from this book (among many):

  1. How to make popcorn in a wok
  2. How to make the most delicious clam recipe ever (and how not to kill your clams). 
  3. That I could cook a live lobster and live to tell about it. 
  4. That there is this oh-em-gee delicious "meat candy" barbecue pork called char sui
  5. That you can stir fry bagels or lettuce


Many of the recipes in this book include dishes developed from the Chinese diaspora, adapting traditional Chinese dishes to the ingredients and culture of a new home. 

I also recommend the books The Breath of a Wok and The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen

More Sunday Funday Chinese-Inspired Recipes:


In the case of this dish, I played with the recipe by slightly upping the amount of beef. I also added a little extra sesame oil, oyster sauce, and dark soy sauce. For the chicken broth, I used a small amount of Better than Bouillon chicken stock mixed with water. 

You can find Grace's original recipe online


Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli in a bowl with a red rim.



Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli

Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli
Yield: 4 Servings
Author: Karen's Kitchen Stories
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 10 MinTotal time: 25 Min
This stir-fried beef and broccoli is so much more flavorful than any take-out version.

Ingredients

  • 16 ounces flank steak
  • 1 tablespoon minced ginger
  • 2 teaspoons soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon table salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons chicken broth
  • 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
  • 12 ounces broccoli florets, cut into evenly-sized pieces (about 3 cups)
  • 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon fermented black beans, rinsed and mashed
  • 3/4 cup thinly sliced sweet onions

Instructions

  1. Cut the flank steak with the grain into 2-inch-wide strips. Cut each strip across the grain into 3/8-inch slices.
  2. Combine the beef, ginger, soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of the rice wine, cornstarch, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Add the sesame oil and stir one more time.
  3. Combine the chicken broth, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, and the remaining 1 tablespoon rice wine in a small bowl and set aside.
  4. In 2 quart saucepan bring a quart of water to a boil over high heat. Add the broccoli and cook for one minute, until the broccoli is bright green. Drain the broccoli in a strainer.
  5. Heat a 14-inch wok over high heat. Swirl in 1 tablespoon of the oil, add the garlic and black beans and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Push the garlic mixture to the side and add the beef to the wok. Spread the beef evenly in one layer in the wok, pressing it into the sides and bottom. Cook without touching for one minute, letting the beef begin to sear. Next, stir-fry everything, including the garlic mixture, for one minute. The beef will not be thoroughly cooked through. Transfer the beef to a plate.
  6. Add the rest of the oil to the wok, add the onions, and stir-fry about one minute. Add the broccoli and stir-fry 15 seconds or until just combined with the onions. Return the beef and its juices that have accumulated on the plate to the wok. Swirl the oyster sauce mixture into the wok and stir-fry everything for about one minute, or until the beef is just cooked through.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

304

Fat (grams)

15 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

4 g

Carbs (grams)

12 g

Fiber (grams)

3 g

Net carbs

9 g

Sugar (grams)

3 g

Protein (grams)

29 g

Cholesterol (grams)

68 mg
broccoli beef, wok
Main course
Chinese
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First published, September 2016, updated January, 2023. 

Would you like to comment?

  1. Although I haven't been very good about posting on the schedule, I love the Wok Wednesday group and adore your posts. Thanks for keeping me inspired. PS - Isn't Grace wonderful:)?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's okay Laura. We can only do so much, right? And yes, she is!

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  2. Love this classic! For a while the recipe I have for it in my blog was the most popular, but then it lost for a classic apple cake...

    I think it's one of my favorite Oriental dishes...

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    Replies
    1. It's so good, nutritious, and super easy! Isn't it funny what becomes the most popular post. Mine is Beef Burgundy from a long time ago, because it got picked up by Cosmopolitan.

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  3. Oh you fancy fancy blogger! ��

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  4. I'll have to look up those cookbooks. Stir-fry is a go to around here when I want a quick, healthy meal. How did I not know about Wok Wednesdays?!!

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  5. Karen where ever immigrants have made new places their homes, their cuisine is blended with the local cuisine or with products available. Indo Chinese is a cuisine developed by the Chinese who settled in India way back around 1778. They quickly, included certain Indian spices and method of cooking so that the locals around could enjoy Chinese food. Learning to cook with a wok must have been quite an experience.

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    Replies
    1. I'm sure it was! This book has Peruvian, Jamaican, Malaysian, and so many other recipes that blend local and Chinese cuisine.

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  6. Love stir fry meat & veggies, this one is so quick and delicious!

    ReplyDelete

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