Chinese Chicken & Broccoli Stir-Fry

Two healthy and light ingredients coated in a thick and savory sauce that brings out their best qualities. A quick takeout-style recipe that is hard to mess up or dislike.

Look! Tiny trees and rocks, it’s like a landslide on my plate.

An inebriated Patron

I’ll admit it, this is definitely more of a Chinese-inspired fusion dish, as broccoli isn’t actually native to China. Fittingly, you don’t need a wok for this recipe, even though it’s the classic choice. A single large-ish frying pan will do the trick, plus your cooker (or pot) for the rice.

The dish is done in a few basic steps: chop the chicken, broccoli, garlic and ginger; marinade the meat; mix the sauce; parboil the broccoli and chicken; stir-fry everything. If you are more sensitive to salt, I recommend skipping the added salt in the sauce. The oyster sauce and dark soy sauce are plenty, plus there’s already salt in the marinade.

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Chinese Broccoli & Chicken Stir-Fry

Two healthy and light ingredients coated in a thick and savory sauce that brings out their best qualities.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings: 2 people

Ingredients

US CustomaryMetric

Stir-fry

• 450 g chicken thigh or breast no skin or bones
• 1 head broccoli
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp ginger

Marinade

• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Sauce

• 3 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 0.5 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 60 ml chicken stock
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 0.25 tsp MSG optional
• 0.25 tsp salt optional

Instructions

Marinade the chicken

• Cut the chicken into short bite-sized slices about half a centimeter thick.
• Mix the marinade ingredients in a medium bowl until well integrated.
• Add the chicken and mix, then velvet the chicken with your hands for about a minute to thoroughly coat it.
• Let it rest while taking care of the next steps.

Prepare other ingredients

• Mix all sauce ingredients together and stir until well mixed. Skip the salt if you're more sensitive to saltiness.
• Peel and finely chop the garlic and ginger, and set aside in a small bowl together.
• Cut the broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Remove any thicker stems, and cut larger florets into halves or quarters.
• (If you're making rice with this dish, now is a good time to pop it into the rice cooker.)

Parboil

• Heat up a small pot of of water over high heat. We are going to parboil both the broccoli and chicken so they are already half-done when added to the wok.
• Once it boils, add the broccoli and turn to down a simmer.
• After 1-2 minutes, remove the broccoli from the water and set aside in a bowl.
• Next, add the chicken to the simmering water.
• After 45 seconds, take out the chicken and set aside as well. Discard the water.

Stir-fry

• Add the oil to your wok or pan and set the heat to medium high.
• Add the chicken and spread it out so it forms one layer.
• After a minute or two, add the garlic and ginger.
• Once fragrant, after about another minute, add the broccoli as well.
• Give the sauce a quick stir to dissolve the corn starch that started separating, then pour it into the work or pan.
• Stir until the sauce thickens, for about another minute.
• Transfer to plates or bowls and immediately serve with rice.