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.
Recipe credit
Like most of my recipes, I started this one out by basing it largely on an existing one, specifically the Chicken and Broccoli (Chinese Takeout Style) recipe by Omnivore’s Cookbook. I’ve since practiced it many times, made changes to the ingredients and steps (sometimes very few, sometimes many), and written up as much additional advice as I could based on my own experience.
For very good advice on stir-frying in general and even the Chicken & Broccoli recipe in particular, check out this Epicurious 101 Stir-Fry video! This is where I got the parboiling step from.
Chinese Broccoli & Chicken Stir-Fry
Ingredients
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.
