• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Foodle Club

  • By Category
    • All Recipes
    • Bread and scones
    • Cakes, cookies and desserts
    • Curry Recipes
    • How to …..
    • Main Meals
    • Picnics and Barbeques
    • Sauces, dips and marinades
    • Savoury Treats
    • Sides and salads
    • Collections
  • By Ingredient
    • Beef
    • Cheese
    • Chicken
    • Fish and Seafood
    • Lamb
    • Mushrooms
    • Pasta
    • Pork
    • Recipes using vegetables
  • By Cuisine
    • British
    • South African
    • Asian inspired
    • Italian inspired
    • German inspired
  • The Calculator
  • Free stuff
  • Meet Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer
Home » Main Meals » Easy beef and broccoli stir fry – in less than 30 minutes

Easy beef and broccoli stir fry – in less than 30 minutes

Author: VJ Published : November 2021 Modified : February 2022 / Be the first to comment!

Recipe Video
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Yummly
  • Twitter
  • Whatsapp

I think everyone has their own version of beef and broccoli stir fry. This is my version, flavoured with honey, ginger and garlic, with a slight hint of chilli for a touch of heat. I love how quick and easy the beef and broccoli stirfry is to make! It’s perfect for when you want a tasty family meal but you don’t have much time – and it’s made in one pan so there’s less washing up!

Overhead shot of beef and broccoli stir fry showing the stirps of beef and broccoli in the thick tasty sauce.
This stir fry comes together in less than 30 minutes – so make sure you have done all the prep work before you start cooking!

**As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.**

Table Of Contents
  1. Beef and broccoli stir fry
  2. Why I love this recipe
  3. What you will need
  4. How to make it
  5. A new twist on Chinese noodles
  6. Tips and questions
  7. Pin for later
  8. Other recipes
  9. The recipe
  10. Beef and broccoli stir fry – in less than 30 minutes

Beef and broccoli stir fry

Beef and broccoli stir fry is one of my favourite meals to make when I’m in a hurry to get something on the table. The beef is juicy and succulent, and broccoli is tender and full of flavour. I think it’s because I cook the broccoli in the sauce so that it absorbs all the wonderful flavours!

And the sauce is amazing! There are only a few ingredients but they all work so well together. There’s a hint of sweetness from the honey; a little saltiness from the soy sauce; a slight sourness from the sherry; aromatics thanks to the ginger, garlic and sesame oil, and a hint of heat from the chilli. I always add a little chilli to this sauce, but of course, if you don’t like the heat you can leave this out altogether.

Much as I love a Chinese takeaway, I’m always slightly disappointed when I open the container. The flavour is normally fine, but unless you are lucky enough to have a good Chinese restaurant close by (with prices to match) you often have to search through all the sauce and vegetables to find the meat. Making your own version means that there’s always plenty of beef for everyone, at half the price you would pay for a takeaway.

Don’t get me wrong I’m all for convenient takeaways every now and then, but honestly, this beef and broccoli stir fry is so quick and easy to make, you can have it on the table in less time than it takes to wait for your takeaway order to be delivered. (And there will be plenty of meat to go round)!

Close up of the strips of beef and broccoli sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Just a few sesame seeds sprinkled on the finished dish make this beef and broccoli stir fry come alive.

Why I love this recipe

I love this easy beef and broccoli stir fry for so many reasons:

  • it tastes better than a takeaway and I know exactly what’s gone into it.
  • it’s so quick to make – you can have it on the table in less than 30 minutes.
  • because the beef is so thinly sliced it cooks in minutees.
  • the sauce is so tasty you could almost eat a bowl of it poured over a dish of my Chinese noodles with beansprouts all by itself.
  • the flavour and texture from the Chinese noodles and beansprouts has to be tasted to be believed.

So without further ado, let’s get on with making it.

What you will need

This recipe serves 4. You can easily adjust it to serve more by increasing the quantities of beef and broccoli, and adjusting the sauce ingredients.

For the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this beef and broccoli stir fry, refer to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

Ingredients for beef and broccoli stir fry.
I haven’t included chilli in the photo, but if you like the flavour of chilli it adds an extra dimension to this dish.

Beef – You can use sirloin, topside, rump, flank, or even plain old frying steak. If you’re using sirloin or topside, cut the meat into steaks first. The steaks should be sliced (against the grain) into thin strips. If you place the meat in the freezer for half an hour before slicing it, it will be easier to slice it into thin strips. Otherwise, if your steak is already frozen, just slice it before it is fully defrosted. The strips of steak should be about one-quarter of an inch thick, or about half a centimeter.

I’ve allowed 120 grams of beef (that’s about 4 ounces) per person.

Broccoli – You can use either full heads of broccoli or tender stem broccoli (broccolini) for this recipe. I’ve used tender stem broccoli because I like the texture of the pieces of stem. If you are using a head of broccoli, don’t throw the stems away. Peel them, slice thinly and add to the pan with the broccoli – the broccoli stems are delicious in a stir fry. I’ve allowed 100 grams, or one cup of chopped broccoli florets, per person.

Sunflower oil – for frying the beef strips. You can use any neutral-flavoured vegetable oil for this recipe.

For the sauce

Sesame oil – In Chinese cooking, sesame oil is used for flavouring and never used for frying. It has a very strong taste and you will find that half to one teaspoonful is sufficient. If you add too much the sesame oil it will overpower the flavour of the other ingredients.

Ginger and garlic – by all means, use fresh if you have it. I tend to use crushed bottled ginger and garlic for convenience.

Sherry – you can substitute this for Shaoxing wine or even rice wine vinegar.

Soy sauce – I like to use dark soy sauce as I find the light soy is too salty for my taste.

Honey – this adds a little sweetness – you can substitute with dark brown sugar.

Stock – if you have fresh stock to hand you can use that. Once again, for convenience, I prefer to just dissolve stock cubes in boiling water.

Chopped chilli – optional, but gives a nice hint of heat. You can substitute this with the equivalent amount of dried chilli flakes (to taste).

Cornflour (or cornstarch) – this is used to thicken the sauce.

Sesame seeds – for garnish and totally optional.

A piece of beef with brocoli held in chopsticks.

How to make it

You want to have the meat and broccoli chopped up, and all the sauce ingredients measured out before you start cooking. This beef and broccoli stir fry is so quick to make you won’t have time to go looking for a forgotten ingredient once the cooking is underway.

In a nutshell, these are the preparation steps:

  • Slice the meat into thin strips
  • Cut the broccoli into florets
  • Dissolve the beef stock cube in one cup of boiling water and stir in all of the sauce ingredients with the exception of the cornflour/cornstarch.
  • Mix the cornflour with 2 tablespoons of cold water to make a smooth paste.

Now you’re ready to start cooking

Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan and then fry the steak over medium to high heat until it just changes colour and starts to brown. The meat will not be fully cooked at this stage, but it will complete the cooking process once you add the sauce.

I like to sprinkle the steak strips with a little salt as they are frying, but this is optional and to your own taste.

Slices of beef browning in a frying pan.
Fry the beef in a single layer, and don’t overcrowd the pan or the meat will draw moisture and boil rather than sear. Do this in batches if necessary.

Pour the prepared stock into the steak and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat to a simmer and stir in the cornflour mixture to allow the sauce to thicken.

Stir the cornflour in gradually – you may not need all of it. You are looking for a consistency of thick gravy.

Taste the sauce at this point, and season with salt if necessary.

Now add the broccoli, cover the lid with a pan and leave it to simmer for 5 minutes or until the broccoli is just tender.

Beef and broccoli stir fry in a frying pan with the sauce.
Serve spooned over a bed of white rice or serve with Chinese noodles.

If you’d like to be notified of any new recipes, why not subscribe to my newsletter. As a thank-you gift, you will receive a free recipe e-book containing some of my most popular cakes and desserts.

A new twist on Chinese noodles

I’m a great lover of bean sprouts, and I like to use them whenever possible. I always add a couple of handfuls of bean sprouts to my Chinese noodles whenever I make a dish like this where there’s lots of gravy.

To make these Chinese noodles with bean sprouts, bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. As soon as the water is boiling, add the noodles. Let them cook until all the bits of noodle are completely submerged in the boiling water and then add one or two handfuls of beansprouts (depending on how many noodles you are cooking).

The bean sprouts cook at the same time as the noodles (about seven minutes), but still retain their crispness.

These noodles are delicious when covered in a thick Chinese-flavoured sauce, and you have the additional advantage of adding another vegetable to your meal.

Tips and questions

Why do recipes always say ‘Cut meat against the grain’?

If you look at a piece of raw meat you will notice the long fibres running through it.
To cut meat against the grain simply means cutting through these long fibres to make them shorter, and therefore easier to chew.

~ Lay the raw meat on a chopping board and note the direction that the fibres are running.
~ Hold the knife at right-angles to the fibres, and slice through them.

Cutting the meat in this way ensure your meat will be much more tender and less chewy than if you cut it along the fibres.

Slices of beef showing how short the fibres are in meat that has been cut against the grain.

Can I freeze beef and broccoli stir fry?

Yes, you can freeze this dish. Allow it to cook and then spoon into meal-sized plastic containers, along with the sauce. Freeze for up to three months.
To use, defrost it in the refrigerator and then warm in a frying pan until piping hot.

Can I make this dish in advance?

You can, but’s it’s best eaten fresh.
I’d make it up to the point of adding and thickening the sauce (but before adding the broccoli).
This can be left in the refrigerator in a covered container for up to three days.
When you are ready to eat it, transfer to a frying pan, bring to a boil and then add the broccoli and steam for 5 minutes as per the recipe instructions until the broccoli is tender.

Pin for later

If you would like to make this recipe for beef and broccoli stir fry, why not pin it to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it again easily. Just click on the image below.

Other recipes

If you enjoyed this recipe you may also like to try some of my other Chinese inspired dishes:

  • Crispy dragon beef with cashews
  • Garlic beef in oyster sauce with vegetables
  • Easy Szechuan chicken with noodles
  • Easy sesame chicken

The recipe

Overhead shot of beef and broccoli stir fry showing the stirps of beef and broccoli in the thick tasty sauce.

Beef and broccoli stir fry – in less than 30 minutes

I think everyone has their own version of beef and broccoli stir fry. This is my version, flavoured with honey, ginger and garlic, with a slight hint of chilli for a touch of heat. I love how quick and easy the dish is to make! It's perfect for when you want a tasty family meal but you don't have much time.
Recipe by: Veronica
Main Course
Asian Inspired
Calories 391
Prep 10 minutes
Cook 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Print Pin Comment Bookmark Saved!
Prevent your screen from going dark
5 from 1 vote

(Click the stars to rate this recipe)

Equipment

  • Sharp Knife
  • Chopping Board
  • Frying pan with lid

Ingredients

  • 1 pound / 450 grams beef steak topside, rump, sirloin or flank
  • 4 cups broccoli florettes or use tender stem broccoli cut into pieces
  • 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
  • salt to taste

Sauce

  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon crushed garlic use fresh, or from a jar
  • ½ teaspoon minced ginger
  • 3 tablespoons sherry or Shaoxing wine or rice vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
  • 2 cups beef stock or use 2 stocks cubes dissolved in 2 cups boiling water
  • 3 teaspoons cornflour / cornstarch mixed with 3 tablespoons water to form a paste
  • ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (optional) or 1 small chopped chilli
  • salt to taste
  • sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions

Preparation

  • Cut the beef (across the grain) into thin strips approximately ¼ inch or ½ centimetre
    1 pound / 450 grams beef steak
  • Cut the broccoli into florettes
    4 cups broccoli florettes
  • If using stock cubes, dissolve them in 2 cups of boiling water
    2 cups beef stock
  • Add all the ingredients (except the cornflour) into the stock.
    1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon crushed garlic, ½ teaspoon minced ginger, 3 tablespoons sherry, 4 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 2 tablespoons honey, 2 cups beef stock, ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (optional)
  • Mix the cornflour with water to form a smooth paste.
    3 teaspoons cornflour / cornstarch

Beef and broccoli stir fry

  • Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan and then fry the steak over medium to high heat until it just changes colour and starts to brown. The meat will not be fully cooked at this stage, but it will continue to cook once you add the sauce. Fry the beef in a single layer, and don't overcrowd the pan or the meat will draw moisture and boil rather than sear. Do this in batches if necessary.
    2 tablespoons sunflower oil
  • Season the steak with a little salt as it is frying (optional)
    salt
  • Pour the prepared stock into the steak and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat to a simmer and stir in the cornflour mixture to allow the sauce to thicken. Stir the cornflour in gradually – you may not need all of it. You are looking for a consistency of thick gravy.
  • Taste the sauce and season with salt if necessary.
    salt
  • Now add the broccoli, cover the lid with a pan and leave it to simmer for 5 minutes or until the broccoli is just tender.
  • Garnish with sesame seeds and serve on a bed of white rice or Chinese noodles.
    sesame seeds

Notes

To make Chinese noodles with bean sprouts, bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. As soon as the water is boiling, add the noodles. Let them cook until all the bits of noodle are completely submerged in the boiling water (30 seconds max)  and then add one or two handfuls of bean sprouts (depending on how many noodles you are cooking).  The bean sprouts cook in the same time as the noodles.
Nutrition does not include any rice or noodles that may be served with this dish.

Nutrition

Calories – 391kcal | Carbohydrates – 18g | Protein – 39.3g | Fat – 15.8g | Saturated Fat – 3.6g | Cholesterol – 101mg | Sodium – 1689mg | Potassium – 858mg | Fiber – 2.7g | Sugar – 10.5g | Calcium – 57mg | Iron – 22mg

I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.

Unless otherwise stated, a cup is the standard US cup containing 240 ml. In all my recipes this cup is assumed to hold 140g of flour. For help converting other ingredients between cups, grams, ounces and other measures, see my recipe conversion calculator.
All my recipes are developed and tested at sea-level. For tips on adjusting recipes for high altitudes see my post on baking at high altitudes.
Tried this recipe?If you made this recipe I’d love it if you could leave me a comment and let me know how it went!
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

If you made this recipe and enjoyed it, I’d love it if you could give me a star rating in the comments below. And if you’d like to get in touch, you can email me at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you. And don’t forget to subscribe to my mailing list so you can grab yourself a copy of my FREE COOKBOOK!

If you’d like to continue browsing, just click on this link to all my recipes.

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Yummly
  • Twitter
  • Whatsapp

Filed Under: All Recipes, Main Meals

About VJ

In my previous life, I was an IT Consultant. Now that I've swapped an office for a kitchen I have a lot more time to spend on things that interest me such as trying out new recipes. Most of my cooking is based around quick and easy meals, and you'll probably find a little South African influence creeping in due to the many years I spent there.

Previous Post: « Mediterranean oven-baked cod with marinara sauce
Next Post: Easy shortbread stars – a 3 ingredient recipe »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to the Foodle Club

Hi, I'm VJ. Welcome to my little kitchen. Step inside and browse my collection of recipes collected over the years. More →

Lets Connect

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter


See my Privacy Policy and Disclaimer

By subscribing you consent to receiving the Foodle Club newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest updates

Close up of a pan of Thai red curry sprinkled with coriander.

Thai red curry with chicken and prawns

A dish of sage and onion sausage stuffing balls with one cut in half.

Sage and onion stuffing with sausage meat

Close up of a lancashire hotpot showing the lamb under the potatoes.

Traditional Lancashire Hotpot (lamb hotpot)

5 vol-au-vents on a wooden plank.

How to make vol-au-vents

Easy steak and kidney pie with puff pastry

A roasted leg of lamb being carved into slices.

Minted Roast leg of lamb – with homemade gravy

Footer


See my Privacy Policy and Disclaimer

By subscribing you consent to receiving the Foodle Club newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time but the books will still be yours to keep.

In my previous life, I was an IT Consultant. Now that I've swapped an office for a kitchen I have a lot more time to spend on things that interest me such as trying out new recipes. Most of my cooking is based around quick and easy meals, and you'll probably find a little South African influence creeping in due to the many years I spent there.

Copyright © 2023 Foodleclub.com