Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli

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

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. 

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.

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. 

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. Ooh, and I can't forget Hot Pepper Beef, a nostalgic Chinese take-out recipe.  So good. 

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:

• Dandan Noodles from Palatable Pastime
• Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Vegan Hot and Sour Soup from Cook with Renu
• General Tso's Tofu from Culinary Cam
• Vegetable Stir Fry Noodles from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Vegetarian Noodles In Light Soy Sauce from Sneha’s Recipe
• Stir-Fried Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
• Ginger Venison with Baby Bok Choy from A Day in the Life on the Farm

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

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

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2016/09/stir-fried-beef-and-broccoli-wok.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

broccoli beef, wok

Main course

Chinese

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First published, September 2016, updated January, 2023.