We love this easy chicken broccoli stir fry recipe! It’s incredible with tender, juicy chicken breasts, and perfectly cooked broccoli. The stir-fry sauce is amazing, packed with fresh garlic and ginger.
Watch the Video
I’m so excited to share this chicken broccoli stir fry with you! We’ve been making it a lot lately.
We use our ginger stir-fry sauce for this chicken stir-fry. It’s loaded with flavor and knocks the socks off of anything you can buy at the store.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: Chicken breasts and thighs work well in this stir fry recipe. For the most tender chicken breast, slice it against the grain into thin strips.
- Broccoli: I use broccoli florets for this recipe. I love the simplicity of the chicken and broccoli, but feel free to toss in more veggies as we do in this vegetable stir fry.
- Easy chicken marinade: Our simple recipe uses soy sauce, cornstarch, and oil and guarantees juicy, flavorful, tender chicken.
- Stir-fry sauce: We use this homemade stir-fry sauce, which is as close to authentic as possible. It combines fresh garlic, ginger, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sugar, and white pepper. The recipe also calls for Shaoxing wine, a Chinese rice wine. I highly recommend it in this recipe, but I have provided substitutes below.
How to Make Chicken Stir Fry
We use simple (and authentic) tricks to make this the best chicken broccoli stir fry! I highly recommend marinating your chicken. Stir your chicken with soy sauce, cornstarch, and oil. It sounds too simple to work, but trust me. This three-ingredient marinade does wonders for the flavor and texture of your chicken. I marinate for at least 30 minutes, but you can leave the chicken overnight in the fridge if needed.
As my chicken marinates, I make the homemade stir-fry sauce. It’s quick and simple. The most time-consuming part is mincing the fresh garlic and ginger, which you can do in a food processor if needed.
Now, we can cook our stir fry. It goes FAST. For this chicken and broccoli stir fry, we quickly cook the chicken and broccoli separately. This way, the chicken cooks perfectly without forcing us to overcook the broccoli.
Cooking the chicken for our stir fry takes about 5 minutes. Toss it into a little bit of hot oil, spread it into one layer, and cook without moving until the underside starts to brown. Then flip and cook until done. Transfer to a plate, and move on to the broccoli.
Add more oil to the wok or skillet, then toss in the broccoli. Stir the broccoli around the pan and watch it turn bright green. After 3 to 5 minutes, the florets will be crisp-tender.
Now, combine the chicken, broccoli, and the stir-fry sauce. To make your stir fry rival the ones you get at your favorite Chinese restaurants, use a mixture of cornstarch and cold water to thicken the sauce until it’s a perfect consistency, saucy, and sticks to the broccoli and chicken.
Storing Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry
Leftover chicken broccoli stir fry lasts in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. The broccoli may lose some crispness over time, but it’s still safe to eat. You can freeze this, but the texture of the broccoli will change. Freeze in freezer-safe containers for up to 3 months.
What to Serve with Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry
I love serving this chicken broccoli stir fry over plain rice (Jasmine or Basmati), brown rice, or fried rice. It’s also great with fluffy quinoa or noodles.
This is also really tasty served with homemade crab Rangoon, egg rolls, spring rolls, or try our hoisin sticky ribs!
The Best Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
We love this chicken and broccoli stir fry recipe, which features tender and juicy chicken, perfectly cooked broccoli, and the most delicious homemade stir fry sauce. We call for Shaoxing wine (Chinese rice wine) in this recipe. I highly recommend it in this recipe, but I have provided substitutes below.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
Chicken and Broccoli1 ¼ pounds boneless and skinless chicken breast or thighs
1 pound broccoli florets, cut into small pieces, 5 to 6 cups
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
3 tablespoons neutral oil like vegetable or avocado oil
Stir Fry Sauce6 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger (thumb-size piece)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine, see tips for substitutes
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
Directions
- Marinate Chicken
1Slice the chicken against the grain into thin strips, then add to a bowl with 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon oil. Mix well. Marinate for at least 30 minutes. If marinating for longer, do so in the refrigerator.
- Make Stir Fry Sauce
1Make the stir-fry sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan and placing it over medium heat. Heat the sauce while stirring until the sugar dissolves.
- Make the Stir Fry
1In a small bowl, stir 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of cold water. Set aside.
2Heat a large, heavy skillet or wok over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of high-heat oil (like vegetable or avocado oil).
3Add the marinated chicken in a single layer. Let it cook for one minute without moving until the underside starts to brown.
4Toss the chicken and continue cooking until it’s almost cooked, 3 to 5 more minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
5Add another tablespoon of oil to the hot pan. Stir in the broccoli florets and cook, stirring frequently, until bright green and crisp-tender, 3 to 5 minutes.
6Return the chicken to the pan and toss with the broccoli for about a minute.
7Pour in the stir-fry sauce. Give the cornstarch mixture another quick stir, then slowly add it to the pan.
8Stir constantly until the sauce thickens and coats the chicken and broccoli. Serve immediately.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Shaoxing wine: A Chinese rice wine used in Chinese cuisine. It’s the most authentic choice in this stir fry recipe, so we highly recommend adding it to your pantry if you can find it. However, if you cannot find it, we have two alternatives: dry sherry or mirin. Mirin is sweeter than Shaoxing wine, so you will likely need to reduce the sugar by 1 tablespoon. One more option is to use rice wine vinegar, which makes the sauce taste slightly different, and you may need more sugar.
- Gluten-free tips: When shopping for the ingredients listed above (especially the soy sauce), look for gluten-free on the label. If you cannot find gluten-free soy sauce, look for gluten-free tamari, which, unlike soy sauce, is traditionally made without or with very little wheat.
- The best pan to use: While a wok is ideal for stir-fries, any heavy-bottomed skillet will work for this chicken broccoli recipe. Cast iron, stainless steel, and carbon steel are great choices, as they handle high heat well. Avoid nonstick pans for stir-frying. If you experience sticking, keep the heat high and add more oil to help the ingredients move freely in the pan.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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Absolutely delicious and easy to make, my whole family loved it!!!! Thank you!!!
Wonderful! 🙂
This is one of my favorite dishes to make. It’s always a hit! We love to add cashews!
Packed with flavor!! This was delicious and easy to make. I used tofu instead of chicken and it soaked up the sauce wonderfully! Two thumbs up!!
Full flavored staple. I love the bold flavors of garlic and ginger – definitely take the time to use fresh – it makes a huge, impactful, difference, imo. Thank you for sharing this one. It will definitely be in our weeknight dinner rotation.
This is hands down the best Asian dish I have ever made…and I have made countless. The velveting process intrigued me. Never heard of it before. But I thought I would try it to see if that would make the dish more authentic (despite years of trying various homemade Asian recipes, it never tastes as good as take-out and isn’t worth the work IMO). I dont know if that was the reason, but all I do know is this was phenomenal. I used sherry in place of the wine mentioned. Outside of that I changed nothing. Teens devoured it. The chicken was unbelievable moist and the flavors were simply amazing. This is the second recipe I’ve made from this site…recently discovered them on IG. I loved it. WOW. Thank you thank you thank you.
Spot on flavours and well-written receipe, delicious and easy dinner. We loved it …(didn’t heat the sauce in advance, added it cold and it worked too). Will certainly be cooking this regularly. Thanks!
I’ve made this and it’s delicious! Would it hold up if made ahead of time for a buffet? Would love to serve at a Christmas party but want to enjoy my guests and not be in the kitchen!
Hi Jodi, This can be made in advance. I’d keep it warm while serving in a crockpot or something similar.