Published April 11, 2025. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Enjoy your favorite Chinese takeout at home with this beef and broccoli recipe. Tender marinated steak strips are combined with crisp broccoli and an indulgent, umami-packed sauce, leaving you with a restaurant-quality meal in less than 60 minutes.
Friday nights and weekends are the best times to recreate takeout classics at home. We’re big fans of Mongolian beef and Kung Pao chicken in our house, but nothing pleases our takeout cravings like beef and broccoli. It’s satisfying and packed with flavor and one of the easiest Chinese-American dishes to make at home. And thanks to the Chinese tenderizing technique called “velveting,” we’re even starting to love this homemade version more than what we’d usually order from our takeout place.
Homemade Beef and Broccoli
It’s hard to find a Chinese-American takeout menu without beef and broccoli. Unlike classic beef stir fry recipes that combine beef with a medley of vegetables, beef and broccoli recipes solely focus on their namesake. This stir fry favorite features tender slices of steak, crisp-tender broccoli, and a savory, umami-packed sauce made with soy sauce, oyster sauce, and a handful of other Chinese flavor boosters.
It’s a straightforward dish beyond simply tossing steak strips and broccoli in a wok with sauce. The secret to achieving restaurant-quality results lies in a technique called “velveting.” This method, which involves coating the beef in a mixture of cornstarch, egg whites, and baking soda, is surprisingly simple and guarantees tender, juicy meat even when cooking at high heat.
The velveting ingredients also contribute to the rich, velvety brown sauce you expect from traditional restaurant-style stir-fries. With just a few simple steps and ingredients, you’ll have a home-cooked Chinese takeout-inspired dinner on the table in less than an hour.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Steak – I used flank steak, but top round and skirt steak are also perfect for high-heat cooking. Other cuts of steak that work are sirloin and ribeye.
- Baking Soda – First, I tenderize the beef with a small amount of baking soda. This raises the meat’s pH, helping it retain moisture and become incredibly tender. Alternatively, you can skip this step and add the baking soda directly to the marinade.
- Cornstarch – The key to velveting is a cornstarch-based marinade. It creates a light coating that protects the meat from drying out.
- Egg White — I used a single egg white to help everything cling to the beef, which forms part of the velveting process’s base.
- Marinade — I like to marinate the beef in a mix of soy sauce, granulated sugar, Shaoxing wine, coarse salt, and black pepper to season it and support the tenderizing process. If you don’t have Shaoxing wine, you can substitute dry sherry.
- Broccoli — I trim the fresh broccoli crowns into bite-sized florets and quickly blanch them before stir-frying them with the beef. Those leftover broccoli stems are great for making cream of broccoli soup or even broccoli cheddar soup. You can use frozen broccoli in a pinch.
- Oil – I prefer avocado oil, but any oil with a high smoking point will do, such as grapeseed, peanut, vegetable, or canola oil.
- Sauce – I made the stir-fry sauce with soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, beef stock or chicken stock, and cornstarch.
- Aromatics — I used minced garlic, ginger, and sliced green onions in the stir-fry sauce to infuse it with a ton of flavor. I also add thinly sliced carrots here for extra color and a subtle crunch, but you can leave them out if you’d like.
How to Make Beef and Broccoli
Tenderize (optional): I sometimes coat the meat with baking soda mixed with water and let it sit for 15 minutes. If you’re sensitive to the potential metallic taste from the baking soda, rinse the beef well before marinating.
Marinate: I mix the egg whites, baking soda, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, cornstarch, and Shaoxing wine in a large bowl, then toss the steak strips. Cover the bowl and refrigerate it for 30 to 60 minutes.
Blanch: Meanwhile, I bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil, then carefully add the broccoli florets and blanch them for exactly 90 seconds. Drain and shock them. After a minute in the ice bath, I drain the broccoli and set it aside.
Make the sauce: I whisk the soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, stock, and cornstarch in a medium bowl until smooth. Set the sauce aside.
Sear: I pull the meat from the fridge and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes to take the chill off. I heat my wok over high heat until it starts to smoke, then pour in the oil. Add the beef and let it sear undisturbed (this mimics restaurant wok cooking and ensures even caramelization). After 1 minute, I flip the pieces and sear them for another 30 to 45 seconds or until well-browned. Remove and set aside.
Stir-fry: I reduce the heat and add the ginger, garlic, green onions, and carrots to the wok. I stir-fry them for 45 to 60 seconds.
Combine: To finish, I return the beef to the wok and gently fold everything together. I pour the sauce and continue stirring until it thickens into that rich, glossy coating we love. Finally, I toss in the broccoli and give everything one last stir.
Chef Tips + Notes
Giving the beef a little TLC will go a long way in homemade beef and broccoli recipes. Stick with a lean and tender cut of steak, like flank steak or skirt steak, and follow the instructions carefully during the slicing, velveting, and tenderizing steps. Slicing the steak against the grain into thin, bite-sized pieces will shorten the muscle fibers and prevent them from becoming chewy. In addition, velveting the steak will keep the marinated pieces ultra-tender.
- Always velvet the beef: If you’re short on time, skip the baking soda cure at the start. Velveting the beef in the cornstarch, egg white, and baking soda marinade should be enough to keep the meat tender as long as the pieces are sliced thin.
- Ground beef and broccoli recipe: You can swap the steak strips for ground beef, but you’ll end up with a saucier beef and broccoli bowl. Stick to a steak cut if you’re going for that restaurant look and feel.
- Add more vegetables: Most stir fry recipes include a medley of fresh or frozen vegetables. I like to focus on the broccoli in this version, but you’re more than welcome to add some variety with blanched snap peas, asparagus, green beans, bok choy, or stir-fried bell peppers and mushrooms.
- Practice mise en place: This fast-paced recipe requires an organized cooking station and prepped and measured ingredients. Being unprepared could potentially result in overcooked vegetables, chewy steak, or burnt sauce.
Serving Suggestions
I love serving broccoli and beef stir fry the classic way—piled on top of a bed of fluffy jasmine rice. It’s also delicious served on its own or paired with egg-fried rice or rice noodles.
Add a few other traditional takeout favorites to the menu, like egg rolls, crab rangoon, and hot and sour soup. Or, whip up a batch of General Tso’s chicken or bang bang shrimp for the ultimate homemade Chinese food feast.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: You can marinate the sliced beef, blanch the broccoli, and make the sauce up to 1 day in advance. Store everything in separate airtight containers in the fridge. When it’s time to eat, all that’s left to do is stir fry everything in the wok.
How to Store: Pack the leftover, cooled beef and broccoli into an airtight container and refrigerate it for up to 4 days.
How to Reheat: To maintain the saucy texture, reheat the beef and broccoli in a skillet or wok over medium heat with a splash of water or broth. You can also microwave them in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until they’re heated through.
More Takeout-Inspired Recipes
Beef and Broccoli Recipe
Ingredients
For the Marinade:
- 1 pound of flank steak – cut in half and very thinly sliced on a bias
- 1 egg white
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon coarse salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
- 4 small to medium sized heads of trimmed broccoli, about 4 to 5 cups trimmed
- cooking oil
For the Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- ½ cup beef or chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
- 2 thinly sliced green onions
- ½ peeled and thinly sliced carrot, optional
Instructions
For the Marinade:
- In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the steak, egg white, baking soda, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, cornstarch, and Shaoxing wine. The meat should have a thin white-like film coating it. Cover and refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes.
- In the meantime, cook the broccoli in a large pot of boiling salted water for exactly 90 seconds. Drain it and put it in a container of ice water to immediately stop the cooking process. Drain it and set it to the side.
For the Sauce:
- In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, beef stock, and cornstarch, and set to the side. The cornstarch should be dissolved entirely.
To Cook:
- Next, pull the beef out of the fridge. If you’d like, you can let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes at room temperature to remove the chill.
- Place the work on the burner and turn the heat to high. Once you see it start to smoke, pour in about 1/3 to ½ cups of high-smoke-point cooking oil. I prefer avocado oil.
- Add the beef and immediately move it up the sides of the wok using a wok spatula or something similar to get a good sear on it. We will leave it like this for exactly 60 seconds. After that minute, stir fry the beef or simply fold it over using the spatula for 30 to 45 seconds to get it as browned as possible. Then, set it to the side.
- Turn the heat down to low-medium, add the ginger, garlic, green onion, and carrots, and stir-fry for 45 to 60 seconds. Add the beef back to the pan and fold everything together.
- Pour in the sauce. Fold the ingredients together, and it should thicken up almost immediately. Toss in the broccoli and gently fold everything to combine.
- Serve with or over rice.
Beef and Broccoli Recipe