Easy Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry Recipe

I’m not gonna lie—this is better than takeout. You can make the very best Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry at home in twenty minutes or less, saving yourself time, travel, and money. And it will be healthier than any restaurant fare, too. This one-dish meal is so easy, combining fresh crunchy vegetables and tender beef all in a flavorful, homemade Asian stir fry sauce.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry is so quick and easy. We’ll give you a ton of options on how you can make this recipe to suit you and your family. The Asian sauce envelopes fresh vegetables and tender slices of beef and can be just as spicy as you like without changing the rich deep flavor.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry Recipe Ingredients

One of the things we love about making Stir Fry at home is how fresh and simple it is to make. You can control the ingredients and escape a load of sodium and preservatives common in a commercial stir fry.

Stir Fry Vegetables

You want approximately 4 to 5 cups of fresh vegetables in this recipe regardless of the varieties. We used broccoli, onion, and mushrooms. Other great options include bell peppers, green or red, carrot sticks, snow peas, water chestnuts, baby corn, bok choy, cabbage, green onions, zucchini or yellow squash. This is just to name a few. Use your favorites.

Stir Fry Sauce Ingredients

• Soy Sauce – We use low-sodium which is still salty enough. Use what you prefer.
• Fresh Ginger – We used about a 1/2 inch piece. We removed the peel and grated it on a box grater.
  • You can store unused ginger in the freezer in an air-tight bag or container. It thaws very quickly and can even be grated frozen.
• Garlic – Fresh garlic, minced.
• Hoison Sauce – This is a sweet and salty soybean paste that adds a rich depth to the sauce. It’s thick and helps the stir fry sauce cling to the other stir fry ingredients.
• Brown sugar – We prefer dark brown sugar but the light is fine too. Use what you have on hand.
• Crushed red pepper – We went for a middle-of-the-road heat. You can add more or less depending on your preference.
  • The reason we like using red pepper is it adds heat without changing the flavor of the other ingredients. If you have people at your table who like a lot of spice, you can serve it with your favorite hot sauce.

How to Make Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

The steps to any good stir fry are similar. First, get everything ready. Cut the meat across the grain, chop all the veggies, and mix the sauce in a small bowl.

Next, get the wok (or large skillet) hot. Once it is good and hot, brown the meat on both sides in a little oil. Set the meat aside, then mix the sauce in the wok for a few minutes. Remove the sauce from the pan.

Stir-fry the veggies to your desired doneness. I find it’s easier to stir-fry all of my veggies at once. So, it’s important to cut them in similar sizes. If you have veggies that are dense they can be started first then add the other veggies once they begin to soften slightly. You can also microwave them briefly before stir-frying.

Add everything back to the wok: meat, veggies, sauce. Stir to combine for less than a minute and plate with a sprinkling of green onions. That’s it! It’s so incredibly simple that you’ll never want the takeout version again.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best cut of beef for stir fry?

Some grocery stores sell pre-packaged stir fry beef but it can be expensive. They don’t always label the variety of meat. We prefer to buy a fresh cut and slice it ourselves. You want a variety that will stay tender after a quick fry. Options include but aren’t exclusive to sirloin, flank steak, ribeye, or a strip steak.

Can I use frozen vegetables?

Yes. Use frozen stir-fry vegetables—there is no need to thaw them, but I recommend thawing them and patting them dry so they cook up crisp. 

Tips for the Perfect Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

Cut all of your vegetables approximately the same size to ensure even cooking.

We like our broccoli crunchy. If you don’t, you can cook it for a couple of minutes before adding the other vegetables. You could also steam it in the microwave a few minutes before cooking it with the other stir fry vegetables.

Combining the sauce after mixing the beef and vegetables together will ensure that the dish is hot when it hits the table.

Tips for stir fry meat – we put our beef in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing. That firms up the beef and allows us to slice it thinly. You should also slice it across the grain. If you cut it with the gain the meat will be shredded and not sliced.

Stir Fry recipes come together and cook very quickly. For that reason, we have all of our ingredients prepped before we turn on the stove as follows:

Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl.

In a separate bowl or ziploc bag combine the beef and cornstarch.

Variations and Substitutions

Vegetarian and Vegan Stir Fry – Tofu works great in this stir fry recipe for a vegetarian option.

Shrimp Stir Fry – Shrimp cook amazingly quick. We recommend adding uncooked, peeled, and deveined shrimp to the cooked vegetables right before you pour the stir fry sauce over all of the ingredients. The heat of the other ingredients will cook the shrimp. You know when the shrimp are cooked when they are no longer translucent and have a pink hue.

Chicken Stir Fry – Cut up skinless, boneless pieces of white or dark chicken. Cook until the chicken is completely cooked through. When tested with an instant-read thermometer the chicken will have an internal temperature of 165°F.

Serving Variations

We serve our Broccoli Beef Stir Fry over rice. More times than not, brown rice. White rice or wild rice are great options too. Our favorite rice recipes are Simple Asian Rice and our 5-Spice Rice.

Noodles are another great option such as buckwheat noodles also called soba noodles. Rice noodles are another great option.

Of course, you can eat the Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry as is and skip the rice or noodles.

Items you may need

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This is a simple recipe and it doesn’t need a lot of fancy gadgets to put together.

We don’t own a wok so we use a large Braiser which can double as a shorter-sided dutch oven or a deep-sided skillet. I used it in our Shrimp and Vegetable Stir fry.

My rule is I have to be able to use it for more than one thing or use it regularly before it enters my kitchen.

A set of bowls is something I can’t live without. Since they nest together, they don’t take up as much space as a hodgepodge of bowls in different sizes.

What to serve with Beef and Broccoli

This recipe is a complete meal in our humble opinion. However, if you want to add something to your table, we would keep it cool and a little sweet for contrast such as this Cabbage Cashew Salad or maybe this one: Thai Cabbage Slaw. You could also try our Soba Noodle Salad or these yummy Pan Blistered Shishito Peppers. And if plain rice is not your style, try our Asian 5 Spice Rice.

We love Asian food. You can find all of our Asian recipes here.

Did you enjoy this recipe? Don’t forget to pin it for later and follow me on Pinterest for more delicious recipes like this one!

Did you enjoy this recipe? Don’t forget to pin it for later and follow me on Pinterest for more delicious recipes like this one!

Originally released on 1/1/2021, this Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry recipe has undergone updates to enhance our readers’ experience, including simple details and new images. No changes were made to the actual recipe.