This Chinese-inspired beef and broccoli stir-fry features tender steak, crisp broccoli, and a bold, garlicky sauce — all ready in just 30 minutes.
This beef and broccoli stir-fry has been on repeat in our kitchen for years. ♡
It’s fast, easy, and packed with bold, savory flavors that always hit the spot. The stir-fry sauce is anything but boring — perfectly balanced with rich, garlicky, gingery, slightly sweet notes. The steak turns out perfectly tender, and the broccoli stays just the right amount of crisp. Best of all, everything comes together in one pan in about 30 minutes, making it perfect for busy weeknights.
We love serving it over rice (or my favorite fried rice), noodles, or tucked into lettuce wraps for a lighter twist. However you dish it up, this beef and broccoli recipe is always a winner!
Recipe Tips
Step-by-step instructions are included in the recipe below, but here are a few extra tips to keep in mind:
- Slice the beef against the grain. This is an essential step to make each bite of steak more tender.
- Partially freeze your flank steak before slicing. If you have the time, popping the steak in the freezer for 20–30 minutes before slicing will make it much easier to cut.
- Don’t skip the baking soda in the marinade. It helps tenderize the beef and gives it that signature silky texture.
- Use high heat for the stir-fry. A hot pan will ensure a good sear on the beef and help keep the broccoli nice and crisp.
- Stir-fry in batches if needed. If your pan is small, cook the beef in two rounds to avoid overcrowding and steaming
Recipe Variations
Here are a few variations that you’re welcome to try with this recipe:
- Swap the beef. Try thinly sliced chicken, pork, tofu or shrimp for a different protein.
- Add more veggies. Bell peppers, snap peas, mushrooms, or carrots would all work well here.
- Make it spicy. Stir in some chili garlic sauce or a pinch of red pepper flakes to amp up the heat.
- Make it gluten-free. Use tamari or coconut aminos instead of soy sauce and double-check that your oyster sauce is gf.
- Add noodles. Serve the stir-fry over lo mein, udon, or rice noodles instead of rice.
More Favorite Stir-Fry Recipes To Try!
Looking for more simple Chinese-inspired stir-fry recipes to try? Here are a few of our favorites:
Beef and Broccoli
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
This easy beef and broccoli stir-fry features tender steak, crisp broccoli, and a bold, garlicky sauce — all ready in just 30 minutes.
Ingredients
Marinade:
- 1 pound flank steak
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Sauce:
- 1/2 cup beef stock
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine*
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Stir-Fry:
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil
- 1 (12-ounce) bag broccoli florets
- 4 scallions, sliced into 2-inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon grated or minced fresh ginger
- 4 cloves garlic, grated or minced
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Marinate the steak. Thinly slice the steak against the grain into bite-sized pieces. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, oil, soy sauce and baking soda until combined. Add the steak and toss to coat. Set the bowl aside and let the steak marinate for at least 10 minutes (or up to 30 minutes).
- Prepare the sauce. In a separate bowl, whisk all of the sauce ingredients together until combined.
- Stir-fry the broccoli. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to a large sauté pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add the broccoli and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp tender. Transfer the broccoli to a clean plate and set aside.
- Stir-fry the beef. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan. Add the beef in as even a layer as possible. Cook undisturbed for about 1 minute or until the bottom side has caramelized. Flip the beef, add in the ginger and garlic, and cook for 1-2 more minutes, stirring and flipping the mixture as needed, until the beef is nearly cooked through to your liking. (It will continue to cook slightly more in the sauce.)
- Combine. Carefully add the broccoli, scallions and sauce to the pan (be careful, the liquid may sputter!) and toss everything until evenly combined. Continue cooking for 30-60 seconds or until the sauce has thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the sesame oil until combined.
- Season. Taste and season with additional soy sauce if needed.
- Serve. Serve warm over rice (or fried rice) and enjoy!
Notes
Shaoxing wine. This traditional Chinese rice wine — with its complex, savory depth of flavor — adds so much to this dish. If you don’t have a bottle in your pantry, however, you can substitute rice wine or a dry sherry in its place.
Recipe updates. This recipe was updated in 2025.
Do I only mix the soy sauce and vinegar together to marinate or all the ingredients?
Easy and delicious.
Delicious and better than takeout!
Just found this recipe. It is recipe is spot on! We ate almost the entire batch the first time I made it. That says a lot as hubby is very particular eater.
So many recipes don’t include oyster sauce and it’s what makes Broccoli Beef flavor superior. Thank you
This was so good ! Did ( what someone suggested ) poor in the cornstarch mixed with water after putting the sauce in the wok
I’ve researched, begged for, bought books about and stolen some secret recipes for Chinese food. Many years ago I thought I’d finally discovered the missing ingredient. The secret ingredient that I thought added authenticity to my creations was MSG by way of the spice known as Accent. While it definitely did add flavor to my recipes, they still didn’t taste like I wanted them to. My idea of perfect Chinese food is, fresh vegetables, flash fried hot but still having some crunch or snap in them, bold fresh garlic, vegetable variety and most of all, a delicious, full flavored, slightly sweet, slightly spicy brown sauce. A dish can meet these specifications in just one of these aspects and be off the mark in others and still be good but to be great, it must meet them all. This recipe is very good. I’ve used the sauce for many dishes now and even altered it for some and I find it to be the perfect brown sauce base for all of my creations. This coupled with the fried rice recipe I borrowed from this site h my has afforded me honors among my friends and family. I recommend it highly.
Surprisingly I had all of the ingredients. The sauce is delicious! I will definitely make this again. Like some others I doubled the sauce and added green and red peppers, white onion and water chestnuts. I sautéed the beef and onions a little and then put everything but the broccoli, peppers and water chestnuts in my instant pot for 15 minutes on meat/stew. Once done, I added the peppers, broccoli and water chestnuts and turned it to Sautee for 10 minutes.
Yummy!
My husband and I loved this, my daughter did not bc I went a bit heavy with the Sriracha but this is an awesome recipe. I subbed fish sauce for oyster sauce, it is quite salty but my family was ok with it. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
Thank you