Say hello to your new favorite home-made Chinese dish. Secondary cuts of beef are transformed into tender strips of beef coated with a garlicy asian sauce, broccoli, and mushrooms. This must try dish is quick and easy to make all made in one skillet in under 15 minutes.
Who doesn’t love Chinese food? I honestly can’t get enough of it, but prefer to make my own at home. I want it homemade and quick! Making it healthier, faster, and cost saving is the only way to go.
This beef and broccoli recipe has been our favorite. It’s 1000x better than any Chinese restaurants and has been our go to recipe for years. It’s super easy to make and is packed full of flavor. It’s made with simple ingredients that you should be able to find in your fridge or pantry.
The beef is first marinated in a mixture of cornstarch and water for just 2-3 minutes. This mixture tenderizes the beef and will make any tough cut of beef tender and melt in the mouth.
The beef is then cooked in a large skillet until brown and crispy on the outside and removed from the pan. Now here’s the fun part, At this point you can add whatever veggies you like to the skillet. I like to use broccoli, mushrooms, and bell peppers. But anything you like will work just as good.
After the veggies have cooked down, return the beef to the skillet and pour in the sauce mixture. Stir fry for just a minute and enjoy this flavorful tender beef and broccoli on noodles or rice! 
Quick 15 Minute Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless round, chuck steak, flat iron, or flank steak, cut into thin 3-inch strips
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon olive, vegetable, or sesame oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups broccoli florets
- 1 small onion, cut into strips
- 1/2 bell pepper cut into strips
- 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
- hot cooked rice or noodles for serving
- For the sauce:
- 1 ⁄3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar or honey
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Add the beef and mix until fully coated. Set aside for 2 minutes.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add beef and stir-fry for 3-5 minutes or until it's no longer pink. Remove from pan and set aside.
- In the same pan, stir-fry garlic, broccoli, onion, bell peppers and mushrooms in the remaining oil, for 3-5 minutes. Return beef to pan.
- In small bowl, whisk all the ingredients for the sauce and pour into pan. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until everything is fully combines and the mixture as simmered.
- Serve hot over rice or noodles. Enjoy!
Looks great!
Just tried this recipe for dinner, and my partner loved it! Yum 😋
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I see sesame seeds in the picture. Do you toast those before adding them at the end? Thanks!
Just add salt…
Ross Houston the art of cooking and the absolute rule is to taste as you go along ALWAYS. Are you not intelligent enough to do that or just a rubbish cook. You decide because I have.
Wow nasty much, a lot of folks are watching their salt intake, just add at the end, why do you think there are salt n pepper shakers?
Lol. Agree! Not sure that it warrants 2 stars. We loved it – three big guys in my family included.
Excellent recipe! Loved every bite
Great recipe! I will be making this again for sure!
Going to make this tonight for dinner, can I use beef broth instead of water for added flavour?
I have made this a few times already. To save time I add a bag of frozen stir fry veggies in place of the fresh ones, and it turns out wonderful. Just cook them to the crispness you like and add sauce at end as stated. Saves time if you’re in a hurry and hubby loves it as well!
My husband and I loved this! We love healthy meals. I added carrots and asparagus though! So good! I did not have any ginger for the sauce but still turned out good. I added pepper and powered onion to it as well. And sesame seeds for the top! Do not like mushrooms so they were not added. All I can say was it is delicious!
Made dish for family of five. It was delicious. Took longer then 20mins but was worth it. Will make again.
can the meat sit in the cornstarch longer? will it help or hurt?
Delicious will use this recipe again . You did not include sesame seeds, but I added it because of the picture. It needs a bit of heat, but very tasty. Thank you for posting.
Thanks for the 5 stars, Anna! Yes, the sesame seeds are optional and make the dish look great!
I was looking for a beef recipe when i found this. I followed all the steps and only adjusted the sesame oil. After cooking the beef, it seems like no more oil to stir fry the veggies so i added just 1 tsp. Everything went well. My family loved it. Thanks for this delicious recipe!
This is a GOD,, BASIC RECIPE. I ADDED ONE MINCED GARLIC BUD TO THE SAUCE BUT NEXT TIME WOULD ADD ANOTHER AND AT LEAST 1.5 TSP OF GINGER AND MORE HONEY.
What can i substitute for coRnstarch? I’m allergic to corn….
Arrowroot powder
Easy and very delicious! ThaNk you for the recipe!
Thank you for sharing this great recipe. I’ve made this a few times now and it never disappoints. It’s delicious! I’ve made this too with chicken instead of beef , also delicious. The only other thing I changed was cutting back the garlic powder to 1/2 tsp. My husband and I found that 1tsp garlic powder was overpowering , other than that this recipe is perfect. I’ve now added this my recipe collection. Our son is home for Christmas and this is one of the dishes on our menu during his stay. Enjoy the holidays!
Thanks so much for your feedback, Liz. I’m so happy to hear that you and your family are enjoying the recipe!! 🙂
Followed the recipe to a T and it came out perfect!👌🏽. I think it’s actually better than my family’s favorite Chinese restaurant beef and broccoli. This will be a frequent meal in my home!
So you’re supposed to rinse the cornstarch mixture off? Tha would have been a helpful tip of advice. I’m a newbie cook and ruined my meat 🙁 bummer! I was really looking forward to this for dinner. Maybe I’ll try again next week.
You are not supposed to rinse off the cornstarch. Maybe next time try a nonstick pan or use less cornstarch.
Excellent recipe. Thank you so much. Might add cashews next time.
You dont rinse the cornstarch off. You should pull the pieces of beef out of the cornstarch mixture and fry them.
if you are referring to the “velveting” method that Dennis is talking about ( I didn’t know what was so I googled it and found this: https://www.recipetineats.com/how-to-tenderise-beef-velveting-beef/) then yes, if you put baking soda on your beef you should rinse that off. But otherwise, the cornstarch you would not wash off. His comment could have been confusing you. But don’t put the cornstarch mixture into your pan, pull the meat out and just cook the meat coated with the cornstarch.
Okay so I’m not sure what went “south” I followed this recipe after using a “velveting” technique to soften the beef strips which after the process you completely rinse off any residue of the 1st technique then I used your recipe but I let it sit in the marinade for about 3 hrs. When I tried frying the beef in my wok I found a big problem with the cornstarch mixture which I made twice as much because I was using about two and a half pounds of beef (large family). The cornstarch ended up just being scorched in the wok and the beef was not really getting cooked correctly I had to take the beef out then clean the wok and rinse off the cornstarch residue on the beef order to get it to cook correctly. The veggies turned out fine although when I added the sauce and beef to the wok the sauce was loose and not getting thick so I added more cornstarch and then I got my desired sauce. I will definitely never ever use the “velveting” method again I do not like the beef to “melt” in my mouth I enjoy being able to take a bite and chewing beef. I added a few other things to this recipe to “heat” it up a bit and shitake mushrooms. I don’t usually follow recipes per se I really only use them as a basic idea as to what I want to achieve because everyone has their own personal taste and when I do follow the recipe It usually turns out less than spectacular. Sorry, I’m sure this works for others (marinade) but not for me.
Hi, i’ve made this dish many times and just now came across your comments. I felt it necessary to clarify that you don’t rinse the corn starch off of the beef after sitting for 2 min. Plus, the second part of the recipe is actually a sauce, not a marinade that you discard aftrewards. You cook the sauce in the pan/pot along with everything else.
Please note that I usually use a little extra meat that I tenderize (a necessary step) before cutting, and I use extra veggies than what the recipe calls for. There is still more than enough sauce to do that.
I grate 2 tbsp of fresh ginger instead of the 1 tsp of dry ground ginger…what a difference!
Also, I do one extra step. .. After I saute the veggies, I remove the veggies from the pot and put them on the plate with the meat, then I add the sauce to the pot and boil for 1 min. BEFORE I add the veggies and meat back to the pot. I do this because I found the sauce didn’t thicken enough for me.
Finally, we already have many dishes that we serve with rice and found chow mein complimented this recipe more so than rice did.
Overall, this recipe has never failed me and anyone I have ever made it for has love it! Try it my way and maybe you will love it aswell.
Sorry, we use the Chinese instant noodles, but we don’t stir fry the noodles after we boil them. Only if you stir fry the noodles is it considered a “chow mein”.
I’ve never heard of ‘velveting’. Did you dump all the beef with the cornstarch mixture into your wok? The pieces of beef should be taken out of the cornstarch “marinade” and fried… I wonder if you had too much leftover and it made kind of a “glue”? in your wok? The cornstarch “coating” would also work to thicken the sauce.
Do you know how I can calculate the saturated fat? Need that info to track for smart points through weight watchers. This looks delicious!
I think I will make this tonight. Is there any problem in marinating the beef for a few hours in the cornstarch mixture? I’m going to be away and thought I would do it now. I’ve never used a cornstarch mixture to marinate. Thank you!
The longer you marinate it the better!
You only have to let it sit for 2 minutes, it’ll take that long for you to get everything else ready and get the pan hot. WHy would you want to let it sit for a couple of hours?