Stir Fry Beef and Broccoli
This stir fry beef and broccoli is delicious served over noodles or rice for a delicious family dinner. You can prep most of the meal ahead for faster cooking on a busy night. The savory sauce is even better than your favorite take out place!
Our favorite Chinese food restaurant doesn't deliver to our house, when we eat there we have to dine in. So when my family is craving take-out, I often have to just cook it right at home.
This easy stir fry beef and broccoli mix is our newest favorite. I prepped the elements earlier in the day so the final cooking time was so fast and easy.
I popped a batch of my Instant Pot jasmine rice in the cooker for an easy dinner but if you prefer you could use this stir fry over noodles instead.
For the true take-out experience at home? Just add a batch of baked frozen egg rolls or dumplings!
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Why This is the Best Recipe
I just love making our own take out foods at home but I think this is the best stir fry beef and broccoli recipe because:
- Prep Ahead: You can slice the beef, chop the broccoli florets, and even measure out the savory sauce in head for an easy-to-assemble dinner on a busy night.
- Tender Beef: The quick stir fry method of cooking and my trick for slicing the flank steak keeps the beef nice and tender to chew.
- Crispy Broccoli: The flavorful broccoli added to the stir fry has already been crisped in the oven. It can keep warm till the stir fry is ready to be served.
- Savory Beef and Broccoli Sauce: This sauce is the true winner of the dish. It tastes just like a take out recipe but is made with easy ingredients from your pantry.
- Noodles OR Rice: You could make a batch of rice noodles, linguine, or an easy batch of white rice for serving the final dish.
Ingredients
The list of ingredients to make this dish is so simple:
- Flank Steak: This thin slice of beef, when prepped properly, is the perfect stir fry meat.
- Fresh Broccoli: A fresh broccoli crown will work best for this dish. If you want to use frozen broccoli, you'll want to cook it in the microwave and just stir it into the final dish.
- Onions: There's a white onion in the stir fry mix but I also love to top it with chopped fresh green onions.
- Soy Sauce
- Brown Sugar
- Minced Garlic
- Dried Ginger: If you have fresh ginger, you could use that instead.
- Sesame Oil
- Olive Oil
- Cornstarch
- Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
- Sesame Seeds
- Salt & Pepper
NOTE: This recipe is not very spicy. If you love things with a big kick you may want to add some chili paste.
Noodles or Rice:
To serve the beef and broccoli stir fry, you can spoon it over cooked noodles or rice.
If you want to serve it over noodles, you might want to double the stir fry sauce. Cook a package of rice noodles, soba noodles, or even regular linguine and toss it with the beef and broccoli at the end.
If you want to serve it over rice, this would pair well with my Instant Pot jasmine rice or with fried rice on the side.
How to Slice the Beef
The key to tender beef in a stir fry starts with how you slice it.
If you've never sliced a flank steak before, the most important thing to know is that you want to slice it across the grain, not with the grain.
First, spread the flank steak out completely flat on your cutting board.
To make stir fry strips of steak, cut the flank steak in half so the strips are short enough to stir easily.
Then ROTATE each half of the flank steak and slice in thin strips across the grain.
See how the lines on the beef are pointing towards the chef knife in picture #3 above? That's how you'll know you're slicing in the right direction.
Cut each thin slice about 1/4-inch thick and then add the steak strips to a mixing bowl.
Season the Steak
The next important step to the perfect beef stir fry, is to season the raw meat before you cook it.
Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the beef and stir to coat.
Prep & Roast the Broccoli
Now get the broccoli roasting in the oven so it can cook while you stir fry the beef.
Toss the broccoli florets in olive oil and sprinkle with red pepper flakes on a large baking sheet.
Roast in the oven at 425°F for 15 minutes. I usually put it in the oven just as I'm ready to cook the beef.
Beef and Broccoli Sauce
You can measure and mix the easy beef and broccoli sauce right in a liquid measuring cup.
Measure the soy sauce in the cup. Then add the brown sugar, minced garlic, dried ginger, and cornstarch right to the cup.
Whisk together with a fork and set aside.
Stir Fry Instructions
The final stir fry comes together so easily when you have all your ingredients prepped and ready to go.
I line up my work station so that my deep skillet with sesame oil is on a burner next to my bowl of sliced beef, sliced onion, and the measuring cup of stir fry sauce.
Heat the sesame oil over medium-high heat until it just begins to smoke.
Add the entire bowl of sliced steak and stir.
As the beef begins to brown, toss so that it cooks on all sides.
You may have to drain the liquid from the pan as the beef cooks so that it stir fries rather than boils. I drained this batch twice in the course of the 10 minutes it cooked.
Once the beef is almost cooked through and is just barely pink, transfer the browned steak to a clean bowl and set aside.
Add the sliced onion to the skillet and toss to coat in the oils still left in the pan.
Cook the onions until they have softened, about 3 - 5 minutes.
Pour the prepared stir fry sauce into the skillet and stir. Use it to deglaze the pan and scrape up all the delicious browned bits clinging to the bottom of the skillet.
Add the beef back to the skillet and toss to coat in the sauce.
Add the roasted broccoli to the skillet and toss to coat. You're ready to serve!
Serving Suggestions
Our family loves to serve the beef and broccoli over a bed of white rice with a drizzle of the sauce and a sprinkle of sesame seeds and chopped green onions.
It is so easy to just pop a few cups of jasmine rice in the Instant Pot so it can cook while I manage the stir fry beef and broccoli.
You could also cook your favorite rice noodle or pasta and serve the beef with sauce over noodles instead.
More Flank Steak Recipes
If you like to buy your flank steak when it is on sale or stock up with the 2-pack at Costco, you might be looking for other ways to use the leftover meat.
When you're slicing the flank steak for this stir fry, reserve some to make my easy Philly cheese steak pizza for another night.
Or if you have a second whole flank steak, make my delicious chimichurri steak on the grill.
More Take Out Recipes
When we're in the mood for Chinese food but take out isn't in the family budget, I love to make these easy recipes at home:
📖 Recipe
Stir Fry Beef and Broccoli
Ingredients
For the Roasted Broccoli:
- 1 head of broccoli chopped into florets
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
For the Beef Stir Fry:
- 2 pounds flank steak cut into 1-inch strips
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 6 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp dried ginger
- 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 onion sliced
For Serving:
- 1 batch jasmine rice
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 5 green onions chopped, reserve the green part for sprinkling over the top, you can cook the white part with the onion in the skillet
Instructions
- If you plan to serve the beef over jasmine rice, get it started cooking before you begin.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the broccoli on a sheet pan and toss with the olive oil. Sprinkle the red pepper flakes over the top. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the sliced flank steak in a mixing bowl or on a clean plate. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over it and set aside.
- Add the soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, and cornstarch to a small mixing bowl or liquid measuring cup. Whisk together and set aside.
- Add the sesame oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Let the oil preheat until it is just smoking. Add the beef to the skillet and cook it for 10 minutes or until just shy of being completely cooked through. Drain the fat when the liquid builds up and starts to boil the beef rather than saute it. Return the skillet to the burner, repeat as needed. Once it is mostly browned, transfer the beef to a clean plate and set aside.
- Add the sliced onion to the skillet. You can also add the white parts of the green onions to the skillet at this point if you don't want them to go to waste. Cook until the onions are mostly softened.
- Add the prepared soy sauce mixture to the skillet and stir. Add the browned beef to the skillet and finish cooking it through, about 3 minutes or so. At this point you can reduce the heat to low and cover the skillet to keep everything warm if you need more time for the broccoli or rice to finish. Add the roasted broccoli to the skillet and toss in the sauce to coat.
- Serve the beef and broccoli over bowls of jasmine rice with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and chopped green onions.
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