The sauce in this broccoli chicken stir fry is perfectly “saucy,” making it ideal for serving over steamy rice. Homemade Chicken and Broccoli is an easy 30-minute meal, and it has the best stir-fry sauce.
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Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry Recipe
Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry satisfies the craving for takeout, and you’ll feel good about serving this to your family. It’s healthier than going out, and it’s simple to make into a meal served over cooked white rice, brown rice, or even cooked quinoa.
If you loved my famous Beef and Broccoli, then you will love this chicken stir-fry. It’s loaded with tender chicken, mushrooms, and fresh broccoli. I hope you’re inspired to make this easy and tasty dinner!
Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry Video
Ingredients & Substitutions for Stir Fry
- Chicken – we used boneless skinless chicken breast, but chicken tenders or even thighs would be delicious here.
- Stir Fry Veggies – We love the combination of broccoli, onions, and mushrooms for an authentic Chicken Broccoli Stir fry. You could sub the broccoli with snap peas or zucchini and sub onions with julienned carrots. I don’t recommend frozen veggies sicne they can get mushy and water down the sauce.
- Chicken Broth – this adds more flavor, but water can easily be substituted.
- Soy Sauce – Since different brands have different amounts of salt, add soy sauce to taste. You can always add more at the end, but you can’t take salt out of a dish. For gluten-free, use Tamari sauce.
- Sesame Oil – this one ingredient gives the sauce authentic Chinese stir fry flavor. Do not skip it.
- Ginger & Garlic – fresh is best for stir fry, but in a pinch, you can substitute 1 tsp fresh garlic for 1/2 tsp garlic powder and substitute 1 tsp fresh ginger for 1/8-1/4 tsp ground ginger.
- Brown Sugar – we used 2 Tablespoons of packed light brown sugar. You can substitute with 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of liquid sweetener, such as honey, or add it to taste.
- Corn Starch – using cornstarch as a thickener helps keep this gluten-free.
Pro Tip for Peeling Ginger:
The easiest way to peel ginger is to scrape the skin away with the side of a teaspoon. Once it’s peeled, finely grate it on a box grater or a microplane.
How to Make Broccoli and Chicken Stir Fry:
- Make the Sauce: Combine all of the sauce ingredients and stir to dissolve the sugar. Warm broth will help the sugar dissolve easily.
- Cook Chicken: Cut chicken into small 3/4″ bite-sized pieces and season lightly with black pepper. Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat with 1 Tbsp oil. Add chicken and cook 1 minute undisturbed then stir fry 5 minutes until golden and just cooked through. Remove chicken to a bowl.
- Stir-Fry Veggies: In the same skillet over medium-high heat, add 1 Tbsp oil, broccoli florets, sliced onion and mushrooms and stir fry 3 minutes until mushrooms are crisp and vibrant green then reduce heat. Do not overcook the veggies at this point or they can get mushy while cooking in the sauce.
- Add Stir Fry Sauce: Give the sauce a quick stir in case there was settling and add it to the skillet. Simmer the sauce over medium-low heat for 3-4 minutes until thickened and garlic and ginger have mellowed in flavor. To thin the sauce, add water as needed and you can add more soy sauce to taste.
- Return Chicken to the Pan and stir until heated through then serve over white rice garnished with sesame seeds if desired.
The KEY to Making the Best Stir Fry
A stir-fry is essentially flash-cooked on a very hot skillet, with a cooking time of less than 15 minutes. Since this recipe moves fast, you want to have every ingredient chopped, measured, prepped and ready to use before you fire up the skillet. If serving with white rice, you’ll want to put the rice on the stove first, then cook your stir fry. You’ll want to bookmark our tutorial for Perfect White Rice.
Storing and Reheating Stir Fry
Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry reheats well so it’s a great option for meal prepping.
- Refrigerate Leftovers – Once the chicken broccoli stir fry has cooled to room temperature, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for 3-4 days. I prefer not to freeze since the broccoli can become mushy.
- Reheating – It’s always best to reheat in the same method that the dish was cooked. Reheat in a skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally until hot. You can also reheat in the microwave in 30-second increments until heated through. If needed, you can add a little splash of water when reheating to bring back some moisture.
Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry Recipe
The sauce in this stir fry is perfectly "saucy," making it ideal for serving over hot and fluffy white rice. This recipe moves fast so start cooking your rice first and be sure to prep and chop all of your stir fry ingredients and make the sauce before cooking the stir fry.
Ingredients
Servings: 4 people
Chicken and Broccoli:
- 1 lb chicken breast, (boneless skinless), cut into 3/4" pieces
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil, (I used extra light olive oil), divided
- 1 lb broccoli, cut into florets (about 5 cups)
- 1 small yellow onion, sliced into strips
- 1/2 lb white button mushrooms, thickly sliced
Stir Fry Sauce Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce, (use Tamari for gluten free), or added to taste
- 2 Tbsp light brown sugar, packed (or honey to taste)
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated (lightly packed)
- 1 tsp garlic (2 small cloves), grated
- 1/4 tsp black pepper, plus more to season chicken
Instructions
- Make the Sauce – In a small bowl, combine all of the sauce ingredients and whisk to dissolve sugar and corn starch (warm broth will help dissolve the sugar faster). Set sauce aside.
- Prepare Chicken – cut chicken into small bite-sized pieces (no more than 3/4” thick) and season lightly with pepper. Heat a large heavy skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add 1 Tbsp oil. Add chicken in a single layer and let it sit undisturbed for 1 minute to get a good sear then stir fry for another 5 minutes or until golden brown just cooked through then remove to a bowl and loosely cover to keep warm.
- Stir Fry Veggies – In the same skillet, add another 1 Tbsp oil along with broccoli florets, sliced onion and sliced mushrooms. Stir fry 3 minutes or until mushrooms are softened and broccoli is crisp-tender then reduce heat to medium/low.
- Add Sauce – Give the sauce a quick stir in case there was any settling of starch and pour all of it over the vegetables. Simmer 3-4 minutes or until sauce is thickened and garlic and ginger are mellowed in flavor. To thin the sauce, add water a tablespoon at a time.
- Combine and Serve – Return chicken to the pan and stir another 30 seconds or until heated through. Add more soy sauce to taste if needed and serve over hot rice.
Nutrition Per Serving
325kcal Calories21g Carbs31g Protein14g Fat
Nutrition Facts
Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry Recipe
Amount per Serving
Calories
325
% Daily Value*
Fat
14
g
22
%
Saturated Fat
2
g
13
%
Cholesterol
73
mg
24
%
Sodium
586
mg
25
%
Potassium
1039
mg
30
%
Carbohydrates
21
g
7
%
Fiber
4
g
17
%
Sugar
10
g
11
%
Protein
31
g
62
%
Vitamin A
740
IU
15
%
Vitamin C
105
mg
127
%
Calcium
68
mg
7
%
Iron
2
mg
11
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Filed Under
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i hate cooking and am very bad at it, but this was simple and turned out delicious. Thank you for sharing!
You are welcome Bethany and thank you for the great review :).
Made this for my family tonight, they raved about it saying not to make my stir fry any other way! :)thx!
Thank you so much Cathy for the great review! 🙂
Does this work if you substitute the mushrooms for other vegetables? I stumbled upon this while using Pinterest and I’d love to make it, but I don’t like mushrooms! Thanks 🙂 it looks and sounds delicious!
Yes, you can make it with asparagus – that’s what we’re doing for dinner tonight actually :).
Made this for dinner tonight with a few changes. First change is I added carrots, sliced celery and used green onions instead of yellow or white. Also added a sweet-hot stir fry oil to the sauce rather than plain sesame oil – this added a nice, mild “kick” to the sauce, and a bit of sweet rice seasoning while stir-frying the veggies. This was a not-overpowering, yet very tasty, colorful and nutritious dinner. (oh yeah, we prefer the Japanese sticky rice in this household so that is what this was served over..) Yummmm……
All those modifications sound wonderful! What brand of sweet-hot stir fry oil do you use? It sounds phenomenal! I’ve never tried that in stir fry. Thanks so much for sharing and I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
Hi Natasha!
I just read the label on the oil and need to modify my review. The oil was not sweet, but it was hot. We modified a bottle of SunLuck Seasoned Wok Oil by adding about 2 tablespoons of crushed red pepper flakes to the bottle. The added “sweet” came from a splash or two of Kikkoman Manjo Aji-Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Seasoning. This household LOVED your recipe and I cannot wait to try more. Thanks for everything Natasha!
Jane, thank you so much for sharing that with me! 🙂
What is the nutritional info for this recipe and serving size? I can’t wait to try it.
I currently don’t have nutritional values, but when I need to research something, my best source: Caloriecount.com – sign in for free and then go to “tools” and then click “recipe analyzer” You can copy and paste your list of ingredients and it spits out the nutrition info. It’s a great tool. I hope that helps! I do have the serving size listed in the print friendly version of my recipes. For this one it is: 6. 🙂
Great tip Natasha! Another good site with a tool for calculating nutritional information is livestrong.com. Thanks so much for the fabulous recipe! We loved it!
Thank you so much for sharing that! 🙂
I just made this tonight and we all liked it. I plan to add it into my regular rotation. Thanks!
Thank yo for the great review Amy and you are welcome :).
My husband and I just got through eating this…it is SO. GOOD! Thanks for sharing this! I thought my husband was going to lick the skillet 🙂
Thank you for the great review Adrienne, and you are welcome :).
I just made this and it came out heavenly! MMM! Thank you 🙂
Thank you Kelly for a great feedback, enjoy :).
This is an excellent stir fry recipe!
I can’t wait to try more from your site 🙂
I’m so glad you liked it. Thank you Lisa 🙂
I want to make this soon, this looks delicious. My kind of food.
Enjoy! I hope you love it 🙂
This was delicious! I was in the grocery store today and almost bought an ol bag of stir fry when I remembered pinning this recipe. I made it just like you said and my family loved it (even my picky eater 3 year old). Will definitely have this again. Thanks.
I’m so excited to hear that even your picky 3-yr-old loved it! That just warms my heart like crazy! As a mom, I know exactly what that means 🙂
I made this for dinner and it was really good. (Not to much sauce. Perfect amount.) I even snacked on more of it after dinner while no one was looking lol :p
Thank you for the great review Jenny, I’m glad you enjoyed it :).
I stumbled upon your website and I am ABSOLUTELY in LOVEE! Just one question, i live by myself so how i can i make the ingredients so that its just 1 or 2 serving size? Or is it okay to refrigerate the leftovers if i do go with your recipe? Thanks!
It’s definitely ok to refrigerate leftovers with this recipe, but for 1 or 2 servings, even if you cut everything in half, you’ll still have leftovers. I’d probably just cut all of the ingredients in half. Hope that helps. Thank you so much for your sweet comment 🙂 I’m so happy you found my blog!
Absolutely delicious! I made this tonight for my boyfriend and I and we both loved it. I don’t like ginger so I didn’t add it and only had beef broth (instead of chicken broth) but it tasted amazing. The first thing my boyfriend said was “this tastes like it’s from a restaurant!” Will definitely be keeping this recipe handy and I am sure I will be making it again soon 🙂
Thank you Brittany for the great review :). I love getting reviews like these, music to my ears.
I am making this tonight and have no fresh ginger, the grocery store was fresh out! Could I add a teaspoon or so of ground ginger instead?
Yes, ground ginger would work. Add it to taste. A teaspoon might be a little much. 🙂
We loved this recipe!!!
What is a serving size and the calories per serving?
Hi Steph! The serving size is 6 (it can be found on the print friendly at the bottom of the tutorial). Unfortunately, I don’t have the calorie count on my recipes yet. I have to find a good way to add that. I’m so glad you loved it! 🙂
Just made this and it’s delicious!!! Taste so much better than Chinese takeout!! Also the trick with peeling ginger with the back of the spoon is brilliant! It worked like a charm! Thanks so much for all your recipes!
I’m so happy you loved it! And, yes, isn’t it so easy to peel ginger that way? I used to try all kinds of complicated stuff until I figured that out 🙂
I used beef strips and beef broth, turned out pretty dam good the wife loved it.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the great review Frank 🙂
Just finishing making this and it was amazing. You were so right! This is sooo delicious! My family loved especially my five year old. This is so much better than take out. Just wish I made a little more for lunch tomorrow but my family licked it clean. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
What a great review! Thank you Petra for writing in and you are very welcome :).
Tastes great! How could you make it spicier?
You could try red pepper flakes to give it a little kick.