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
More Easy Chicken Recipes (Reader Favorites!)
- Chicken Fried Rice – the best way to use leftover rice
- Lemon Chicken – 30-min chicken dinner packed with flavor
- Chicken Parmesan – easy and classic family favorite
- Chicken Chow Mein – adding chicken makes it a meal
- Chicken Tetrazzini – a creamy cheesy pasta bake
- Chicken Pesto Pasta – adding pesto sauce is genius!
- Chicken Korma – with a vibrant curry sauce
This was simple AND delicious! I’ve bookmarked it for future meals. Thank you!
Awesome! Thank you so much for your good feedback, Liz.
I made this tonight and oh my goodness! It was so good! 🙂 I have some skeptical Chinese food eaters, so I was anxious to hear what they thought – the results?? Everyone said it’s a keeper and I could make it anytime! Thanks for the great recipe!A (I omitted the sesame oil.)
Yay, so wonderful to hear that. Thank you, Ashley, for your good comments and feedback about this recipe.
I just saw the video and think your presentation is delightful. Going to prepare this dish tonight.
I hope you love this recipe Shirley!
Oh my goodness! This was sooooo good! I omitted the ginger, because we don’t care for it, and it was still delicious! My littles even liked it! I will definitely be making this again—SOON!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
I’ve made this recipe several times since finding this recipe. I love it! I have tweaked it and switched out the sesame seeds for cashews and they are wonderful too!
So glad to hear that, Cathy. Thanks for your good feedback and for sharing that with us!
Absolutely delicious!!!
Thank you for your good feedback, Debra!
Made this tonight and dang it was good. Definitely keeping this recipe! Thank you!
Hi Cameron, yay, love it! Thank you for your awesome feedback.
Just made this tonight, Absolutely Awesome!! We did add some red pepper strips to the veggies. When serving, we added a little Sweet Thai Chili Sauce to finish it off. New favorite at our house!!
Hello Diane, nice addition to the recipe. Thank you for sharing that with us and for giving this recipe an awesome review.
Hi. I want to try your recipe but I can’t eat sesame seeds or sesame oil (or any kind of seeds or nuts). Will this taste good without it or is there anything I can substitute for the sesame?
Hello Phil, I saw that others commented that they didn’t use sesame and still loved it!
I forget to put them in and it was still great.
Great to hear that!
Love love love this recipe! Love everything I’ve made from your recipes. I love the chicken Fried Rice- pesto stuffed chicken – lemon chicken and so many more. I am 53 and I finally feel like I can cook great tasting meals. Just wanted to say thank you! You truly have a gift and make cooking fun. My whole family thanks you lol
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Kathy!
Hi is there any way of getting the original recipe for the sauce? I prefer the old sauce and would be so grateful if you could tell me the measurements for the ingredients in the original sauce recipe. Thank you so much!
Hi Ess, the best way to look at old versions of a recipe is to go to this site and paste the url of the recipe in the search bar. I hope that helps!
Made this for dinner about a week ago,soooooo good
I enjoy all your recipes
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
I wanted to double the recipe thinking it would be good to meet prep, but 3 lbs of chicken made about 7 servings. The recipe was amazing, though! Definitely will keep this in mind for the future, but I will need to probably use 5 lbs instead with 3 cups of rice, 3 heads of broccoli and 2 things of mushrooms.
I’m so glad you loved it, Ned. Thank you for trying out this recipe!
I love your recipes, but it’s becoming increasingly frustrating trying to read your page because of all of the ads. There are just way to many popping up covering your content. Even as I’ve typed this comment, more than a dozen have popped up, literally, more than a dozen.
Hi Sallie, thank you for sharing your concerns and feedback. The only way we can continue providing free recipes is by having ads on our site so we are not able to remove those at this time. We find that most people would rather see the ads than pay to see the recipes. I appreciate your feedback and I hope you love every recipe you try.
I’m planning to try this recipe tonight, so I cannot yet rate it. However, I would like to let you know that I totally agree with Sallie’s comment about the ads on your website. Both the ads and your videos make it take the webpage a long time to load. I have found that I just cannot do it on my iPad and have to use my laptop for a little better experience. But I am one of those that would rather pay for recipes than have the ads.
Thanks for your feedback, Jeannie. We always check our website and videos and they load just fine on our end. There may be ads but you should be able to close them after a few seconds. The only way we can continue providing free recipes is by having ads on our site so we are not able to remove those at this time.
Don’t be concerned about the number of ads. Complainers will be complainers. Keep the great recouped coming
Hi Natasha!
Made it tonight and was a great success.
Also the rice recipe that you linked.
Thanks so much.
*Had to change things around cause last minute realized I don’t have mushrooms!
Used broccoli and cauliflower and was just great!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Hi, can I prep the sauce a day ahead of time and refrigerate?
Hi Nicole, I imagine that should work fine too.
I’m assuming i can make this with boneless skinless chicken thighs as well? that’s what i have on hand.
Hello Carole, yes that would work too. I hope you love this recipe!
I made your chicken and broccoli minus the mushrooms. YUM!!!
I will print it and make it again. It is better than the Chinese restaurant near me. I am looking forward to trying other recipes from your blog!
So awesome! I’m so glad you loved this recipe, Ann. It is also one of our favorites.
Whoa, this recipe is spot on. I followed it pretty closely except I used canned mushrooms. It didn’t make a difference though, everything turned out great!
Hello Effy, thank you for sharing that with us and for giving this recipe a perfect rating. I’m so glad you loved it!
I’m not the best chef, but I followed this recipe as closely as I could (substituting mushrooms for more broccoli and chicken broth for water) and it was absolutely spectacular! I’d love to try it with beef instead if chicken. Does anyone have any ideas for what kind/how much beef to use to keep the recipe the same otherwise? Thanks!
Sounds awesome! I imagine that will work too but you can also use my Beef and Broccoli recipe.
Hi Matthew, I haven’t tried a beef substitute for this recipe but it does sound good. Let me know how it goes if you test it but also check out our recipe for Beef and Broccoli HERE.