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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Great recipe! Will definitely make again. The only issue I had was I really wanted to taste the sauce to season it, but the flour that the raw chicken was dredged in is in there. Easy fix, will dredge & use new for sauce. Thanks for sharing, will try it with beef too!
I haven’t tried this recipe for beef but it does sound good. Let me know how it goes! 🙂
This meal was AMAZING! My husband, who is by no means a broccoli fan ate every last bite of broccoli!!! This is our new chinese meal from now on!! Thank you so much for this! We did cut down the honey to 2TBS and it was perfect!!!
Misty, thank you for such a nice review on the recipe and you are welcome 😀.
I am planning to make this, but have a thing of a ground ginger on hand. Is fresh ginger necessary or can I use what I have? If I can substitute, how much would you recommend?
Hi Taylor, ground ginger would work but you want to use just a little less than 1/2 tsp of ground ginger. When you convert, replace 1 tsp fresh ginger with 1/4 tsp ground ginger.
This was a nice recipe. The chicken stayed moist and the sauce thickened up perfectly (both due to flouring the chicken). I didn’t have enough honey (I was doubling the recipe for a large family) and so I substituted a bit of dark brown sugar. I felt it was well balanced between salty, sweet and gingery. It is the best and easiest homemade recipe for a teriyaki type sauce I have tried. I am going to adapt it with beef broth for Broccoli Beef which my family loves. Thanks so much for sharing.
I think this would be really tasty for beef. Thanks for the idea! 🙂
Finally! A stir fry recipe that tastes great, is not difficult, with ingredients that I keep on hand, that we all love AND can make at home! This one is definitely a KEEPER!!! Thank you!!!
I’m so happy you loved it! Thanks Beth 🙂
I made this for me and my wife, and we are both so happy with this meal! My wife is not a fan of broccoli, but there wasn’t a crumb left on her plate. Will definitely be having this meal again!
I’m so happy to hear that you both loved the recipe! Thank you for sharing that with me 🙂
I made this and loved it! It was a tad on the sweet side though. Any guidelines on cutting the sweetness just a little bit? I would love to make it again
You can definitely decrease the amount of honey. Try cutting it down to 2 Tbsp – that should take down the sweetness considerably.
Excellent! Thank you!
Excellent recipe! Thank you so much. I added red pepper, used honey and part agave (ran out of honey) and also added the juice of two clementines and some rice wine vinegar. Thank you so much for the inspiration. It was yum!
Gwen, thank your for the nice review and great job on improvising 😀.
I made this for my husband tonight!! ^^ Adding red peppers to balance the sweetness is a great idea, and I’ll also be doing that the next time I make it!! Great recipe!!
Thank you for such a nice review Sahara, I’m glad you like it 😀.
Awesome step by step instructions with the pictures and ingredients this is how I cook the recipes from various food networks.
Hubby loved it, I did add a little red pepper flakes to balance the sweetness.
Will be making again.
Thank you
Thank you for the great feedback! It really means alot to me 🙂
I LOVE this stir-fry. I make it every second week. It is easy and SO flavorful. I serve it with Chow Mien nooldles. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
It’s great to use up ingredients in your crisper, as well!
Jen, thank you for such a nice review, you are making me hungry just from reading your comment 😀 .
I made this for dinner tonight and it was excellent! Thanks for sharing 😊
You are welcome Melissa, I’m glad you liked it 😀 .
This recipe was the best we’ve had! Certainly a keeper!!
Thank you for such a nice review and I hope you’ll find more favorites on the site 🙂 .
hey natasha just saying, your my go to!….and now to the question, if i marinated the chiken in that sauce would that be alright you think?
I’m not sure that would work well. I like to brown the chicken first to keep it juicy inside. It would be a completely different method if you marinated the chicken first. Usually if you marinate chicken in a sauce, you discard that part of the sauce – I’m not sure I would want to pour the marinating sauce over the veggies.
Technically you are using the remnants of the flour that you coated the chicken with in the sauce for the veggies so this won’t likely be much different (since you’re cooking the sauce/marinade). Marinate the chicken, drain thoroughly and then toss in flour (lightly seasoned?) before browning.
So your recipe calls for fresh ginger and garlic. Would it taste the same to you ginger powder instead
Fresh usually tastes better but it would work if you added the powdered version 🙂
My family loved this! Even my two year old asked for seconds! It was as good if not better than take out. This will be added to my regular menu plan 🙂
Thank you for such a nice review Shannah :D. I hope you’ll find more favorites on the site.
Hi,
This recipe looks really good. Do I have to marinate the chicken before cooking it? Thank you.
-Amy
Hi Amy, no, you do not have to marinate the chicken first. 🙂
This recipe is amazing, i did add my own Little twist on it by adding baby corn, and using canned mushrooms and frozen bagged broccoli instead. I love this recipe and will be making it more often.
I’m so happy you loved it. The idea to add baby corn is brilliant!
nutrition facts please
Hi Amanda 🙂 I don’t typically include nutrition info, but if you go to caloriecount.com you can plug in the ingredients and servings and figured out pretty easily that way. I hope that helps!
The recipe was great except for me a little sweet. Not so much honey. I would make again.
Thank you for sharing your review 🙂