Chicken Broccoli Stir-Fry Demo and Recipe

Many of you probably heard of beef broccoli, a popular dish at Chinese restaurants. My family ordered it often when we went out for dinner on the weekends. But I don’t eat red meat that often as an adult, so instead I make this recipe with chicken.

This is such a basic recipe that I figured it’ll be a good feature for my “Dinner Fast” series because you can pretty much get this all done in less than 30 minutes. When you watch my video, you’ll see how easy it is. Enjoy!

Chicken Broccoli Stir-Fry

Copyright 2010 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. chicken breast, cubed
2 cups broccoli florets (from one head of broccoli)
5 to 6 crimini mushrooms, stem removed and chopped
1 t ground white pepper
1 T soy sauce, light
1 T sesame oil
1 T Xiao Hsing rice wine or cooking sherry
1 T oyster sauce
1 T minced fresh ginger
1/4 cup chicken broth
salt for seasoning
1 T cornstarch
2-3 T canola oil

Marinate the chicken by mixing it with the white pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil and Xiao Hsing rice wine. Set aside for at least 10 minutes.

In a wok or large skillet, heat 1 to 2 tablespoon of oil over high heat and then add chicken (don’t pour in the marinade with the chicken). Brown the chicken pieces, about 2 to 3 minutes, then remove from wok and set aside.

Rinse out wok or wipe away any residue chicken pieces, then warm 2 to 3 tablespoon of oil. Add ginger and mushrooms and sweat the mushrooms for about 2 minutes (you can add a pinch of salt to help in the sweating process). When the mushrooms look almost cooked, then throw in the broccoli and stir-fry for a minute. You might want to add a pinch of salt to season the broccoli. To cook the broccoli faster, add about a 1/4 cup of chicken broth and then cover to cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove cover and then add chicken back to wok, and blend everything together.

Mix cornstarch with a little bit of water to create a slurry, then add the slurry a little at a time to the wok to create a gravy. Add as much as you like, making sure the heat is high to help cook the cornstarch faster. If it looks clumpy, thin it out with some water or chicken broth. Remove wok from heat and add oyster sauce, blending well. Plate with steamed rice and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Makes 2 to 3 servings.

Pair with a glass of Riesling.

TIP: Have the cornstarch slurry ready before you add the chicken back into the wok, because once you add the chicken everything will move pretty fast so you want to be ready. If you take too long, then the chicken will lose some of the brown sear you created earlier because it’s mixing with the moisture from the vegetables.

THE ORIGINAL BEEF BROCCOLI: If you want to make the original inspiration for this recipe, beef broccoli, that’s no problem. Just substitute the chicken with the beef. But instead of cooking the beef first, cook the vegetables and when the vegetables are almost done, then add the beef in the middle of the wok (push the vegetables to the side). You do this because beef doesn’t have to cook as long as chicken, and some people like their beef a little on the pink side.