Takeout-Style Beef And Broccoli Recipe

If beef and broccoli is your go-to takeout Chinese food order, you might be pleasantly surprised to realize how easy it is to make at home. Not only is the homemade kind cheaper than restaurant carryout, but recipe developer Cecilia Ryu says it's "better and healthier," too. You can even customize it to your liking with different ingredients. Ryu says, "I used flank steak here, but skirt steak works great as well" and goes on to say, "You can substitute with the same amount of thinly sliced chicken breast or even shrimp" if you want to make a version without red meat.

One thing that makes this beef and broccoli recipe so easy, Ryu tells us, is that she omits the step of blanching the broccoli. Not only does this omission make this a one-pot recipe, but it also "avoids the common mistake of overcooking the broccoli which can lead to a mushy texture." She also adds a special touch right at the end, a small amount of sesame oil that she says "doesn't seem like a lot but it truly makes a big difference in flavor," adding just a hint of nuttiness that really ties the whole dish together.

The two most important ingredients in this dish you already know from the name: beef (in this case flank steak) and broccoli. The other ingredients are onions, garlic, and ginger as well as canola oil for cooking and soy sauce, brown sugar, oyster sauce, mirin (Ryu says you can substitute sake here), pepper, and sesame oil for flavoring. You'll also need some cornstarch and water to thicken the sauce.

If you're wondering whether frozen broccoli can be used in place of the fresh stuff, Ryu says "I don't see why you couldn't." She suggests, though, that in this case you not sauté it on its own as a first step, but instead just add it in along with the onions.

If you are starting with fresh broccoli, you'll first need to chop it into florets. Once you have a sufficient amount of those, heat 2 tablespoons of the cooking oil over medium high, then sauté the broccoli. After about 3-4 minutes, it should be sufficiently cooked for this stage of the game, so take it out of the pan and pour in the remaining oil to heat for the next step.

Turn the burner up to high, then put the steak strips in the pan and stir-fry them for 5 to 10 minutes until they are cooked. Combine the soy sauce with the brown sugar, oyster sauce, mirin, garlic, ginger, and black pepper, then stir this mixture into the steak, turning the heat back down to medium-high. Cook the beef until the sauce is absorbed, then add the onions and cook these for 2-3 minutes. Add the broccoli back into the pan.

Mix the cornstarch with the water until the former dissolves in the latter, then stir this mixture into the pan. The reason for doing so, Ryu explains, is that "the sauce will thicken from the addition of the cornstarch slurry." Once it does, stir in the sesame oil, then your dish is done.

You can, if you like, eat the beef and broccoli on a bed of white rice, and Ryu also suggests that toasted sesame seeds might make a nice garnish. Should you have leftovers, she says these can be frozen and suggests you then "defrost and reheat [these] in the microwave" next time you want another "order" of beef and broccoli.