July 1, 2019

Chinese Chicken and Broccoli

This Chinese Chicken and Broccoli recipe has skillet chicken cooked in a delicious sauce, tossed with broccoli and served over rice. As tasty and quick as Chinese takeout!

Recovery

I’ve mentioned in my last couple of posts that I’ve been having ongoing sinus issues that led to me have a septoplasty and endoscopic sinus surgery on Monday. If you’re like me when reading a recipe a post, and you’re here for the recipe, please feel free to skip to the bottom now. But if you’re wondering, “I’ve read her lasts posts and I’m wondering what’s going on”, here is your answer…

On Monday I had the surgery and when I came to from anesthesia, I kept telling everyone, “there is so much air everywhere!” So, I’m very hopeful that means things are going in the right direction. However, as I currently have lots of ‘stuff’ in and around my nose, and I’m sleeping as much as a newborn baby, it will be a while before I get to see and feel the true outcome.

I will update you as time goes on. But for now, as I have no sense of smell or taste, and no one wants to eat anything created by me in my current state, I will share some recipes that I created previously.

Chinese Take Out

I adore Chinese take out because A) it’s quick, B) it’s cheap, and C) it’s almost always delicious. My favorite dish is chicken and broccoli. I judge all Chinese restaurants on their chicken and broccoli, and fortunately, I live near one that nails it.

Not long ago, it struck me that there was no reason I could not make my own chicken and broccoli. The question was whether or not I could make it in the same amount of time it takes me to get takeout, for the same cost, and have it taste as good. It took a few tries, but I achieved my goal!

Chinese Chicken and Broccoli

This Chinese Chicken and Broccoli recipe is straight forward, but I want to give a few tips to help ensure success:

Cut the chicken breasts into long strips that are about 1/4″ thick. As you are cooking the chicken, you can use your spatula to cut the strips in half horizontally. This will allow you to see how they are cooking, and make the pieces smaller.
Do not overcook the chicken. If you see some chicken has cooked through, go ahead and remove it. No one likes dry, chewy chicken.
I highly recommend Kikkoman soy sauce. There IS a difference between soy sauce brands in taste. And for this recipe, it matters. Go with the name brand. If Kikkoman isn’t available, I also like La Choy.

Chinese Chicken and Broccoli

No ratings yet

Course: Dinner

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 30

Servings: servings

Calories: 589

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Ingredients

Chicken

1 pound chicken breasts
2 teaspoons fresh minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
1 teaspoon ginger powder
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Broccoli

2 heads broccoli stems removed
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon fresh minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tbsp butter

Rice

1 cup white rice uncooked
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp butter

Instructions

Chicken Marinade

Cut chicken into long thin slices, about 1/4 inch in thickness. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, stir together garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. Place cornstarch in a small bowl and very slowly stir about 1-2 tbsp of the liquid mixture into the cornstarch until the mixture is smooth. Then, stir the cornstarch mixture back into the larger bowl. Once well mixed, add in chicken. Stir so that chicken is evenly covered and let chicken sit in marinade for 30 minutes.

Rice

In a small sauce pan, bring water, salt and water to a boil. Once boiling, stir in rice. Turn heat to low and simmer until all of the water has absorbed, about 15 minutes. Once water has absorbed, stir well and set aside until ready to eat.

Broccoli

White chicken in marinating, cut heads off broccoli and then cut pieces so that they are about 1″ x 1″.
Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once oil has heated, add broccoli. Then, evenly sprinkle garlic, ginger powder, salt, and pepper over broccoli. Saute until broccoli starts to soften, about 5 minutes.
Add 1 tbsp of garlic and saute until broccoli has softened to the point it has a slight crunchy, but is not wilted or soggy, this will be about 2 more minutes.
Set broccoli aside.

Chicken

In the same skillet you cooked the broccoli, heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Once heated, add chicken with it’s marinade.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through. As you are cooking, use your spatula to cut larger pieces of chicken in half to ensure that they are no longer pink. Once you see chicken has cooked, set it aside. It will take about 5 minutes to cook all of the chicken, but watch it closely.
Once all the chicken has cooked, reduce heat to medium-low. Return chicken and broccoli to the skillet and stir well. Heat for about one minute in skillet to ensure chicken and broccoli are warm, then remove skillet from heat.
Serve over white rice.