Healthy and yummy oyster beef with Chinese broccoli is on my top lists of Beef stir-fry recipes. I am not familiar with both ingredients before moving to Guangdong province.
At the first several attempts, I love oyster sauce. This sauce with unique sweet flavor usually highlights many green vegetables like lettuce leafs and broccoli. However I feel slightly unlike the taste of Chinese broccoli compared with another popular Cantonese green vegetable -Yu Choy. There are quite similar in appearance, but taste totally different. However after several years in this place, I just fell in love with it. This experience is quite similar to my emotion for Shaanxi Cuisine. I began to love Shaanxi dishes in the third year of my university life after two struggling years. Finally, I found the highlights and shining parts. Though different from my familiar Sichuan cuisine, they are excellent too.
Chinese broccoli is the best partner for beef for me, follows snow peas, broccoli and celery.
Cook’s Note
- Since the dish is loaded with a heavy and thick sauce, you can use cheap cuts of beef.
- When cutting the beef, it is important to comply with the “against the grain” rule, which helps to cut off the fiber and create a tender texture.
- The most difficult part for meat stir frying is to marinating process. If the marinating is not well done, you will end up with dry, chewy and plaint beef slices after stir frying. Use enough liquid to marinate the beef (I use cooking wine this time). Use cold vegetable cooking oil to coat the beef slices to avoid the starch escaping (脱浆).
Instructions
Add stir fry sauce and blanched Chinese broccoli. Mix well and transfer out completely.
Slice the beef against the grain. Transfer the beef slices to a bowl and add all the marinating sauces except the oil. Grasp with hand to make sure beef slices absorb the marinating sauces. Then coat with 1 tablespoon of vegetable cooking oil. Set aside to marinate 15-20 minutes. If you feel the beef is too dry, you can add a small amount of water.
2. During this time, remove any tough skin of the Chinese broccoli. Bring water to boil in a large pot, add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. Blanch Chinese broccoli until the water boils once again.
In a small bowl, mix oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil together.
Add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a hot wok (you need to heat the wok firstly) with ginger slices. Place the beef in when the oil is warm but not hot. Let it stay for a while and then fry for a while until the beef changes color (Don’t overcook the beef ).
Add stir fry sauce and blanched Chinese broccoli. Mix well and transfer out completely.
Other Chinese beef recipes
- Beef Chow Fun, pan-fried beef with rice noodles
- Hunan beef, a spicy beef stir fry dish popular across China
- Szechuan shredded beef stir fry, seriously Szechuan style hot and dry beef shreds.
- Ground beef rice bowl, stir fry minced beef and serve with rice
Oyster Beef with Chinese Broccoli
Ingredients
- 150 g beef , sliced
- 6-8 Chinese broccoli , tough skin removed and drained well
- 1 tsp. sesame oil , for blanching broccoli
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 4 ginger slices
- pinch of salt , for blanching broccoli
Marinating sauce
- 1 tbsp. starch , I use sweet potato starch in video
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1/4 tsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
- 1/4 tsp. white pepper
- 1 tbsp. vegetable cooking oil
Stir-frying sauce
- 2 tsp. oyster sauce
- 1/4 tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1 tsp. dark soy sauce , for darken the color
Instructions
- Slice the beef against the grain.
- Transfer the beef slices to a bowl and add all the marinating sauces except the oil. Grasp with hand to make sure beef slices absorb the marinating sauces. Then coat with 1 tablespoon of vegetable cooking oil. Set aside to marinate at least 15 minutes. You can also prepare the marinating beef in ahead and place it in fridge overnight.
- During this time, remove any tough skin of the Chinese broccoli. And then cut into sections with angle. Separate the leaves too. Bring water to boil in a large pot, add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and a small pinch of salt (this step can help to keep the green color of the leaves and the crunchy texture, applying to all dark leafy vegetables ). Add Chinese broccoli in, stem firstly and leaves secondly. Blanch Chinese broccoli until the water boils again. Transfer out and drain.
- In a small bowl, mix oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil together.
- Add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a hot wok with ginger slices (the wok should be heated firstly). Place the beef in when the oil is warm but not hot. Let it stay for a while until the starch finish gelatinization and then fry for a while until the beef changes color (Don't overcook the beef ).
- Add stir fry sauce and blanched Chinese broccoli. Mix well and transfer out completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Hello Elaine
I found it amusing that you were not very familiar with beef and broccoli in oyster sauce. It is a very common dish here in Canada chinese restaurants, perhaps because many people came here from Guangdong province. I enoy seeing recipes from different regions of your country.
Hi Karen,
Thanks!
I know beef with broccoli because it is popular on pinterest and other social media. But I rarely see this combination in China,though basic cooking processes are similar.
For me, I concern the flavor more than so called “real …food”
Thanks Vicky and I will draw up home style perfect 卤水 soon.
Could you teach us how to make 卤水“？ It makes cooking easier if I have 卤水in hand. Thanks. 🙂
Hello Elaine,
I just want to congrat you for the best foodblog ever.
I love your recipes, and they opend the door to cook chinese easy and fast. My favourite is the eggplant salad.
Wish you the best for the future. If one would open here in Berlin a Restaurant with your recipes he would be very very succesfull 🙂
Hello Swen,
Thanks so much for all your kind words. They really made my day or night more actually. I am really glad to know that my recipes help you with Chinese cooking in some way. Hope you a pleasant journey in the kitchen adventure.
This was easy to make and very popular with my teenagers.
The recipe does not seem to say how much soy sauce in step 4.
How much oyster sauce is added in step 4? Also, how much oil do you heat up in the wok before frying?
Hi Jenn,
I use around 2 tablespoon oil for frying the beef and around 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce in step 4.
I’m a vegan. Can you give alternative for beef such as mushrooms?
Can I reduce the salt ? It’s very high
Recipe sounds great. I need help revising.
Thanks. Ann
Ann,
Button mushroom or King oyster can be good substitute for beef.
I am looking for a beef broccoli recipe that appeared on a bottle of China Bowl Otster Sauce. Does anyone remember this? Thanks for any help.
Shirley
Shirley,
Can you drop me a picture on facebook or ins? I will be happy to help.
Hi … If I can’t get Chinese broccoli could I use spinish or normal brocoli … Thank you for sharing your amazing recipes ….
Yes, common broccoli can work for this too.
Dear Elaine,
Your recipes are delicious and always have lovely photos1 I lived in Xi’an for four years teaching at XISU so I too have Shaanxi food in my heart!
Thank you,Meghan
haha, I’m graduate from XJTU ?
Intend to try it but wonder what green leafy vegetable available in the UK could be used instead of the Chinese broccoli
When I lived in Singapore I used a thin sliced beef recipe with pink pickled ginger….. and can’t remember much more about it. I have a feeling we used oyster sauce too. Do you have any ideas/recipes. i think we also used oyster sauce but it was all delicious