This Chicken and Broccoli recipe is ultra-quick and easy to make, and tastes SO delicious!
For those nights when you just need dinner on the table…like that…this easy chicken and broccoli recipe won’t let you down!
It’s been one of my go-to quick and healthy dinner standbys for years and years now. And, since I first posted this recipe on the blog four years ago, thousands of you have now also made and loved it, and reported back that it’s one of your faves too. Understandably! This one is incredibly quick and easy to make, the zesty stir-fry sauce is made with simple ingredients you like keep stocked your pantry, and that classic duo of chicken and broccoli always has a way of hitting the spot. Simple and healthy stir-fry FTW!
That said, as much as I love the classic chicken and broccoli combo, I should note that this recipe’s incredibly versatile if you want to mix things up. For example, feel like subbing in a different protein? Go for it. Have some leftover zucchini or onions or bell peppers or other veggies on hand? By all means, toss ’em in too. Feel like serving it up over quinoa or noodles, or even just some sautéed greens? Use whatever you have! The sky’s the limit for customizing here. But…this base recipe is an excellent one to bookmark as a good place to begin.
So that when life gets busy, yet you still want a healthy homemade dinner you can feel good about, this winner winner of a chicken dinner can be on the table in no time.
Chicken and Broccoli | 1-Minute Video
First, a quick tutorial on how to chop broccoli, in case you need a refresher.
As you can see, there’s not much to it. Just cut up a few chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. Sauté them in a skillet until cooked through. Then add the chopped broccoli and sauté for a few more minutes with the chicken, until it turns bright green and slightly tender (but I like mine to still be very crisp).
Then meanwhile, as the chicken and broccoli are cooking, whisk together a simple stir-fry sauce. As I mentioned above, I’ve kept the ingredients for this one limited to a short list of pantry staples. So (hopefully!) it should be an easy one to whip out, without having to make an extra trip to the store. Just stir it in at the last second and stir for a minute or so, until thickened.
Then this quick and easy dinner will be ready to go! Enjoy, everyone!
Chicken and Broccoli
Ingredients
Stir-Fry Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- salt and pepper
- 1 batch Stir-Fry Sauce (see below)
- 1 bunch broccoli, chopped into small florets, stem discarded
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- toppings: sliced green onions, toasted sesame seeds
Stir-Fry Sauce Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup water
- 1/3 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
Instructions
To Make The Stir-Fry:
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts, and season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is browned and mostly cooked through.
- While the chicken is cooking, make your sauce. (See below.)
- Once the chicken is browned, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and broccoli, and stir to combine. Continue cooking for an additional 3 minutes, until the broccoli is bright green. Stir in the sauce, and cook for an additional 1 minute until the sauce has thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the sesame oil until combined.
- Serve warm, garnished with green onions and toasted sesame seeds. Or transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
To Make The Sauce:
- Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl until combined.
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
So easy and quick. And pretty healthy. I only had frozen broccoli and it still turned out great! Everyone liked it! Would definitely make again. Thanks for the recipe!
Awesome!! So glad you all enjoyed it! :)
Yum! My rice took 45 minutes but the chicken and broccoli itself was pretty fast Next time I might make sure I have a higher proportion of broccoli. But it is fine as is!
rice in the microwave….1 cup rice 2 cups water or broth and 12 minutes on high…great with any stir fry recipe make sure you fluff it with a fork.
This recipe was really great, with a few small (and logical) tweaks. 1 – I tripled the sauce because it didn’t look like enough, though I knew I was doubling the recipe. 2- Maybe I added too much cornstarch (entirely possible!), but I needed to add a little chicken stock to loosen up the sauce.
Apart from those minor adjustments, the kids and I agree this is a GREAT recipe, and a definite keeper! Thanks for sharing!
Forgot to rate it.
Just made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! I did add some red pepper flakes. Thanks for the recipe.
Absolutely fantastic recipe, I added 1 tsp of sambal oelek this time for a little extra zing. Thank you for this, so easy and nutritious!!!
Love it! So glad you enjoyed it.
I needed a quick recipe, but one to satisfy some picky eaters! This was the perfect meal and I had the ingredients on hand! The sauce was a huge hit!
I am hopeless at cooking, but this was reasonably successful! The only problem is that when I added the sauce, it immediately burned in the pan. I’m assuming this is because the heat was too high, but I had it on medium-high as instructed. Any tips? Thanks so much!
I have different pans that cook differently at different temperatures. You just have to kind of figure out how your pans cook. Sounds like you can definitely turn your burner down. Some of mine heat so well I can boil on medium. I have to cook things much lower than the recipe says. Just something you learn with your pans as you go along :-)
This was very tasty, and I’ll make it again but took me MUCH longer than 12 minutes!
I got everything I needed out on the counter, and that took all of the 3 min prep time before I even measured things. I had a package of fresh broccoli florets already cut, but had to google to learn that a head of broccoli = 3.5 cups. Then had to cut 2 chicken breasts in small pieces, toast the sesame seeds, mince the garlic, and get my crystallized honey out of the squeeze bottle (30 sec in microwave). Had I made brown rice, that would have taken 40-50 minutes to cook. Next time, I will make the sauce first. And I won’t worry about browning the chicken, since the sauce makes it look nice and brown. It really is delicious and hubby likes it, so I recommend it, but don’t plan on 12 minutes the first time.
Very good! I made it the way the recipe said. And it was very good. Added some pepper and hot sauce to the finished product. It was great. Thank you
Thank you, Kurt, we’re so glad you enjoyed this!