Chicken and Broccoli Chinese-Style Recipe

This Chicken and Broccoli Chinese-Style recipe is one which is an adaptation of the Tesco’s Chinese style chicken and broccoli recipe. Disclosure I have previously worked with Tesco but this is not affiliated with them.

The best thing about this recipe is that it can be frozen (minus the rice) and also adapted to suit taste, or vary the vegetable used.

Ingredients for Chicken and Broccoli Chinese-Style

These ingredients are for 4 people, adjust accordingly

• Long-grain rice. Recipe says 300g but use however much you normally would for your family.
• Broccoli florets. The recipe says 700g but we used one bunch which was about half of that and it was plenty.
• Boneless chicken thighs cut into 3cm pieces. We used 500g as it was cheaper to buy a 1kg pack and halve it.
• Sesame oil – enough to stop the chicken sticking to the pan.
• Bunch of spring onions – again it says to use a lot less but they are good for you and ours would only go off if we didn’t use the lot! Finely chopped.
• Garlic – we used frozen so added a random amount which seemed right. If you are using fresh it says 2 cloves. We find that the rest of the garlic goes off before we have used it and frozen works just as well.
• Ginger – around 6cm finely peeled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds.

For the Sauce

• 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
• Lime juiced (recipe says half but again to avoid food waste we juiced the whole lime and it worked fine)
• 2 teaspoons of honey (again recipe says clear we just used honey from the cupboard)
• Chilli flakes to taste (you can add these later if there are people who find them too hot if needs be, first taking their portion out). Recipe says to use 1 teaspoon of crushed chillies but the flakes worked just as well and we happened to have them in our store cupboard.
• Pepper – it says use white ground but we only have black. Again we just shook some in but if you want a measurement it is half a teaspoon.
• One tablespoon of cornflour
• ½ chicken stock cube made up to 200ml and left to cool. Don’t be tempted to eat the other half!

Method for Chicken and Broccoli Chinese-Style

1. First prepare your ingredients – weighing, peeling and chopping where necessary. Have them to hand in bowls where appropriate. Note that any leftover ginger can be wrapped in cling film and kept for up to a week in the fridge.
2. The recipe starts with cooking the rice but we didn’t want this to go cold. But this may depend on your method of cooking the rice. Personally we use a rice pot which takes 20 minutes in total. That’s 10 in the microwave and then 10 just standing there.
3. Make the sauce by whisking together the soy, hoisin, lime, honey, chilli, cornflour and pepper. Then set it aside.
4. Cook the broccoli. It says to steam but we have to boil ours. Make sure it isn’t overcooked and too soft.
5. Next the chicken needs cooking. We used a wok with sesame oil in. The chicken needs to be a light brown colour all around to ensure it is cooked thoroughly. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
6. At this point we opted to clean the wok as the chicken had stuck to the sides too much!
7. Apart from a few to decorate, add all the spring onions, garlic and ginger to the pan. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently until fragrant and just softened.
8. On a low to medium heat pour in the sauce mixture and cook for 2 minutes to thicken.
9. Add the chicken and broccoli and cover in the sauce.
10. Finally dish up – place on your rice, your chicken and broccoli in sauce, finally top with more spring onions and sesame seeds.