This dish is super easy to make, doesn’t cost much, and makes the perfect weeknight meal.

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs. lean beef (see notes below), sliced into thin 2” strips
1 head of broccoli, or 2-3 broccoli crowns cut into florets
½ cup thinly sliced sweet Vidalia onion
1 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. olive oil
1- 11.5 oz. can beef broth
½ cup + 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
¼ cup cooking sherry
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. fresh ginger root, grated (see notes below)
½ tsp. granulated garlic
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. + 1 Tbsp. corn starch or tapioca starch
3 Tbsp. + ¼ cup water

Cooked white rice
Place the beef strips into a 1 gallon zip top bag and add 3 Tbsp. of soy sauce. Seal the top and move the meat around to coat in the soy sauce, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While the meat is marinating, gather the rest of your ingredients and prep them.

TIP: Gather all your ingredients first – this makes cooking so much easier if you have everything you need at hand. Cut up veggies, slice meat and measure out everything. In the end, it will save you time and help keep you organized while you cook, not to mention it makes cleanup a breeze! I do this almost every time I cook, and when I don’t do it, I feel a little frazzled.

In a small bowl, whisk together the beef broth, ½ cup soy sauce, cooking sherry, brown sugar, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic. Set aside.

Remove the beef strips from the refrigerator, and add 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch (I use tapioca starch since the hubs has a corn intolerance) to the bag. Seal it back up and work the starch into the meat to coat it.

Cook the onion in olive oil over medium heat until golden brown. Increase heat to medium high and add the meat, cooking until no longer pink, stirring frequently so it doesn’t stick to the pan.

Whisk the soy sauce-spice mixture again, then pour into the pan with the beef and onions, stirring. Let the mixture begin to bubble, the push the meat to the sides of the pan so only liquid is in the middle. Mix 1 Tbsp. starch with 3 Tbsp. water in a small bowl, then quickly whisk into the beef mixture. As the sauce thickens, remove the pan from the heat, stirring to coat the beef and onions, then pour the entire pan into a large mixing bowl and set it aside.

Add a splash of olive oil to the pan that you just emptied (no need to wipe it out – because you’ll be returning the meat to this pan soon) and stir fry the broccoli over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Pour ¼ cup water into the pan, push the broccoli to the sides of the pan (so the liquid is in the middle), cover with a lid and let the broccoli steam for about 2 minutes. Don’t let it go too long or you will over-cook the broccoli, and no one likes soggy broccoli! Remove the lid, dump the meat and sauce in, stir it all up and remove from heat.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with cooked white (or brown) rice.

Notes:

1. You can use any kind of beef that you prefer – anything from cheaper cuts of chuck to expensive filet. Just remember, cheaper cuts tend to be tougher. For this recipe, I usually find a thinly cut sirloin of some sort. Before slicing it, I stab it all over with a fork to “tenderize” it, then trim off any fat or connective tissue, and slice into thin strips. I like to cut it thin for a couple of reasons: first, it cooks faster, and second it turns out tenderer.
2. Fresh ginger can be kept in a zip-top bag in the freezer. You don’t have to peel it or slice it – just grate it using a microplane, or the fine side of a cheese shredder. By the way, if you don’t have a microplane, get yourself one. It works great (pun intended) for shredding things like Parmesan cheese and lemon peel, and fits easily in your utensil drawer.
3. If you don’t have a rice cooker – get one!  You don’t need anything super fancy, just a simple rice cooker makes all the difference in the world; preparing rice is easy, clean up is easy, and it means there isn’t another pot to take up space on your cooktop!  Aroma Housewares ARC-914SBD 8-Cup (Cooked) Digital Cool-Touch Rice Cooker and Food Steamer, Stainless Steel