This Slow Cooker Chinese Take Out Beef and Broccoli is easy on your wallet and gives you free time to take care of the kids and the house.
Slow Cooker Chinese Take Out Beef and Broccoli
I love using my Slow Cooker for beef and pork recipes. The flavors become infused and the house smells delicious.
This is one of my favorite recipes to make in the Slow Cooker, as there is absolutely zero prep work. Just toss it all in and you are good to go.
This recipe has been converted to the Pressure Cooker. Check out my One Pot Pressure Cooker Chinese Take-Out Beef and Broccoli for a really fast, one pot meal.
Many of the recipes on line add a ton of brown sugar are way too sweet, too salty and don’t have that authentic Chinese flavor. They are missing some important key ingredients, used in Asian and Chinese cooking. One of those ingredients is Sweet/Black Soy Sauce. I love authenticity!
Cast of Ingredients for Slow Cooker Chinese Take Out Beef and Broccoli
Flank steak is great for this Slow Cooker Chinese Take Out Beef and Broccoli recipe, but you can use sliced chuck roast and rump roast too.
Sweet/Black Soy Sauce is something I use all the time in my Asian cooking. Sweet/Black Soy Sauce is a thick sweet syrup, much like molasses with a bit of a salty taste. Another wonderful ingredient that I use in many of my Asian (and American) dishes is Three Crabs Brand Fish Sauce. It adds a huge level of flavor, without being fishy. If you are grossed out by it, just leave it out.
You can substitute the Sweet/Black Soy Sauce for Molasses or Brown Sugar and 1 teaspoon of Light Soy Sauce if you like, but I strongly advise against it, if you want authenticity. I personally do not like that sweet, cloying taste in my Beef & Broccoli.
If I were you, I would invest in Sweet/Black Soy Sauce, as it adds a really nice depth of flavor to Asian dishes. It has just the right amount of saltiness, without going overboard. Chinese Five Spice is another spice lending authenticity to this recipe.
Slice the beef into strips
Slice the beef into strips and set it aside for a moment.
Whisk up the marinade
Toss everything into your Slow Cooker and don’t worry about dinner.
One thing I love about this recipe is that I can make a big batch of the sauce and freeze it, with the meat using my Food Saver. With a moments notice, all I have to do is pull it out of the freezer, drop it into the slow cooker and dinner will be ready on schedule.
If you don’t have a Food Saver, just divide it into several freezer bags. Prepare the corresponding amount of marinade and then divide the marinade amongst all the freezer bags of sliced flank steak.
When you feel like Slow Cooker Chinese Take Out Beef and Broccoli, take out a bag of prepared Beef from the freezer. The beef will marinate as it defrosts and will be super delicious!
All you’ll have to do is gather the other ingredients and start cooking.
It’s important to note that Potato Starch should not be added directly to the pot. You’ll need to make a slurry, since you are adding a starch into hot liquid. If you just add the Potato Starch right to the liquid in the pot, you ‘ll have lumps and bumps and that’s not good.
Making a slurry is really easy. Take a measuring cup and dip it in the pot and remove some liquid. Add in the starch to the cup of liquid. Whisk the starch completely into the liquid until it is very smooth and without any lumps. Now you have your slurry.
About 30 minutes before you are ready to eat, add in the slurry and broccoli. Dinner is ready when the broccoli is cooked!.
Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli
Top with Toasted Sesame Seeds, if desired. Serve over Pressure Cooker White Rice.
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More Chinese Recipes You Will Love.
- Pressure Cooker Chinese Take-Out General Tso’s Chicken
- Pressure Cooker Chinese Take Out Sweet ‘N Sour Chicken {Instant Pot}
- Pressure Cooker Fried Rice Chinese Style
- Air Fryer New York Style Egg Rolls {Shrimp & Pork}
Kitchen Equipment and Essentials
- KitchenAid Slow Cooker
- J.A. Henckels Classic 7-inch Hollow Edge Santoku Knife
- Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
- Culina Stackable (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
- Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
- Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk – a MUST have, probably my most used utensil
- Rachael Ray Stoneware EVOO Oil Dispensing Bottle
- Porcelain & Bamboo Salt Box with Spoon
- My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
- Sweet/Black Soy Sauce
- Chinese Five Spice
- Sesame Oil
- Toasted Sesame Oil
- Potato Starch
- Pressure Cooker Perfectly Cooked Pot In Pot Rice recipe.
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Here is the handy printable recipe:
Slow Cooker Chinese Take Out Beef and Broccoli
Ingredients
- 2 - 3 pounds Flank Steak Sirloin, Chuck Roast, or Rump Roast, trimmed and cut into strips
- 1 teaspoon Peanut or Olive Oil
- 1 Yellow/Brown Onion diced
- 3/4 cup Beef Broth
- 1/2 cup Sweet/Black Soy Sauce
- 1/2 cup Soy Sauce Low Sodium
- 2 Tablespoons Premium Fish Sauce Three Crabs is best
- 1 Tablespoon Pure Sesame Oil
- 5 Fresh Garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice
- 3 Red Pepper dried (or more if you like spicy)
30 minutes before dinner
- 1 pound Broccoli
- 2 Tablespoons Potato Starch
- 2 teaspoons Toasted Sesame Oil
Extras
- Water Chestnuts
- Thin Sliced Carrots
- Cremini Mushrooms
- Toasted Sesame Oil
Instructions
- Whisk all ingredients together except Toasted Sesame Oil, cornstarch and broccoli.
- Add beef to the slow cooker and toss to coat.
- Cook on LOW for 6 hours or HIGH for 4 hours.
- Remove four Tablespoons of the liquid from the slow cooker and mix with cornstarch to create a slurry.
- Pour slurry into slow cooker and mix well.
- Add fresh broccoli.
- Cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes on LOW.
- Drizzle in Toasted Sesame Oil and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
PIN this Slow Cooker Chinese Take Out Beef and Broccoli!
Slow Cooker Chinese Take Out Beef and Broccoli
Jill I cannot get this recipe with the measurements to come up on my Pinterest where can I find the exact measurements of the soy sauce in the fish sauce brown sugar please let me know. I’m so very excited to try this for my daughter.
Click the link to the blog. Jill
Jill, I usually love your recipes, but this one is very salty. I used all the
products you recommended and followed the recipe. Is there something I could change because I’m supposed to limit my sodium. TY .
I’m guessing you used a dark soy sauce instead of the sweet soy sauce. Jill
When something seems to have come out too salty try adding a small amount of brown sugar. That usually balances out salty especially soy sauce salty
Thank You So Much Sandy
Jill-
First of all, Thank You for so many recipes- they are truly appreciated.
On the slow cooker version for Beef and Broccoli in the ingredient list you call for potato starch, but in the directions it states cornstarch. Can I use the same amount of cornstarch and have good results (I know cornstarch tends to breakdown on reheating)? Or show I only use potato starch and ignore the directions? Thanks for any insight on this.