Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli
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A Chinese take-out favorite that can be made right in the slow cooker – no sauteing, no stirring, no frying. It doesn’t get easier than that!
I’m all about making my favorite Chinese take-out dishes right at home.
It’s so much cheaper and you can use better quality ingredients. But when you can also make it right in the slow cooker, well, that’s just an all-around win in my book.
The best part about this is that there is absolutely no sautéing, no stirring, no frying or oil splatter of any kind. Just throw it all in the slow cooker and that’s it! How easy is that?
Now I should mention that I like my meat melt-in-your-mouth tender like a New York steak, which is why I only let mine sit in the slow cooker for a total of 2 hours.
But if you like your meat in the texture of pulled-pork-tender, I recommend increasing the time to 3-4 hours.
Either way, you’ll definitely want to skip take-out and make this right at home instead!
Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli
Ingredients
- 1 cup beef broth
- ¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup oyster sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 heads broccoli, cut into florets
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together beef broth, soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and garlic.
- Place beef into a 6-qt slow cooker. Add sauce mixture and gently toss to combine. Cover and cook on low heat for 90 minutes.
- In a small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup water and cornstarch.
- Stir in cornstarch mixture and broccoli into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high heat for an additional 30 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
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OBSESSED! My husband and I LOVE this meal. We make it at least once a month. I don’t change anything about the recipe and serve it over brown rice! Although I have made this with chicken, too and it’s excellent! So good!! Thank you!!
Hi! I am a cooking beginner and do not have a slow cooker at the moment. Would it make much of a difference to do this in a pot or pan?
April, if you do not have a slow cooker, you can try this stovetop beef and broccoli recipe instead: https://damndelicious.net/2014/08/13/easy-beef-broccoli/. It only takes 15 min from start to finish!
This was fantastic! I loaded it down with lots of broccoli and carrot chips I made with the mandolin slicer. Thanks for the many wonderful recipes.
I don’t have a slow cooker, so can I make this in a pot and just cook it low and slow??
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot advise on how to adapt this recipe without a slow cooker. However, here is an article worth checking out on a possible conversion guide from Williams-Sonoma: http://blog.williams-sonoma.com/slow-cooker-vs-dutch-oven-a-conversion-guide/.
I must make a comment because this dish was so delicious and tasty.
I’m a white girl married to a Korean. I made this dish for my family and my in-laws for the Chinese New Years. I’m a decent cook, but not confident with my Asian cooking for my in-laws. I wanted beef and broccoli and stumbled upon this one. It looked good, and had so many positive reviews so I figured I try it. First, my 5 year old, asked “why is this so good!?” Then, my mother in law said it was very good; it reminded her of Korean bulgogi (which this dish taste similar to it). But my father in law, who is a very picky eater, asked for seconds.
I followed the recipe exactly, slow cooker for only two hours. The beef was very tender, and the sauce had just the right amount of soy, oyster sauce, and sweetness. Thanks for a great recipe. I’m sure I’ll using it again. I look forward to trying your other recipes.
Excellent! I often stir fry but this allowed me to start in the morning and come home to a pre-cooked meal and the vegetables were not overcooked. I added bell peppers and goma, and I used mirin instead of sugar in order to cut down on carbs. Using frozen vegetables is a huge added convenience. It was tasty with a bit of a bite. I’ll be making this again, but with more seseme oil or sriracha for more of a bite.
BTW, Do you have any variations on a recipe that I know as “pak kui” (phonetic spelling) that is basically stir-fried pork and pineapple with edamame, shoyu, and cornstarch? I learned it as a Japanese recipe. There must be a slow cooker version of this recipe. Thank you very much.
Unfortunately, I do not have a recipe for pak kui as I have never tried a dish like this. It sounds amazing though!
Just got done making this. All I can say is WOW! Really simple and it tastes so good! This is going to be in my regular rotation of meals! Thanks so much for this!
Dude! Dude man! Made this tonight and increased the ingredients and time by 50%… It.Was.Phenom!!! This is our favorite take-out dish and aside from having to cut the meat up (I asked if the butcher would – but alas, no.) It could not have been easier. It was a ‘wish I had 2 stomach’s’ meal. Thank you!!
I love your site! Just got married and your site has helped me make dinner every night. I noticed you also have another recipe for beef & broccoli. Do you have a preference? The slow-cooker version or the stir-fry version? Also I noticed this one uses beef stock and the other one uses chicken stock. Does it matter which stock we use? Thank you!
Carol, congrats on becoming a newlywed! As for the two recipes – I honestly love both of them, but I prefer the slow cooker version just a little bit more. The meat comes out unbelievably tender, and I love having any excuse to use my crockpot. As for the stock, you can really use either of them, or what you have on hand. I hope that helps!
Okay, this was SO GOOD. I used stewing beef instead and put it in for a lot longer (about 6 hours), and then put in fresh broccoli instead of frozen and just cooked it for a little bit less. Probably the best Asian-style food I’ve ever made at home. Thanks for the recipe!
Looks amazing! This will be my first crock pot adventure and I can’t wait! The hubs loves spicy food, how would you add some heat to this dish?
Sriracha would be a great addition!
Red pepper flakes
Is it totally wrong to ask if I could cook it on high for one hour-ish, instead of low for 90 mins? Would that work?
I actually haven’t tried it myself so I can’t say for sure. It may even be done before the hour – it just really depends on how tender or how you prefer the texture of the meat.
Okay, thanks. I did it, so I’ll let you know! 🙂
Wow! Jason was absolutely right! I tried this and it is better than our favorite take-out place. I loved the cooking time tip as it made for tender little bites of meat. There is no other word to describe the sauce but “phenomenal”. Girl… you are amazing!
This looked amazing and I was so eager to try it. Unfortunately, even though I followed the recipe exactly, the beef was nowhere near done after 2 hours. It took another 2 hours on high heat for it to be cooked. I don’t understand how the short cooking time on low worked for so many others–maybe my Crock Pot is different? The end result was still good, but I had to put it in the fridge for the next day as it was way past our dinner hour by the time it was done!
That’s really strange because with 4 hours of cooking on high heat, the meat would have been way overcooked. What kind of meat was used and was it thinly sliced as directed in the recipe?
Dude, I made this with “stew meat” because that’s all I had. I’d prefer to use chuck roast but the recipe came out delicious despite the substitute. Hurray! Thank-you for this recipe!
I adjusted the cooking time because of the type of meat to 4 hours low on crock pot.
I used frozen broccoli & waited until the last hour to add in. I recommend adding an extra TSP of cornstarch if using frozen broccoli due to extra water. My family enjoyed it.
When I need dinner ideas, I pull up your blog for inspiration. You’re awesome 🙂
You just saved my bacon, Makena! Stewing beet was bought instead of chuck roast and so I was super upset I wouldn’t be able to make it, but I saw your comment and I’m letting it cook 4 hours now. I hope it comes out ok, but thanks to your comment I didn’t lose hope!
I came across this recipe on Pinterest and it looked so simple I thought it would be a good meal to try on a work night. My boyfriend made it last night and it turned out perfect. This is definitely going to be a staple in the house, especially since our vegetable intake has been pretty poor as of late.
Thank you! Amazing as always! I have yet to try a recipe off of your site that me and my family didn’t love! I’m going to have to add this one to the rotation 🙂
I made this recipe for my boyfriend and it came out pretty well. My only problem was that the liquid didn’t thicken when I added the cornstarch. Cornstarch has to get pretty hot, like boiling hot to thicken. The low setting of a crock pot doesn’t get hot enough to thicken the cornstarch. I ended up ladling out the liquid and bringing it to a boil in a sauce pan, then I added it back into the crock pot. If I make this again I will do the same thing and probably discard some of the liquid or add more cornstarch, as the sauce didn’t really thicken up enough.
Elizabeth, you are completely right – you need a rolling boil to get that heavy thickness from cornstarch, which is not something you can get from the low setting of a slow cooker. That is why I stated on “high heat” for those additional 30 minutes. But nonetheless, that heavy thickness is not really necessary in a dish like this. You can certainly ladle out the sauce to a saucepan and go from there but that really defeats the purpose of such an easy slow cooker recipe like this one!
Has anyone tried freezing this? I loved this recipe and want to make some for my sister in law who is pregnant and craving Chinese food so she can have this in her freezer! Do you think this would freeze well?
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! I recommend using your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Made it tonight! It’s wonderful!