Recipe: Easy Takeout-Style Beef and Broccoli

When my family and I moved out of our first home, it meant leaving behind friends, neighbors, and our favorite takeout restaurants. After a few disappointing deliveries in our new neighborhood, I decided it was time to re-create some of our go-to restaurant meals at home, beginning with my all-time favorite: beef and broccoli.

After a bit of experimenting, I mastered the thin slices of tender beef, the crunchy broccoli, and that mysteriously savory sauce that makes the dish so darn delicious. Here’s how to beat the delivery driver to dinner with glazed beef and broccoli served straight from the skillet.

You aren’t alone if you love the savory brown sauce that coats the thin slices of beef and morsels of crisp-tender broccoli, but can’t quite put your finger on the flavor. The not-so-secret ingredient is oyster sauce, which you can find in your regular grocery store. Oyster sauce is a thick, full-bodied sauce made from a reduction of boiled oysters. The sauce boosts the umami factor in beef and broccoli and many other takeout favorites. Look for bottled oyster sauce that has oyster as its first ingredient, not water or sugar.

With the oyster sauce in hand, you need just a few pantry ingredients to make the sauce, including soy sauce and brown sugar. Finish with ground ginger, garlic powder, and a splash of chile-garlic sauce.

To bring it all together, you’ll quickly toss thinly sliced flank steak with half of the sauce, then sear in a hot skillet. In go the bite-sized broccoli florets and the rest of the sauce, which you’ll cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender and glazed. In less time than it takes the delivery driver to approach the door, you’ll be sitting down to a bowl of better-than-takeout beef and broccoli.