We often associate chicken and broccoli stir-fry with fast-food delivery and white takeaway boxes eaten standing in front of the fridge. That’s a shame. Because homemade, with a sauce prepared in advance and a smoking hot pan, it’s in a different dimension.
Ingredients :
- Low-sodium soy sauce — Go for the reduced-sodium version — not out of virtue, but because the normal version is often too salty once reduced in the pan. Kikkoman does the job perfectly. Avoid supermarket imitations that taste like chemical caramel.
- Oyster sauce — This is the secret to umami in this recipe. Without it, the sauce lacks depth. Lee Kum Kee is the gold standard. It keeps for months in the fridge once opened, so there’s no excuse not to have it.
- Sesame oil — A few drops are enough. It’s a finishing oil, not a cooking oil — if you add it too early to a hot pan, the aroma disappears completely. It goes in the cold sauce, period.
- Fresh ginger — Don’t replace it with powder. Freshly grated ginger releases a pungent and slightly citrusy juice that powder can’t replicate. A 5 cm piece is enough for the recipe. The rest can be frozen and grated while still frozen.
