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You should make black pepper chicken a regular part of your dinner menu.

Not only is it easy to make and tastes great, but it also has a lot of healthy lean protein and colorful vegetables, which makes it a great one-pot meal.

Making Restaurant-Style Stir Fry

At first, making restaurant stir fry might seem hard, but after you’ve followed a good recipe once, you’ll know how to do it and the whole thing will be much less scary. Also, after you try a homemade stir fry, you’ll like it better than takeout. The homemade version also has less sugar, oil, and sodium, which is better for your health.

You probably already have most of the things you need to make black pepper chicken in your kitchen.

Before you start cooking, make sure you cut up the ingredients, make the sauce, and let the chicken soak in the marinade. You need to move quickly when the stir fry starts so that the food doesn’t overcook.

A plate with minced garlic and ginger
Mixed sauce (it’s nice to have a small spoon on the side because you’ll need to stir the sauce again before adding it to the pan)
Chicken that has been marinated

I like to get ready by putting my ingredients together. This makes cooking easier and means you won’t have to clean up as many bowls later.

Ingredients

• 1 pound of chicken breasts (or thighs), cut into 1/4-inch (5-mm) thick pieces against the grain
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce or light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
• 1/2 cup of chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce or light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
• 2 teaspoons of dark soy sauce (or regular soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
• 1 tablespoon of minced ginger
• Two cloves of garlic, chopped up
• Chop up half of a white onion
• 2 chopped bell peppers (I used a mix of colors)

Chicken Preparation Method

This method will give you super tender chicken, just like you’d get at a Chinese restaurant, whether you use chicken breasts or thighs:

• Always cut the meat against the grain. Try to keep each slice the same size and thickness.
• Marinate the chicken every time. The whole thing will make the chicken more tender and give it a lot of flavor.
• Before stirring the chicken, let it sear for 30 seconds. The cornstarch in the recipe will make the chicken stick to the pan if you try to stir it right away. If you move the chicken before it has a chance to cook, the meat will be well-seared but not fall apart.

Moving the half-cooked chicken to a plate before adding the other ingredients is very important for two reasons.

• The pan will get a lot cooler when you add the sauce and vegetables. The sauce will take a long time to reduce and the veggies won’t get the right amount of heat if you don’t take the chicken out first. Both make a soupy dish with steamed food.
• When you take the chicken out, it’s not quite done, but when you put it back in, it’s fully cooked. If you leave the chicken in the skillet the whole time, it will be way overcooked by the time the veggies are done. It will be dry and tough.

I learned that Chinese stir frying is much faster than most Western cooking. It takes me about five minutes (or less) to finish cooking a dish. This means you have less than a minute to add each ingredient. So, read the recipe before you start cooking and then move quickly once you do.

Instructions

1. Put the chicken, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Mix by hand until the chicken is covered with a thin layer of the mixture. Let it sit in the marinade for 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Put all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and mix them together. Mix well and put aside.
3. Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and let it get hot. Put in the chicken. Using a spatula, spread the chicken out into a single layer right away, with as little overlap as possible. Sear for about a minute, or until the bottom is lightly browned. Turn the chicken over. Cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir every so often until both sides are brown but the inside is still a little pink. Put the chicken on a plate and set it aside.
4. Put the last tablespoon of oil in the pan. Put in the garlic and ginger. Stir it quickly until it smells good. Put in the peppers and white onion. Stir and cook for 20 seconds.
5. Mix the sauce until the cornstarch is completely dissolved, then pour it into the skillet. Use a spatula to stir right away, and cook until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, which should only take a few seconds. Put the cooked chicken back in. Stir everything together quickly a few times to coat it all with the sauce. Take the skillet off the stove and turn off the heat. Put everything on a big plate right away so the hot skillet doesn’t keep cooking the food.
6. Serve hot as the main course.

Summary of Key Steps

• Put the chicken in a large skillet that is hot.
• Take the chicken out of the pan when the outside is lightly charred and the inside is still pink.
• Add the aromatics and cook them slowly.
• Stir-fry the veggies.
• Add the black pepper sauce and cook until it gets thicker.
• Put the chicken back in and mix everything together.

Serving and Storage

The chicken is juicy and tender, and the vegetables are crunchy and bright. You can eat it on its own or with steamed rice. Use steamed brown rice instead for a healthier meal. Put leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for three to four days or in the freezer for one to two months. I hope you like it!

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