Black Pepper Chicken Recipe
This black pepper chicken is simple to make and has juicy, tender chicken, crunchy vegetables, and a rich, savory black pepper sauce. You can make it in no time, and it tastes better than the food you get from a Chinese restaurant! {Can be made gluten-free}
You should have black pepper chicken on your dinner menu more than once. It’s a great one-pot meal because it’s so easy to make and tastes great. It’s also full of healthy lean protein and colorful vegetables.
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, once you’ve had a homemade stir fry, you’ll want to make it instead of getting takeout. The homemade version has less oil, sugar, and sodium, which is better for your health.
Chicken with Black Pepper
- Time to Get Ready: 20 Minutes
- Time to cook: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Servings: 4
A simple black pepper chicken dish with juicy, tender chicken, crunchy vegetables, and a rich, savory black pepper sauce. It doesn’t take long to make and tastes better than the takeout you usually get from a Chinese restaurant. {Can be made gluten-free}
Use tamari instead of soy sauce (both light and dark) and dry sherry instead of Shaoxing wine to make the dish gluten-free.
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.
Your table should have the following things when you’re ready to cook:
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 putting it in the pan)
Chicken that has been marinated
I like to get my ingredients ready by putting them all together. This makes cooking easier, and you’ll have fewer bowls to wash later.
You probably already have most of the things you need to make black pepper chicken in your kitchen.
Ingredients
○ 1 lb of chicken breasts (or thighs), cut across the grain into 1/4″ (5-mm) thick pieces
Marinade
○ 1 tablespoon of soy sauce or light soy sauce
○ 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
○ 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
Sauce
○ 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
Fry in a pan
○ 2 tablespoons of peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
○ 1 tablespoon of ginger that has been chopped up
○ Two cloves of garlic, chopped up
○ Chop up half of a white onion.
○ I used bell peppers of different colors.
Tips for Perfect Black Pepper Chicken
1. The secret to juicy, tender chicken
- 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 let the chicken cook for a while before moving it, the meat will be well-seared and not fall apart.
2. Why you should take the chicken out once
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.
3. Get used to how fast stir frying goes
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 that you only have a minute or less to add each ingredient. So read the recipe all the way through before you start cooking, and then get going right away.
Cooking Instructions
- Put the chicken, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and cornstarch in a bowl that is medium-sized. With your hands, gently mix until the chicken is covered with a thin layer of the mixture. Let it sit in the marinade for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Put all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and mix them together. Combine well and put aside.
- Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a big 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 now and then until both sides are brown but still a little pink in the middle. Put the chicken on a plate and set it aside.
- Put the last tablespoon of oil in the skillet. 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.
- 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.
Serving and Storage
That’s all! 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. If you have leftovers, put them 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!
Nutritional Information
One serving has 269 calories, 17.8 grams of carbohydrates, 26.1 grams of protein, 10 grams of fat, 1.2 grams of saturated fat, 73 milligrams of cholesterol, 674 milligrams of sodium, 607 milligrams of potassium, 1.3 grams of fiber, 9.4 grams of sugar, 20 milligrams of calcium, and 1 milligram of iron.