Black Pepper Chicken

An easy black pepper chicken with juicy tender chicken, crisp vegetables and a rich savory black pepper sauce. It takes no time to put together and tastes better than your usual Chinese restaurant takeout! (Gluten-Free Adaptable) To make the dish gluten-free, use tamari instead of soy sauce (both light and dark), and use dry sherry instead of Shaoxing wine.

Ingredients:
1 lb (450 g) chicken breasts (or thighs) , sliced against the grain into 1/4” (5-mm) thick pieces

Marinade:
1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Sauce:
½ cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce (or soy sauce)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1½ tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
pinch of salt, or to taste

Stir fry:
2 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2- cloves garlic, minced
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped (I used mixed colors)

Instructions:
Combine chicken, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and cornstarch in a medium-sized bowl. Gently mix by hand until the chicken is coated with a thin layer of the mixture. Marinate for 10 to 15 minutes. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Mix well and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the chicken. Immediately spread the chicken into a single layer using a spatula, with as little overlap as possible. Sear for 30 seconds or so, until the bottom is lightly browned. Flip the chicken. Cook for 15 to 20 seconds. Stir occasionally, until both sides are browned but still a bit pink inside. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Add the ginger and garlic. Give it a quick stir until fragrant. Add the white onion and peppers. Stir and cook for 20 seconds. Stir the sauce mixture until the cornstarch is dissolved completely, and pour it into the skillet. Stir with a spatula immediately and cook until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, a few seconds. Add back the cooked chicken. Quickly stir a few times to coat everything with the sauce. Turn off heat and remove the skillet from the stove. Immediately transfer everything to a big plate so the ingredients won’t keep cooking in the hot skillet. Serve hot as a main dish.

Cooking notes:
The key for tender juicy chicken:
No matter whether you use chicken breasts or thighs, if you follow this procedure you will get super tender chicken just like you’d get at a Chinese restaurant: Always cut the meat against the grain. Try to maintain the same thickness and size for each slice. Always marinate the chicken. The whole process will help soften the chicken and create a rich flavor. Let the chicken sear for 30 seconds before stirring it. If you try to stir the chicken immediately, you’ll find it stuck to the pan due to the cornstarch in the recipe. If you let the chicken cook for a bit before moving it, the meat will come out well-seared without being torn apart.

Why you need to remove the chicken once:
Transferring the half-cooked chicken to a plate before adding the rest of the ingredients is crucial for two reasons. When you add the sauce and veggies, the pan temperature will drop significantly. If you don’t take the chicken out beforehand, the veggies won’t be seared properly, and the sauce will reduce very slowly. Both result in a soupy dish with steamed ingredients. The chicken is slightly underdone when you remove it, and is just cooked through once added back. If you leave the chicken in the skillet the whole time, by the time that the veggies are cooked, the chicken will be way overdone – dry and chewy.

Get used to the pace of stir frying:
I found that Chinese stir frying has a much faster pace than most Western cooking. When I start cooking a dish, it takes me about 5 minutes (or maybe less) to finish. This means you have less than a minute between adding ingredients. So do read through the recipe before cooking, and move quickly once you start.

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