Black Pepper Chicken

One of my favorite foods to get at the Chinese buffet was black pepper chicken. I’ve never been able to find it on any menus where we live now so I learned how to make it!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 lb – Boneless skinless chicken
• .25 cup + 1 tbsp – Soy sauce, divided
• 2 tbsp – Corn starch
• 2 tbsp – Crushed black pepper, divided
• 1 – Bell pepper
• 5 – Scallions
• 2 – Garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp – Hoisin sauce
• .5 tbsp – Oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp – Rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp – Brown Sugar
• 3 tbsp – Vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp – Mirin

Start by cutting up the chicken into bite sized pieces and put them in a medium mixing bowl. Then add 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of black pepper, and all the corn starch. Mix to combine. It will form a paste which is perfect. Set the chicken aside and start preparing the veggies.

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Next, slice up the white parts of the scallions and keep the green parts for garnish. Add scallions to the bowl with the peppers. Finely chop up 2 cloves of garlic and add them to the bowl with the peppers and scallions. Set the bowl of veggies aside and start on the sauce.

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For the sauce, mix the remaining .25 cup soy sauce, remaining 1 tbsp black pepper, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, and brown sugar in a small measuring cup. Set aside for later.

Put a large frying pan over medium high heat and add the 3 tbsp of vegetable oil. Once it is hot enough (you can test it by putting a small piece of chicken in and if it sounds like a raucous applause it is ready) add the chicken in a single layer. Let the chicken sit and cook for about 5 minutes. Once it crisps up it will release from the bottom of the pan and easily flip over. If it isn’t easily coming off the bottom of the pan, give it another minute or two and try again. If you yank it off too soon it’ll rip the crispy crust right off. Once you flip all the chicken let it cook for another 5 or 6 minutes. At this point you’ll notice the chicken is starting to get brown but not quite crispy yet. That’s okay. We’re going to cook it again later. Once you are happy with the color of your chicken take it out and put it on a plate with some paper towel.

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Now add the veggies right to the same pan. Keep moving them around so the garlic doesn’t burn up. After about 5 minutes, or when the peppers are cooked to your liking, add the mirin and scrape off some of the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. They will mix into your sauce and make it extra tasty. Now, turn the heat up to high and add the chicken back to the pan. Like before, let the chicken sit for about 2 or 3 minutes so it crisps up and then flip it and let it sit for another minute or two so the other side crisps up.

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Once the chicken crisps up, reduce the heat to medium low and add the sauce. The sauce will start to thicken up pretty quickly so mix it around quickly so it coats all the chicken and peppers.

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That’s just about it! Pour the pepper chicken over some rice and top it with the chopped scallion greens we put aside earlier.

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I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do. I’ve made this many times before and have been tweaking the recipe here and there. I can finally say this tastes exactly like the one I used to get at the Chinese buffet back at home!

If you try this recipe out let us know if you have any questions and share your pictures!