Chinese Black Pepper Chicken Stir Fry

Black Pepper Chicken is a Chinese takeout classic. Stir fried chicken breast in a savoury pepper sauce with onions and bell peppers. Ready in half an hour and so garlicky, piquant, and delicious!

Why Every Garlic Lover Needs to Try This

Black Pepper and Garlic. Name a more iconic duo.

Add in some juicy and tender seared chicken, and it’s just about the perfect weekend stir fry recipe. Guaranteed to be better than Panda Express, and cheaper too.

Our recipe uses more than TWICE the amount of garlic of other Chinese Black Pepper Chicken recipes. The sauce is more bold and flavourful. Plus, garlic is healthy so how can you argue with that?

Black Pepper Chicken is surprisingly low in calories for how yummy and filling it is. We make it nearly once a week here. It’s become quite a staple!

Ingredients + Substitutions

A few important notes on some of the ingredients used in this Chinese Black Pepper Chicken recipe:

Velvet Chicken Breast: Traditionally, Chinese restaurants use velveted deep-fried chicken breast to make their stir fry recipes. It’s the secret to how they make chicken taste so great. But since nobody’s got time to bust out the deep fryer for a casual weeknight dinner, I developed a quicker velveting technique. Use this velvet marinade to make pan-fried chicken that’s tender, not tough.

Substitution Tip: You can also use chicken thigh instead of chicken breast. But since thighs are a fattier cut of meat, they’re naturally more tender and don’t require velveting to keep them juicy.

Ground Black Pepper: There’s tons of black pepper in this recipe. In the chicken marinade, plus more in the black pepper sauce itself. It’s key to the signature taste of Black Pepper Chicken.

Bell Pepper: The traditional vegetable for Black Pepper Chicken Stir Fry. But Kevin is not a fan of bell pepper, so we usually substitute spinach or baby bok choy. Or just omit it entirely, that’s cool too.

Note: In Panda Express' Black Pepper Chicken, they add celery. We always felt that celery was the worst part of the dish, so it doesn’t feature in our recipe 😝 You can add a stalk of celery if you’d like, though.

Scallions: Divide the green and white parts of the scallion. Dice up the green parts and reserve them for topping. Slice the white parts into 2-inch long segments and use them in the stir fry.

Garlic: The magical bulb that makes everything more tasty. Best to use fresh minced garlic here for best results.

Shaoxing Wine: Gives the Black Pepper Chicken its authentic Chinese restaurant flavour. If you’re avoiding alcohol, just leave it out. No biggie.

Oyster Sauce: Adds umami and sweetness! If you don’t have, hoisin sauce makes a decent substitute.

Soy Sauce: Chinese cuisine has two main types of soy sauce: light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Light soy sauce actually tastes stronger than dark soy sauce but dark soy sauce has a deeper colour. This recipe uses both. But you can omit the dark soy sauce if you don’t have it. Just add a bit more soy sauce to taste.

Cornstarch: Thickens the sauce slightly to make it cling to the chicken. Gives it a nice shine, too. Can substitute with potato starch or tapioca starch.

See recipe card for quantities.

Directions

Step 1. Marinate the chicken according to my Velvet Chicken recipe. Mix in ground black pepper. Set this aside while you prepare the other ingredients.

Step 2. Make the Black Pepper Sauce: Whisk together water, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, black pepper, and cornstarch. Set aside.

Tip: If you’re short on time, you can skip the chicken velveting step. Just slice the chicken into strips and massage with black pepper before using. But if you have 15 minutes to spare, I recommend velveting. It makes the chicken more tender and flavourful.

Step 3. Heat oil on medium-high heat. Spread chicken over the wok in a single layer. Sear until golden brown, then flip and sear the other side.

Step 4. Transfer the chicken to a plate. Don’t worry about the middle being undercooked, we’ll be heating it through later.

Storage Tips

Fridge: Refrigerate Chinese black pepper chicken for up to four days.

Freezer: Freeze black pepper chicken stir fry for up to four months.

What to Serve with Black Pepper Chicken

• Steamed Rice
• Roasted Garlic Rice
• Better Than Bouillon Ramen
• Spicy Glass Noodles

More Chicken Recipes

Looking for other recipes with chicken as a main ingredient? Try these:

Food safety

• Cook chicken pieces to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C).
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat.
• Wash hands after touching raw meat (for example after marinating the chicken).
• Don't leave black pepper chicken sitting out at room temperature for extended periods.
• For any Chinese stir fry dish, the cooking temperature is quite high. Never leave the stove unattended.
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove. It's also good practice to use a cooking oil with a high smoke point (such as avocado oil or sunflower oil).