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

It’s a great one-pot meal because it’s so easy to make, tastes great, and is full of healthful lean protein and colorful greens.

It may seem hard to make restaurant-style stir fry at first, but once you’ve followed a good recipe once, you’ll know how to do it and the whole thing will seem a lot less scary. Also, you’ll like homemade stir fry better than takeout once you’ve tried it. The homemade kind also has less sugar, oil, and salt, which is better for your body.

Ingredients you probably already have

Chicken
Minced garlic
Ginger
Black pepper
Black pepper sauce ingredients
Vegetables

Preparation before cooking

Before you start cooking, be sure you cut up the ingredients, make the sauce, and soak the chicken. You need to move quickly when the stir fry starts so that the food doesn’t cook too long.

Your table should have the following things when you’re ready to cook:

A dish with minced garlic and ginger
Mix the sauce (it’s helpful to have a tiny spoon on the side because you’ll need to whisk the sauce again before adding it to the pan).
Chicken that has been marinated

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

1. The secret to juicy, tender chicken

If you follow these steps, you’ll receive chicken that is just as tender as what you would get in a Chinese restaurant, whether you use chicken breasts or thighs:

Always cut the meat with the grain. Try to keep each slice the same size and thickness.
Marinate the chicken every time. The whole thing will assist the chicken get softer and taste better.
Before stirring the chicken, let it sear for 30 seconds. If you try to stir the chicken right away, it will stick to the pan because of the cornstarch in the recipe. If you let the chicken cook for a while before transferring it, the meat will be well-seared and not fall apart.

2. Why you should take the chicken out once

Putting the half-cooked chicken on a dish before adding the other ingredients is very important for two reasons.

Adding the sauce and vegetables will make the pan much cooler. The sauce will take a long time to thicken and the veggies won’t get a good sear if you don’t take the chicken out first. Both make a soupy stew with steamed food.
When you take the chicken out, it is a little undercooked. When you put it back in, it is fully cooked. If you leave the chicken in the pan the whole time, it will be very overcooked by the time the veggies are done. It will be dry and tough.

3. Get acclimated to how fast stir frying goes

I noticed that Chinese stir frying is much faster than most Western cookery. It usually takes me around five minutes or less to finish cooking a meal. You have less than a minute to add each ingredient. So read the recipe all the way through before you start cooking, and then go to work right away.

Put the chicken in a hot, big skillet and spread it out.
Take the chicken out of the pan when the outside is lightly browned but the inside is still pink.
Add the spices and cook them slowly.
Stir-fry the veggies
Add the black pepper sauce and simmer until it gets thicker.
Put the chicken back in and mix everything together.

Ready to serve

That’s all! The chicken is moist and delicious, and the vegetables are crunchy and bright. You can eat it by itself or over rice that has been steamed. Steamed brown rice is a better choice for a supper. You can keep leftovers in the fridge for three to four days or in the freezer for one to two months. I hope you like it!