Black Pepper Chicken

It certainly looks like something you’d get from Chinese takeout

It may not sound too appetizing, but maybe the name is deceiving

Time: 40 minutes

Ingredient Availability: 4/5

Difficulty: 1/5

I’ve never had black pepper chicken before. I won’t like it does sound kinda boring by the name. Black pepper goes on my chicken along with other seasonings, so chicken whose namesake is black chicken just doesn’t sound special. So why did I decide to make it? The recipe from The Woks of Life seemed pretty simple and the ingredients list was pretty reasonable. I also wouldn’t mind trying something new.

Key Ingredients and Omissions:

I used regular chicken thighs and removed the bone and skin

As I mentioned, the ingredients weren’t all that special. You may have a hard time finding shaoxing wine and dark soy sauce. I already had shaoxing wine from a previous recipe, so I didn’t substitute it. However, I have never been able to find dark soy sauce, so I used tamari sauce instead.

Tools:

• Wok(could use large sauté pan)

Cooking Review:

Slice Chicken: 2 minutes

I used bone in skin on chicken thighs instead of boneless skinless, so I had to remove the bone and skin before this step. I didn’t take into account the time for that. After I had done that, I sliced the chicken up.

Marinade: 27 minutes

I combined the marinade ingredients and added the chicken to it, massaging it in the marinade.  I let it sit aside for about 23 minutes.

Prep Vegetables and make sauce : 16 minutes (during marination)

While the chicken was marinating, I chopped up the onion, garlic, bell pepper, and celery. I also mixed the ingredients for the sauce and prepared the cornstarch slurry.

Sear Chicken: 4 minutes

After heating up the wok and some oil, I seared the chicken, about 2 minutes per side.

Cook Vegetables: 6 minutes

Most of the grease was drained from the wok then I started cooking the vegetables, starting with the onion, garlic, and shaoxing wine, then the peppers, celery, and black pepper.

Sauce & Finishing: 3 minutes

The sauce was added next, followed by the cornstarch slurry once the sauce simmered. Once thickened, the chicken was added back to the wok and tossed un the sauce until coated.

Analysis:

The first think I noticed was that the sauce was a little loose. I could’ve added more cornstarch to thicken it up, but It wasn’t too big of a deal. The vegetables retained a lot of their fresh flavor thanks to only being cooked for a short amount of time. Their texture was also nice, retaining some crunch. I totally understand why this recipe is called black pepper chicken. The flavor of the black paper really comes through the most and does provide some building spice. Other than the black pepper, the rest of the flavors are light and nothing special. I was a little underwhelmed, honestly. At the same time, maybe I shouldn't have expected much more from black pepper chicken. I’m going to give this recipe a 7/10. It’s not bad, just nothing special.