Salt and Pepper Chicken Recipe
Homemade salt and pepper chicken, a delicious Chinese-style takeaway that you can easily make at home. Either fried or baked.
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time15 minutes mins
Total Time30 minutes mins
Course: Poultry
Cuisine: Chinese
Servings: 4
Calories: 522kcal
- Vegetables:
- 75 g/ 2.6 oz/ about ½ an onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 green onions
- ½ red bell pepper
- 1 long green chili use to taste
- each ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt and pepper
- Fried salt and pepper chicken:
- 800 g/ 1.8 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 40 g/ 1.4 oz/ ⅓ cup cornstarch
- ¾ tablespoon fine sea salt
- ¾ tablespoon ground black pepper
- ¾ tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
- 240 ml/ 8 fl.oz/ 1 cup oil
- Baked salt and pepper chicken Note 1
- 800 g/ 1.8 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ¾ tablespoon fine sea salt
- ¾ tablespoon ground black pepper
- ¾ tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
Fried chicken:
Mix together cornstarch, salt, pepper, and Chinese five-spice powder in a large bowl. Cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces.
Heat the oil in a pan, wok, or skillet (Note 2).
When the oil is hot, place ½ of the chicken pieces into the bowl with the cornstarch and spices and toss until coated.
Immediately and carefully place them into the hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes, moving the pieces a few times in between. Check if the meat is cooked through by cutting a piece in the middle. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper towels to remove the excess fat.
Repeat with the second batch, only coating the chicken pieces with cornstarch just before adding to the frying pan.
Pour away all the fat from the pan, keeping only about 2 tablespoons of it. Add the vegetables and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper, mix well.
Mix with the chicken pieces and serve.
Baked chicken:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Mix together cornstarch, salt, pepper, and Chinese five-spice powder in a large bowl.
Cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces. Toss with the oil, add to the bowl and toss to coat with the spices.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Place under the grill (or turn on the oven grill) and grill for about 2-3 minutes to make the chicken crispier. Keep an eye on the grill, the chicken should not get too dark.
While the chicken bakes prepare the vegetables and stir-fry them in a large pan with 1-2 tablespoons oil.
Mix the chicken and veggies and serve.
- Basically, the same ingredients without the cornstarch. I've tried both versions, the oven-baked chicken tastes better without the cornstarch.
- Make sure the oil has the right temperature for frying, about 180 degrees Celsius/ 355 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also check by frying a cube of bread, if it takes about 10-15 seconds to get brown then the oil has the right temperature.
- The nutrition for the fried chicken is calculated considering only 4 tablespoons of oil, as you will discard most of the frying oil anyway. The nutrition calculation is only an approximation. The oven-baked chicken has about 420 calories per serving.
Serving: 1/4 of the dish | Calories: 522kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 50g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 23g | Cholesterol: 244mg | Sodium: 1845mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g