Black Pepper Chicken - Quick and Easy Recipe

I was planning to post another recipe for Meatless Monday, but I forgot and made black pepper chicken instead (oooppss!). So let's do Meatless Friday instead, well it doesn't have to be a thing, as long as my plan to cut down meat at least once a week is still on track. You can read more about Meatless Monday here.

So, black pepper chicken, popular dish. Is it difficult to make? Not at all! The sauce is basically made with oyster sauce and black pepper. And the variations between one recipe to another, that is what you can include in your unique black pepper recipe, is left to the imagination. You can make it with whatever you want, as long as it tastes good and somebody would want to eat it :D.

It was many years ago when I first learnt how to make a proper black pepper sauce. At that time I wanted to impress my family by cooking them black pepper crabs. But then later on, I found a kick a** recipe for cooking crabs that is just....beyond words. So, I no longer pair black pepper sauce with crabs (the kick a** crabs recipe will be shared here some time in the future, don't worry).

Normally nowadays, I'd make black pepper sauce with chicken or beef, both are delicious in my opinion. But of course, Jourdan, being a fan of red meat, loves the black pepper beef more. Nevertheless, I think this black pepper chicken recipe has its charm. Especially if you're a fan of chicken, this one is for you (complete recipe is provided at the bottom of this post).

The type of chicken I'm using here is the boneless chicken leg with the skin on. I bought these frozen, I think taste wise, they are pretty tasty, though if you prefer using fresh chicken, that's cool too. These have been cut to smaller pieces, slightly bigger than bite size, for easy process. Before cooking the chicken, I marinated it first using the common variety vinegar, ground coriander, salt and pepper.

I also prepared a flour mix to coat the chicken after it has finished marinating, to then deep fry it before mixing them together with the black pepper sauce.

Why coat with flour and deep fry the chicken first you ask? Because personally, I love processing it this way, the sauce would then be absorbed by the fried flour on the outside of the chicken, making it even more pleasant to eat. There's also the crunchiness of the chicken skin, that still holds even when soaked with the sauce, that I don't want to miss, yumm.

However, if you'd like to skip this process altogether, that is to make a healthier version of this recipe, it's fine too. But to me personally, I think this process gives an added burst of flavor to the dish :).

The veggies and aromatic used here is very simple: paprika and onion. It is incredible how the sweet paprika goes very well together with the salty savoriness of the oyster sauce. This fantastic combination is what I love the most about this recipe. Of course, you can use other veggies if you like, or none at all (but the onion is a must). But for me personally, this combination is super awesome, and I won't change it. 'Hey if it ain't broke' right?' :D

I also added a little bit of chili, to give this recipe a little kick. You can add more if you like.

Okay, so without further ado, let's go through the steps:

1. First, cut up the veggies to your desired shapes and sizes. They can be however you like, as long as they are of the same size so they become cooked at the same time,  but this is how I cut mine. It just looks more appetizing this way and I enjoy biting these crunchy babies like this.

Also, if you prefer the green paprika, that works too, and certainly it is also very popular in other varieties of the black pepper recipe. Or if you'd like to forego the paprika altogether, I'd recommend using coriander leaves as substitute, they taste amazing.

2. As I've mentioned earlier, we marinated the chicken before further processing it. Then I left the chicken in its vinegar marinate for at least 20 minutes. 

Now some people would wash the chicken first before going to the next process, but to me, I welcome the slight taste of the vinegar in the chicken. It's quite savory and delicious, if I may say so myself. You'd never know how delicious it tastes unless you try it first :P.

3. Coat the chicken in the flour mix. Make sure to cover all the surfaces, including the crevices and of course the lovely skin. You will not regret diligently coating the skin with flour, because the end result is truly out of this world, especially if you're a fan of chicken skin (like myself). I'm a certified chicken skin lover, so I know what I'm talking about :P.

4. Deep fry the chicken in medium low heat so the thick cuts are thoroughly cooked and the skin has time to crisp up. 

Take them out of the oil when they look golden brown like this. 

I can tell you right now that if you decide to stop here and just devour the chicken as is, you won't be making a mistake. The simple marinade made for the chicken is actually quite powerful to bring out all that wonderful chicken flavor. Paired with the simple flour mix, it's a hit with my family, especially the kids (here I mean Naylla. So...kid).

5. Make the sauce. The only thing you have to be careful here is not to overcook the paprika. 

Soggy paprika does not taste so good :(.

There's a reason why I sliced the onion but not the paprika. I don't like under cooked onion, the sweetness has not yet come out, and it leaves a bad after taste in my mouth. So by slicing the onion, I made sure the onion are cooked properly when the paprika is done. We do not need that much time to cook paprika, they taste better when they retain the crunch.

But again, if half cooked onion is something you enjoy, by all means, cut the onion bigger :). Cooking is easy, just follow your taste buds.

I heat up some vegetable oil and sesame oil together, and tossed in the onion and paprika once they're hot. Once the onion starts to wilt, I added the oyster sauce and sugar, plus a little bit of water to help incorporate everything together.

7. A proper black pepper sauce should be made with freshly cracked black pepper that is toasted until fragrant on high heat. However, I do not have black peppercorns available in my kitchen at the moment. So I used coarsely ground black pepper. It works too, but the punch of the black pepper is not very pronounced in this recipe. Therefore, if you'd like to follow the real recipe, please use freshly cracked black peppercorns, toast them and use this instead for the sauce, and not the sad coarse black pepper from a plastic bottle that I used.

8. Lastly, when you see the paprika slightly wilted, toss in the fried chicken. I didn't cook the chicken in the sauce, almost immediately after the chicken was in, I turned off the heat. What I needed to do was coat the chicken with sauce. This way, the flour coating will soften a little to absorb some of the sauce, while the skin was still crispy. Sounds great right? Wasn't that simple?

I have also made a video for further guidance, I hope you find it useful. 

I'm excited to hear your experience with this recipe, I hope it is easy to follow. But this recipe was one of the first I learnt when I first started cooking, so it should be perfect for beginners (I'm still one though). 

Thanks for tuning in!

Here's the complete recipe for black pepper chicken:

350 gr boneless chicken thigh with the skin on

Marinade for chicken:

3 tbsp common variety vinegar

2 tsp salt

2 tsp white pepper

Marinate for at least 20 minutes.

Flour mix for chicken:

8 tbsp flour

1 tsp starch

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp coriander

3/4 onion

1 yellow paprika

1 red paprika

6 tbsp oyster sauce

50 ml water

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp freshly cracked and toasted black pepper corns

1 chili padi

Vegetable oil

Sesame oil