Home

Submit Recipes

Chicken&Peppers in Black Pepper Sauce

Categories: Chicken/Poultry, World Cuisine (Chinese)
Contributed by: Jacqueline&David (Jacqueline)

This dish is spicy from the black pepper sauce. I haven't made this in a while, but I recall David saying it was a bit too peppery so you should probably cut back on the amount of black pepper sauce you add. You can substitute just about any of the Lee Kum Kee type of sauces in the place of the pepper sauce and have the stir fry come out well. 

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

• 2 boneless chicken breasts, cut in bite sized pieces or slices (cut at an angle instead of straight down into the meat for more tenderness)
  
• 1 heaping tsp corn starch
  
• 1 green bell pepper, cut in square chunks
  
• 1 small yellow onion, cut in square chunks
  
• 3-4 TBLS (or less, see note above in intro) Lee Kum Kee brand black pepper sauce***
  
• 2 TBLS (or more to your taste?) water blended w/ about 1 tsp corn starch
  
• 1/4 cup or so raw unsalted peanuts (optional~~if using roasted (don't use salted,) you can skip the roasting step, but necessary if raw as sold in asian market)
  
• peanut oil (canola, corn oil etc is fine, but not olive oil) [TIP:Lion & Globe brand peanut oil is recommended by some chefs as it's more fragrant than peanut oils you see in grocery stores. Asian markets carry it, but it's hit or miss as to whether they have it there or not. I've never seen it anywhere but asian markets. Look for the cartoon lion's face on their plastic bottle. This is awesome peanut oil!)
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix sliced chicken w/ the heaping teaspoon of cornstarch in a bowl and set aside, preferably in the fridge. I've heard the cornstarch helps tenderize the meat. It certainly is very tender after cooking.
2. Brown raw peanuts in a preheated wok in a little peanut oil. Not much oil is needed for this step! I cook everything in the wok over med-high to high heat depending on how hot the pan gets. Set the peanuts aside.
3. Add about 1 TBLS oil to heated wok and add chunks of peppers and onions. Stir fry over high (preferred) to med-high heat for several minutes, stirring and tossing very frequently until onions start to soften a little. It will still be somewhat crisp at this point. Set aside.
4. Make sure before you start cooking the chicken that your 3-4 TBLS (or less) of black pepper sauce are in a little portion cup or something handy and you have the water/corn starch slurry in another little cup that is handy.
5. Now add about 2 TBLS oil to wok and put in chicken, stirring & tossing pretty much constantly or nearly so until chicken is nearly all the way cooked. This should only take a few minutes.  
6.Now add the pepper sauce and the water/starch slurry and stir around vigorously then add the onions and peppers. Cook for another couple of minutes, tasting sauce and seeing if you need to add more pepper sauce, seasoning, or instead, more water. You probably won't need more cornstarch, but if you do, just make sure you mix it well with a little water before adding as it will just lump up if thrown straight in.
7. Serve next to or over asian sticky rice! Mmmmmm. (I love my rice cooker.)
*** Lee Kum Kee brand sauces are good, but if you are trying to avoid anything w/ MSG in it, I believe a lot of their products contain it. I think this black pepper sauce does as well. You can buy Lee Kum Kee brands at any asian market and even some regular markets.