Quick & Easy Salt and Pepper Chicken
Crispy tender chicken packed with salt and pepper flavors stir-fried with fragrant aromatics. This easy Chinese salt and pepper chicken is ready in 20 minutes! A great main that is restaurant quality. I also share how to air-fry the chicken in the Notes section below.
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 10 min
- Yield
- 3 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs (or chicken breast)
- 4 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 large red chilli (chopped )
- 1 tsp ginger (thinly sliced)
- 1 green onion (finely chopped)
- 1/2 tsp white granulated sugar (or cane sugar)
- 3/4 tbsp Shaoxing Cooking Wine (or dry sherry, dry white wine, cooking sake or chicken broth)
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil (or any neutral oil)
- 1/4 cup cornstarch (or potato starch or arrowroot starch)
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing Cooking Wine (or dry sherry, dry white wine, cooking sake or chicken broth)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp black pepper (or white pepper)
Instructions
- 1
Dice chicken thighs into 1.5-inch wide pieces. Transfer diced chicken to a large bowl and mix in the seasoning ingredients: shaoxing wine, salt and black or white pepper. Optional: if you have extra time, you may marinate the chicken for 10 minutes.
- 2
Add cornstarch to the seasoned chicken and toss until each piece is evenly coated in starch.
- 3
Heat vegetable oil in a large pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot and shiny, fry chicken for a total of 7-8 minutes until golden and crispy, flipping over halfway.
- 4
Remove fried chicken from the pan and transfer to a wire rack or a paper towel lined plate.
- 5
Reserve 2 tsp of the oil in the pan and discard the rest. Reduce to low heat, sauté ginger, garlic, red chili, green onion, and sugar for 30 seconds.
- 6
Add fried chicken and deglaze with shaoxing wine. Toss everything together. Remove off heat and enjoy! Feel free to add more salt and pepper to taste if needed.