Salt and pepper chicken is a classic Chinese takeaway and a homemade family dish. Learn how to make it using wings, thighs, or breast pieces with our healthy recipe.
This dish's main elements are the chicken's crispness and the salt's sharpness, the black pepper, and the Chinese five-spice combination. You can use almost every part of the meat to make our recipe, but wings, breasts, and thighs are popular.
Our salt and pepper chicken recipe focuses on how to prepare the dish by deep-frying. However, we will also cover the methods of making this satisfying dish using an oven or air fryer.
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Ingredients
To make salt and pepper chicken, you will need the following ingredients:
- Chicken breast (or thighs and wings)
- Chinese five spice
- Corn flour
- Salt
- Pepper
- Mixed red and green chilli
- Garlic
- Spring onions
- Small onion
Chicken
You can make this classic Chinese household dish recipe with any chicken meat cut. We will use the breasts to prepare our Chinese recipe. It's our favourite meat cut for this dish, giving us a crispy exterior but juicy interior with a bite. We recommend cutting the raw breast parts into roughly 1-inch squares or strips. When you fry them, they will shrink slightly (to make about 0.75-inch squares), making them a nice size to bite into.
The best frying temperature is between 165-175°C (330-350°F). The exterior will still be crispy at this temperature, but the inside will be juicy. Getting the perfect brown texture takes at least 5 to 7 minutes.
If you're using thighs, your takeaway dish will turn out juicier due to the higher fat content, but for the same reason, it might not be as crispy on the outside.
The cooking process is quite similar, but thighs require a longer frying time, as they are generally tougher meat parts. Fry for about 8-10 minutes per batch.
If you're using wings, you must marinate for longer to get deeper flavours for some delicious salt and pepper chicken wings. We usually fry for 8 to 10 minutes to get a golden brown texture. Overall, it will take longer to fry as it will also take up more space in the deep frying pot.
Chinese Five-Spice
Five-spice powder is a very popular ingredient in Chinese and Asian cuisine. It combines a blend of star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan peppers, and fennel seeds.
It helps unlock the five key flavours of spices: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savoury (umami). This spice powder gives Chinese dishes their iconic taste combination. It is a must for this crispy salt and pepper chicken recipe, as it provides the meat pieces with a tasty, moreish flavour.
Corn Flour
Corn flour is essential for making the salt and pepper chicken crispy on the outside. Thoroughly coat the entire surface of each meat piece until it resembles Turkish delight.
Mixed Chillies
You can modify the spice amount in this Chinese recipe by using hotter or milder chillies. For our recipe, we use a combination of red and green chillis to make it a medium-hot dish.
You can use capsicum if you like it mild. To make this salt and pepper chicken dish spicier, you can use Thai chillies that are very hot but great.
Salt and Pepper Chicken | Chinese Family Recipe
Ingredients
For the chicken
- 600 g chicken breast 1-inch strips or cubes
- ½ tablespoon Chinese five-spice
- ½ tablespoon salt
- 1¼ tablespoon ground black pepper
- 1.5 cup cornflour
- 2 cups vegetable oil for frying
For vegetable toppings
- 1 cup chillies mixed red and green, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 4 spring onions sliced
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice
Instructions
- Dice chicken breasts into even pieces and add them to a bowl with salt, Chinese five-spice, and black pepper. Toss to coat the breasts thoroughly.
- Then, toss the breast pieces in the cornflour, and coat them properly.
- Pour oil into a pot or deep pan for frying. Set the stove on medium heat and wait until the oil is properly heated to a temperature range of 165-175°C (330-350°F). Add the coated meat to the pan one piece at a time to ensure the oil does not boil over.
- Fry for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring the salt and pepper chicken to brown on every side. Depending on the size of your pot or pan, you may need to cook them in a few batches.
- After frying them properly, remove them from the pan and place them on a paper towel or kitchen roll to soak up the excess oil.
- Place a wok at a medium-high temperature and add 2 tbsp. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and chopped onions and fry them until they are light brown. Add mixed chillies and spring onions, and stir them to fry for a minute. Then add salt, black pepper, and Chinese five-spice and stir to coat the vegetables.
- Then add the fried meat pieces to the vegetables, stir to coat the meat with the vegetable mix, and cook for another minute or until the ingredients are properly mixed. Take the salt and pepper chicken out from the heat and serve immediately.
Nutrition
Calories have been calculated using an online calculator. Nutritional information offered on Honest Food Talks is for general information purposes and is only a rough estimate.
Cooking Tips
Here are some cooking tips for beginners who want to make Chinese fakeaways at home.
Marinate
Marinating longer will help infuse the chicken with more spices and flavours. Ideally, marinate for 2 hours. After that, you can coat it with cornflour and start frying.
How to fry
You can use any type of vegetable oil for frying, but a neutral-flavoured oil like Canola oil will work better.
If you're deep frying, fry for 5 to 7 minutes within a temperature range of 165-175°C (330-350°F). If you choose to shallow fry, then fry for the same time and temperature, but flip the chicken halfway through.
Temperature control is vital to making salt and pepper chicken that's crusty outside yet juicy inside. You want to always fry within the temperature range of 165-175°C (330-350°F). However, a common pitfall is not knowing that the oil temperature will fall when adding chicken to the frying pot. So, you will have to monitor the temperature as you are frying.
If you don't have a cooking thermometer, one way to find out if the oil is hot enough is by dipping the tip of a chopstick into the oil. If bubbles quickly form around the chopstick, the oil is hot enough.
Another method is by dripping a drop of water into the oil. If the water quickly but gently sizzles when it touches the oil, it is hot enough. If the water takes time to sizzle, it needs to be hotter. But if the water vigorously sizzles, the oil is too hot.
If the oil starts smoking, it is too hot. You may risk burning the surface of the chicken if you fry it in oil that is too hot.
Do not overcrowd the pan, oven, or air frying tray with the meat pieces. Try to cook in batches to get a perfectly fried, crispy salt and pepper chicken.
Using An Airfryer
You can get juicy, crispy, crunchy fried chicken with less mess and hassle with air fryer cooking. Making air-fried chicken is easy as you do not need to heat the kitchen stove. The calorie and fat count will be reduced as you need less oil to fry the meat in them.
Simply add all the marinated poultry meat pieces to the fryer and fry them. Be careful not to overcrowd the fryer; place them in a single layer. To make healthy salt and pepper chicken in the air fryer follow the steps below.
- First, line the air fryer with parchment paper. Another method is to brush the air fryer with oil. Preheat the air fryer to 195°C (380°F).
- Add the chicken to the air fryer basket and cook it at 195 °C(380°F) for 20 minutes. At the halfway mark, flip the chicken to ensure all sides are evenly cooked. Prepare the vegetables in a pan with 1 to 2 teaspoons of oil. Mix the vegetables with the fried meat and serve immediately.
Using An Oven
Oven baking is relatively healthy and an easier option for cooking. You can bake salt and pepper chicken without creating a mess from frying in the kitchen area. You usually need lots of oil for pan-frying, but you can use less oil with an oven, which is healthier.
To make the healthy salt and pepper chicken in the oven:
- Start preheating the oven to 195°C (380°F). Cover the baking tray with aluminium foil and heat it in the oven.
- Place the marinated meat on the baking tray in a single layer and bake for 20 minutes. At the halfway mark, flip the meat around to ensure it's evenly cooked.
While the poultry meat bakes or grills, prepare the vegetable mix in a large pan with 1-2 tbs oil. After that, mix the meat and vegetables. Serve and enjoy crispy salt and pepper chicken immediately.
How to serve
Salt and pepper chicken is one of the most delightful dishes you can try as a main dish with rice or as an appetizer or snack. This dish takes only a few minutes to prepare and cook. You can make pan-fried, air-fried, or oven-baked versions as you wish.
It is a typical Chinese household dish at a family dinner table. Due to its popularity and scrumptiousness, many Asian takeaway restaurants include it as a must-have menu item. It has simple flavours, but one that many love for good reason - it's simply delicious.
Almost everyone loves this menu item in any Chinese takeaway as it's delicious and affordable. The most popular takeaway is salt and pepper chicken wings or salt and pepper chips.
Did you enjoy making our classic Chinese household dish recipe? Share your joy by tagging us on Instagram at @honestfoodtalks. Next, check out the iconic Cantonese dish, sweet and sour chicken balls.
Kliv
I love this so mcuh when studying in NY for summer - thanks for the recipe, turned out great
Kris
If I choose to bake in the oven, do I still coat the chicken with cornflour?
Honest Food Talks
Yes but we recommend doing only a light coating of cornflour.
R. Porter
Absolutely smashing recipe! I made this for my son and I 2 nights ago and we had such a feast!
Hui
Is there a brand of the five spice you would recommend? Would like to try this at home this coming weekend
Kil
I use Natco Foods brand - but from my experience most 5 spice mix are more or less the same since its a traditional recipe