Black Pepper Chicken

I got this recipe from CJ Eats and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with his version. In fact it’s way more authentic. I’ve made it before and it’s super good. I made a few modifications to my version to add a bit more volume for the calories, lower the fat content and increase protein and fiber. It’s a great dish that your whole family will enjoy and awesome to come home to after a long day. This one requires some more ingredients than the typical dish I make but you really don’t have to follow the way that I did (I’ll explain below in the recipe steps).

Grab your wok and let’s get started.

Directions

1. Cook your rice. If you’re not sure how to cook wild rice, just add it to a pot of boiling water or chicken broth and simmer it covered for 45 mins. I’ll assume you know how to cook white rice or have a rice cooker.
2. Mix the diced chicken with all of the ingredients in the “chicken” section (soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, white pepper, avocado oil, corn starch) above in a large bowl and let it sit for at least 20-30 minutes.
3. Cut your celery at an angle into 1 inch pieces. Cut your onion into 1 inch pedals and set these two aside. You can put them in the same bowl.
4. Dice your garlic & ginger and set aside in a small bowl. You can put them in the same bowl.
5. Mix all of the ingredients in the “sauce” section (black pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce, cooking sake, sugar, chicken stock, corn starch) in a bowl.
6. In a wok, cook your chicken on high heat until it browns and is fully cooked through. This can take a few minutes. It doesn’t have to be a wok but anything large enough to fit everything will work.
7. After chicken is cooked, take it out of the wok and set it aside.
8. Over high heat and in the same wok, fry the garlic and ginger for just a few seconds. Don’t burn it.
9. Add the celery and onion and cook for a couple of minutes. You want to cook this just a tad bit before you would consider it fully done because you’ll keep cooking it later for a bit.
10. Add the chicken to the wok and add the sauce and stir everything through and let it cook until the sauce thickens. There’s no exact science behind this, but just make sure it’s thick and not watery.
11. Scoop half a cup of the white rice, half a cup of the wild rice, and 3/4 cup of the chicken. You can at however much you want obviously, but that’s what I’m basing the macros on below.

Macros

Calories: 365 kcal
Protein: 30 g
Carbohydrates: 47 g
Fat: 5 g

It’s crazy because it’s a rice dish but still has a pretty solid protein-to-calories ratio. The wild rice really adds a different flavor and adds fiber and some protein (fun fact, wild rice is actually a type of grass). This also should keep you feeling pretty full.