Black Pepper Chicken
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes (45 minutes sauce, 1 hour chicken)
Black Pepper Sauce (makes 2.5 cups)
- Oil for frying
- 200g/7ozs. onions, very finely chopped
- 125g/4ozs. garlic cloves, peeled and very finely chopped
- 100g/3.5ozs. ginger, peeled and very finely chopped
- 4-5 tablespoons ground black pepper
- 325ml/11.5flozs. soy sauce
- 200g/7ozs. white sugar
- 75ml/2.7ozs. lime juice
-
Salt to taste
-
1kg/2.2lbs of chicken (whole pieces or diced)
- 200g/7ozs. snow peas
- 2 stalks green shallots, cut into inch long pieces
Tip: this sauce is best when the onions, garlic and ginger are very finely chopped. Mine is chopped a little coarser than I would have liked.
Step 1 - Fry the onion, garlic and ginger in enough oil (I start with 2 tablespoons and keep adding when needed) on low to medium heat until soft-this will take around 8-10 minutes or so. Add the black pepper, soy sauce, sugar and lime juice. Simmer until the sauce becomes thick and viscous (around 20-30 minutes). Cool completely.
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F and marinate the chicken pieces in 1 cup of the sauce for 30 minutes (if you are using diced chicken for a stir fry see instructions below). Place the pieces in a baking dish and bake for 55 minutes basting once or twice with sauce during that time. Add the snow peas and shallots and bake for another 5 minutes. Serve with rice or flatbread.
Step 3 - For a chicken stir fry, I marinate the chicken in the sauce and then fry it off in a wok adding vegetables right at the end.