Chinese Salt and Pepper Chicken | Slimming Eats (2024)

Indulge in the delectable fakeaway dish of Chinese salt and pepper chicken, a healthier option to the popular takeout dish. This dish features succulent chicken thigh pieces coated in a homemade salt and pepper seasoning blend, paired with fresh vegetables, and is low in calories.

In this post, I share an easy and delicious recipe for Chinese salt and pepper chicken that you can cook in an air fryer or oven. Whether you're looking to maintain a healthy lifestyle or simply want to enjoy a guilt-free meal, this recipe is sure to become a new favorite in your household.

This recipe is also found in the Slimming Eats cookbook as one of the 15 bonus blog favourites. You can get it from all Major Retailers includingAmazon

See here for a full list of recipes: Slimming Eats Cookbook

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Calories in Salt and Pepper Chicken

This delicious recipe serve 4 and are320 caloriesper serving, which is perfect for a family friendly meal when paired with some additional sides.

There are lots more recipes around this calorie value in my300-400 caloriesrecipesection.

If you are using these recipes as part of a calorie controlled diet or healthy eating plan, you can calculate your daily calories by using a calorie calculator, as this will vary per individual depending on various factors.

Slimming Friendly Salt and Pepper Chicken Fakeaway

One recipe I get many requests for is Salt and Pepper Chicken, so this is my version on the ever so popular Chinese take away dish.

If you were to search salt and pepper chicken right now, the amount of hits you would get is unbelievable. There are so many variations out there, no two recipes are the same. Even if you were to order this dish from the local Chinese Take Away, and then try a different take away the next week, they probably wouldn't taste the same.

The majority of the recipes, use a salt and pepper mix that consists of Pepper, Salt, MSG, Chinese 5 spice and sugar. The salt is dry fried in a hot wok, before being mixed with the other ingredients.

Chinese Wok Cooking

Wok cooking is a amazing cooking technique and a hard one to learn. Most households nowadays cook on electric hobs, and electric hobs are just not designed for wok cooking. A wok cooker is a specialist piece of equipment - large gas burners with a water tap.

You may be wondering how on earth I know about these, well, my Dad used to own his own business designing, building and installing Wok Cookers for restaurants across the UK and Ireland. I often used to accompany him when he would go out to these restaurants to do an install or maintenance, so got to learn how they would work and get a sneak peak behind the scenes in the kitchens! Often sampling the food too - yum!!

Air Fryer Salt and Pepper Chicken

Unfortunately as much as I would love one, I don't own a wok cooker, or a gas hob for that matter (one thing I hope to upgrade to when the current electric cooker decides to stop working) and wok cooking just isn't great on an electric hob, as you do not get the same distribution of heat.

So I compromised for this dish and used my Tefal Actifryfor the chicken and small wok for the vegetable part of this dish. An actifry is one of the many air fryers available, there are various different brands to be found.

This can also be done in a air fryer with a basket. I recently tested the recipe and it works perfectly.

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Oven Salt and Pepper Chicken

If you don't have an actifry, I recommend placing the coated chicken on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, spray over the top with spray oil and bake in the oven at 180c fan, 200c or 400f for about 25-30 mins until lightly golden. Then follow the rest of the steps.

Vegetables for Salt and Pepper Chicken

Generally Salt and Pepper chicken doesn't have a great deal of vegetables. Mostly onion, chilli (red or green) and spring onion are the chosen ones, but I like to try and get as much speed foods as I can into a dish, and so I also added some finely chopped bell peppers and julienned carrot. I used my fantastic julienne peeler to shred the carrot - if you don't have one of those you can just finely slice into matchsticks.

I didn't dry fry the salt, like is authentically done for Salt and Pepper chicken. Instead, Ipremixed the salt and pepper mix and then added into the actifry onto the chicken just as it was almost done, before mixing it into the vegetables. This technique worked out really well. Plus because the actifry is constantly rotating that chicken it gets a beautiful golden colour.

Sides for Salt and Pepper Chicken

All that is then left to decide is what to serve with the Salt and Pepper chicken. I chose some plain steamed rice, but it would be equally good served with noodles, Egg Fried Rice or even Homemade Oven Chipsor RoastedCauliflower Rice or Egg Fried Cauliflower Rice for a lower carb option.

More Chinese Fakeaway Recipes

Looking for some other Chinese Slimming Friendly Fakeaway Recipes? Check out these:

• GINGER CHICKEN WITH MUSHROOMS AND NOODLES
• ACTIFRY SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN BITES
• CHICKEN CHOP SUEY
• BEEF WITH MUSHROOMS IN OYSTER SAUCE
• BEEF CHOW MEIN
• CHICKEN SINGAPORE NOODLESCHILLI BEEF (STOVE TOP AND ACTIFRY)
• CHICKEN FRIED RICE
• GINGER BEEF AND BROCCOLI
• CHINESE PORK
• EGG FRIED RICE
• SPRING ROLLS
• CHINESE BLACK PEPPER BEEF

or if you would like more recipe ideas or sides to make with this recipe - head on over to theFULL RECIPE INDEXwhere you will find over 900 delicious recipes with caloriesand you can search by meal type, ingredients, course, diet and more..

All recipes on Slimming Eats have estimated nutritional information for your convenience.

Recipe Card

Chinese Salt and Pepper Chicken - Slimming Friendly

Yield: SERVES 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Salt and Pepper Chicken – create this popular Chinese dish in your own home, perfectly delicious and Slimming friendly

Ingredients

For the chicken:

• 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (approx 650g/23oz) , trimmed of all visible fat and cut into chunks
• 4 tablespoons of cornstarch (or tapioca or arrowroot powder)
• salt and black pepper to season
• 1 egg
• spray oil

For the vegetables:

• 1 red onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 red chilli, sliced
• ½ red pepper
• ½ green pepper
• 1 small carrot, julienned (or sliced into thin matchsticks
• ¼ cup (60ml) of chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
• 2 spring onions, sliced

For the salt and pepper mix:

• 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper
• 2 teaspoons of Chinese five spice
• 2 teaspoons of granulated sweetener (I use Erythritol)

Instructions

Actifry Method

For the chicken:

1. Add the chicken to a large bowl and season generously with salt and black pepper
2. whisk the egg in a separate bowl and pour into the chicken, toss well to coat thoroughly and drain off the excess.
3. Gradually sprinkle in the starch tossing as you do, until the chicken is well coated.
4. Add to the actifry, spray over the top with spray oil and set for 30 mins, until it is lovely and golden in colour (it may take slightly less or longer).

For the vegetables:

1. Spray a frying pan or wok over a medium high heat with spray oil.
2. Add the onion and garlic and fry for 1 minute to soften.
3. Add the peppers and chilli and gradually add a little stock at a time, continuing tossing as you do, until it is all absorbed.
4. Add in carrots,soy sauce and rice vinegar and heat until it evaporates off.

For the salt and pepper mix:

1. Mix the salt and pepper mixingredients together in a bowl
2. When the chicken is done, sprinkle with some of the salt and pepper mix and turn back on the actifry, keep doing this with the salt and pepper mix, until it is seasoned to your liking. I don't recommend adding it all in at once, as you may want less depending on your taste.
3. Once it is to your desired taste. Add the chicken into the frying pan/wok with the vegetables and toss all together.
4. Sprinkle with chopped spring onion
5. Serve with your choice of sides.

Air Fryer Method

For the chicken:

1. Add the chicken to a large bowl and season generously with salt and black pepper
2. Whisk the egg in a separate bowl and pour into the chicken, toss well to coat thoroughly and drain off the excess.
3. Gradually sprinkle in the cornstarch tossing as you do, until the chicken is well coated.
4. Preheat air fryer to 400f for a couple of minutes
5. Add a sheet of parchment paper to the basket and add in the chicken pieces, make sure they are spaced apart (you may need to cook in two batches if using smaller capacity air fryer)
6. Spray well with low calorie spray and air fry for approx 15 minutes, turning the chicken over after 8 minutes and spray again wiht low calorie spray.

For the vegetables:

1. Spray a frying pan or wok over a medium high heat with spray oil.
2. Add the onion and garlic and fry for 1 minute to soften.
3. Add the peppers and chilli and gradually add a little stock at a time, continuing tossing as you do, until it is all absorbed.
4. Add in carrots,soy sauce and rice vinegar and heat until it evaporates off.

For the salt and pepper mix:

1. Mix the salt and pepper mixingredients together in a bowl
2. When the chicken is done, sprinkle with some of the salt and pepper mix in the air fryer basket, add in the vegetable mix, toss to coat evenly and air fryer for a couple of minutes to warm through, keep adding more seasoning gradually until the chicken is seasoned to your liking. I don't recommend adding all the seasoning at once, as you may want less depending on your taste.
3. Sprinkle with chopped spring onion and serve with your choice of sides.

Oven Method

For the chicken:

1. Add the chicken to a large bowl and season generously with salt and black pepper
2. Whisk the egg in a separate bowl and pour into the chicken, toss well to coat thoroughly and drain off the excess.
3. Gradually sprinkle in the cornstarch tossing as you do, until the chicken is well coated.
4. Preheat oven to 180c fan, 200c, 400f or gas mark 6
5. Add a sheet of parchment paper to a large tray and grease with low calorie spray, add the chicken pieces (ensure chicken pieces are not touching each other) and spray over the top with olive oil spray. Cook for 25-30 minutes, rotating half way and spray again with low calorie spray.

For the vegetables:

1. Spray a frying pan or wok over a medium high heat with spray oil.
2. Add the onion and garlic and fry for 1 minute to soften.
3. Add the peppers and chilli and gradually add a little stock at a time, continuing tossing as you do, until it is all absorbed.
4. Add in carrots,soy sauce and rice vinegar and heat until it evaporates off.

For the salt and pepper mix:

1. Mix the salt and pepper mixingredients together in a bowl
2. When the chicken is done add it to the pan with some of the salt and pepper mix and toss to coat, keep doing this gradually with the seasoning until the chicken is seasoned to your liking. I don't recommend adding all the seasoning at once, as you may want less depending on your taste.

Notes

Please see below for full nutritional info and additional details about recipe:

• Calories - scroll down to nutritional info box
• WW Points and other Slimming or Weight Loss programs - due to plans regularly changing and updating, we recommend calculating with the official tools you get as a member to those plans to ensure accuracy of values.

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Recommended Products

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  Baking Tray Set of 4, HaWare Stainless Steel Baking Sheet –Rimmed Pan Baking Sets -Healthy & Non Toxic, Easy Clean & Dishwasher Safe (Large Size)

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  Tefal AH960840 Actifry Genius XL (8 Portions), Healthy Air Fryer, 1.7 Kilograms, Black

Nutrition Information

Yield 4Serving Size 1 serving
Amount Per ServingCalories 320Total Fat 10.1gSaturated Fat 2.9gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 20gCholesterol 345mgSodium 2366mgCarbohydrates 22.3gFiber 3.1gSugar 7gProtein 33.4g

Nutritional information, values, points etc are an estimate and is to be used for informational purposes only. Ingredients can vary greatly from brand to brand and therefore it would be impossible to give accurate information. It is always advised that you calculate by the ingredients you use.

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This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” Check Legal section, for Full Disclaimer, Disclosure and Privacy Policy.