{"id":15145,"date":"2017-03-07T23:59:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T03:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slimmingeats.com\/blog\/?p=15145"},"modified":"2025-02-12T13:28:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T18:28:00","slug":"salt-and-pepper-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slimmingeats.com\/blog\/salt-and-pepper-chicken","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Salt and Pepper Chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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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 including Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See here for a full list of recipes: Slimming Eats Cookbook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n[feast_advanced_jump_to]\n\n\n

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Calories in Salt and Pepper Chicken <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This delicious recipe serve 4 and are 320 calories <\/strong>per serving, which is perfect for a family friendly meal when paired with some additional sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are lots more recipes around this calorie value in my 300-400 calories<\/a> <\/strong>recipe section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Slimming Friendly Salt and Pepper Chicken Fakeaway<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chinese Wok Cooking<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Air Fryer Salt and Pepper Chicken<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I compromised for this dish and used my Tefal Actifry<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>for 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can also be done in a air fryer with a basket. I recently tested the recipe and it works perfectly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oven Salt and Pepper Chicken<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vegetables for Salt and Pepper Chicken <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn't dry fry the salt, like is authentically done for Salt and Pepper chicken. Instead, I premixed 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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sides for Salt and Pepper Chicken<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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<\/strong><\/a> or even Homemade Oven Chips<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>or Roasted Cauliflower Rice<\/a><\/span><\/strong> or Egg Fried Cauliflower Rice<\/a> <\/strong>for a lower carb option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More Chinese Fakeaway Recipes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Looking for some other Chinese Slimming Friendly Fakeaway Recipes? Check out these: <\/p>\n\n\n\n