Black Pepper Chicken Panda Express recipe is a copycat dinner is packed with flavor and a bit of heat. Made in a pressure cooker is so tender and a quick meal.
Black pepper chicken will remind you of one of your favorite fast food meals, but now you can adjust the heat. Just one of many quick Instant Pot recipes on our site. (post may contain affiliate links present)
Panda Express Black Pepper Chicken Recipe
Yes of course you could make this in a pan with the same ingredients on the stove. Reason we love this is the short cook time and how tender the meat becomes under high pressure. If you wanted the other, use the same ingredients and directions over medium heat until meat is tender and sauce thickens.
in Pressure Cooker
Make in your Ninja Foodi, Crockpot Express or any brand of pressure cooker you might own at home. You may be surprised to find out that you like it better than ordering it at your favorite take out Asian place! Now you can make this as peppery or lightly seasoned as you want all on your own, and quickly.
What does black pepper chicken have in it?
Cubed meat, onions, celery and a sauce that has a decent amount of pepper in it. When making it at home you can adjust as desired though which is nice. If you wanted to amp it up you might like some sliced bell peppers along with the onion with your meat. Served over rice itโs always a huge hit.
Ingredients
- Freshly ground black pepper of course
- Diced chicken thighs or breasts work too, cut into bite size pieces
- Onions and celery are great to add for veggies
- Chicken broth for the main liquid
- Rice wine vinegar provides a pop of zing
- Oyster sauce is great, an umami flavor to it
- Garlic powder is a seasoning that is a must
- Ginger, ground or diced fine from fresh
- Red pepper flakes are optional for a bit of spicy
The heat can be adjusted quite easily when making your sauce. They donโt have firecracker chicken anymore either but we have a copycat version you can try too.
If you put all the spices and seasonings into a bag and mix it around it makes for a good chicken marinade of sorts. Leaving it sealed and coated all around will enhance these flavors. Optional of course but suggested step.
Substitutions
As for the veggies you can stick with the โtraditionalโ ones they used when it was available or add more if you wish. Youโd want some that cook at the same rate as the 2 we listed below.
Something that gets tender but doesnโt completely fall apart at the 5 minute mark would be best. Suggestions would be large chunks of carrots, bell peppers and/or pea pods. I mean when it comes to produce you can really load it up.
How to Make Black Pepper Chicken
Once you use the saute mode with the chicken breast (or thighs) for a bit the meat will look similar to this here. Add your raw vegetables of choice and youโre about ready to add the most important part, your sauce. While your chicken is cooking you can throw this together.
From there youโll use the pressure cook mode once all the chicken and vegetables are set. Prep and cooking time is under 30 minutes so this makes for a really quick one pot meal.
Add the chicken and seasonings into a bag. Seal and shake it to coat the chicken nicely, like marinated chicken of sorts but dry. Put pot on saute and add oil. When hot pour in chicken, cook until no longer pink. Then turn pot off. Scrape any stuck on pieces off the bottom with a bit of your chicken broth to deglaze.
Add all other ingredients for the sauce and veggies into the pot. Put the lid on and seal the steam valve. Set to high pressure for 5 minutes, quick release when done.
Lift lid. If you want sauce thicker whisk a bit of your hot liquid with 1 tbsp of cornstarch until smooth.
Set pot to saute again and add this thickener when bubbling. Stir and cook for a few minutes until sauce is thicker. Turn pot off and serve with white rice.
It is kindaโ fun to serve it with chopsticks and fortune cookies for dinner too!! If you have kids you can get training chopsticks that come in fun characters and colors.
How to save leftovers
You will need to add some hot liquid to it, that is the key. Use some chicken broth and heat until boiling in a shallow pan on your stovetop. Turn off when bubbling. Then slice the meat and lay it inside. Cover with a lid and leave in there for about 10 minutes.
There are a few choices to serve this on top of. We use Ninja Foodi rice typically since this other pot is occupied. This is how to cook quinoa at the same time so everything is done together.
On a lower carb diet? You could easily enjoy this as is with just some air fryer vegetables on the side, or broccoli is great too.
Looking for another idea that will blow your taste buds out of the water this week? Look below!! Our Instant Pot honey garlic chicken is out of this world too. We serve this atop a bed of brown rice which is a good side dish choice as well.
Printable recipe card, nutritional information and ingredient amounts listed below. Let us know if you add anything else that makes it out of this world delicious that we may not have thought about!
Black Pepper Chicken Recipe
Equipment
- 1 pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken, boneless, skinless, cubed
- 2 tbsp peanut oil
- 1 onion, sliced
- 3 stalks celery, sliced
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp ginger, ground
- sauce
- 1/2 c chicken broth
- 1/4 c oyster sauce
- 1/4 c rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp ginger, ground
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes, optional
Instructions
- Put chicken and ingredients 5-8 (seasonings) into a bag. Seal and shake so all pieces are nicely coated.
- Put pot on saute and add oil. When hot pour in chicken, cook until no longer pink. Then turn pot off. Scrape any stuck on pieces off the bottom with a bit of your chicken broth.
- Add all other ingredients for the sauce and veggies into the pot. Close lid and steam valve.
- Set to high pressure for 5 minutes, quick release when done.
- Lift lid. If you want sauce thicker whisk a bit of your hot liquid with 1 tbsp of cornstarch until smooth. Set pot to saute again and add this thickener when bubbling. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes until sauce is thicker.
- Then turn pot off and serve with rice.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
You certainly can. Normally I saute it for a few minutes until the outsides are no longer pink but that is optional as well. Just 5 minutes is typically what you need for most dishes with high pressure. The same applies to Instant Pot chicken and rice, just like Campbellโs version you ate as a child.
