Pepper Chicken Stir Fry recipe is ridiculously easy to make with ingredients that you already have in your pantry. Fast, full of flavour and best served with some steamed rice.
Stir fries are such a great way to make dinner because they are so quick to put together. Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry and Teriyaki Chicken stir fry are some of my favourites!
We usually have a couple of sauces like soy sauce and oyster sauce always in our pantry so that recipes like this can come together in a jiffy.
I know how hard it can be to think of unique dinner recipes every day which is why once in a while, you need a back pocket recipe that you can keep going back to. And this healthy chicken stir fry recipe is fast, easy, and is made with ingredients that don’t need a trip to the grocery store.
My family is always ready to give chicken a go, in every shape and form from Old Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings to Chicken Divan, so we always have a few chicken breasts in the freezer.
How to Make Chicken Stir Fry
This recipe starts with making the chicken stir fry marinade with soy sauce, minced garlic and ground pepper and marinating the chicken in it for at least fifteen minutes. This helps build more flavour in the chicken and creates a nice base for this recipe.
The total cooking and stir frying time is only 20 minutes, and you can chop up all your ingredients while the chicken is marinating. We add some finely chopped ginger and garlic, diced onions, green and red bell peppers and a few sauces to finish this off, once the chicken is cooked. And then you just toss everything together.
We coat the marinated chicken pieces in a little cornstarch to get them nice and crisp in the pan before stir frying them with the rest of the ingredients.
This adds a little crispness to the chicken and helps keep the flavours intact. The chicken is cooked on a high flame to get a nice sear, and since these are small pieces of chicken breasts, they cook in under ten minutes.
I love using both green and red bell peppers because they add a sharp flavour with a hint of sweetness to this recipe. But feel free to mix that up with yellow or just go with one variety. You could even make this a chicken broccoli stir fry if that’s what you fancy!
Once everything is tossed in that delicious easy chicken stir fry sauce, you’ll be going at it right from the pan itself. The sauce that coats the chicken is incredibly delicious, and spooned over some steamed rice, sichuan rice or even Cauliflower Rice, it makes for the perfect dinner!
MORE EASY ASIAN INSPIRED RECIPES!
- Chicken Pad Thai
- Easy Mongolian Beef
- Chicken Lo Mein
- Pineapple Teriyaki Shrimp Foil Packets
- General Tso’s Chicken
This chicken stir fry with vegetables also makes for great leftovers and actually tastes better as time goes by.
Ingredients
For the Marinade
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons less sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
For the Stir Fry
- ¼ cup oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons less sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup water
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch divided
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil divided
- 1 large onion cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 medium green bell pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 medium red bell pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients listed under marinade including the chicken and set aside for at least 15 minutes.
- Whisk together oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper, half cup water and one tablespoon of cornstarch and set aside.
- Once the chicken has marinated, toss it in remaining two tablespoons cornstarch.
- Heat two tablespoons oil in a large pan and add the chicken pieces. Don't overcrowd the pan and if your pan is not large enough, do this in batches. Cook the chicken pieces on high heat for 3 minutes on each side. Remove the pieces from the pan and set aside.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan on high heat, and add the onions and bell peppers. Toss them in the pan for a minute or two till they brighten up in colour and have cooked slightly. Toss in the ginger and garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add the chicken pieces and sauce mixture to the pan. Toss everything well, and simmer for a minute or two till the sauce thickens and coats the chicken well. Serve hot with steamed rice or veggies on the side.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner
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Repin this Simple Stir Fry Recipe
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Instead of oyster sauce(allergic) what could I use?
Hi Rebecca, it will alter the flavor but you could try substituting it with soy sauce. Let us know how it turns out!
Made this tonight, and it was superb. Every aspect of this recipe works. Very, very good taste.
The writeup is concise and clear and all the instructions, if followed exactly, make a great dish.
I have to check out more of your work.
Dang!! That was awesome good. Hubby even rated it a “Keeper”. Do you know how hard that is?
LOL! Well that sounds like a win in my books! Glad he enjoyed it!
Easy and delicious. Didn’t change anything. Will definitely make it again.
It was delicious!
Very easy to make and my family loved it!
Veryyyyyyy Good!!
Many thanks Gina!
Excellent!! We loved it! Perfect warmth and flavors! I served over Pandan rice. Will make this again for sure!
Mmm, that sounds delicious Judy! So happy you loved it too.
I’ll say this: it would’ve tasted delicious if I would have left the black pepper out, all of it. It is just way too much and it makes it taste way too peppery. Make it without the pepper in the sauce and it will probably be just right!
Sorry to hear that Chris, you can definitely reduce the pepper to suit your taste.
I made this tonight for my exchange students from China and my family. One student like it, one said it was ok and the other said it had too much pepper. My daughter, husband and I all thought it had too much pepper.
Thanks for the feedback Kristianne. If you remake with less pepper, let us know what you think!
Totally love it!!!
Yay! Thanks Yenni.
Great stir fry – Colorful and flavorful!! I did not have oyster sauce, so I replaced it with Hoisin Sauce – worked perfect! And, I always add more vegetables – yum!
That sounds like a tasty alteration to make to this stir fry. I am so glad you enjoyed it Amy!
Excellent flavour. I added more bell pepper in all colors (one green, one red, one orange, and one yellow) and didn’t add the additional black pepper into the sauce and it was just perfect for our family. I really loved the flavors of the peppers and the chicken. I didn’t get as crisp of chicken but my glass top range has very inconsistent heat spots in the pan so I made do as best I could.
I love adding more veggies too Christy. So happy that your family loves the stir fry!
Not a huge fan of oyster sauce so looked thru the fridge to see what I could substitute. Used Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce and no ginger to the recipe. And also added water chestnuts for a crunch effect… And WOW it was fantastic.
I will be making this again!
Thank you for sharing Clair! Sounds great :)
What can I substitute for the oyster sauce?
Perhaps a mushroom flavored stir-fry sauce. Oyster sauce is a bit salty and sweet. If those aren’t available to you, you could just add a bit of soy sauce/fish sauce however it will change the flavor of this recipe.
This was super easy to put together and came out very well the first time I made it, and then phenomenally well on the second go-round. I made the recipe exactly as written the first time, but found the sauce a little thick and maybe a tad on the boring side. The 2nd time I made it I left the corn starch out of the sauce (but did use the 2 tbsp on the meat) and added 1 tsp of cayenne powder. This gave me a slightly thinner sauce with the kind of kick I personally like.
I found that by cooking on very high heat (maximum, all the way to 10!) the corn starched chicken gets a great coating and texture while remaining tender and moist in the middle. I think I did 2 minutes a side, not 3, and it was fully cooked.
Marinating the chicken before coating it in corn starch is brilliant & I hadn’t seen that in previous recipes. I could really taste the amped up flavor in the chicken from that.
This one’s definitely going into my regular rotation. Next time I’m going to try adapting it for a black bean sauce.
Thank you for sharing your additions Larry. So glad you love the recipe!
Hi Holly, I made this on 21 July, I only had one large yellow bell pepper so I added some fresh sliced Shiitake mushrooms. The seasonings you have listed for the sauce and marinade, 100% perfect and spot on! For the chicken, I cooked it a little different, a true stir fry (comes with where I live). The family, me, my wife, mother in law, and sister in law and her husband, enjoyed this! I was asked by the brother in law, how do I know how to cook a good stir fry, I simply said, I have good friends :) Thank you for the wonderful recipe! Highly recommended!
Aww thank you for the review Lee, I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Hi Holly, great sounding recipe and is on my to cook list for next week, I will come back and post a review and rating after I make this. Thanks for the great recipe :)
You’re welcome Lee, enjoy it!
This was easy to make but I would leave out the ginger next time. This was the first time I’ve used fresh ginger and it smelled lemony when I was chopping it then the stir fry tasted like it had a lot of lemon in it.
You can certainly adjust the amount of ginger to your own preference. :) I agree, it does have a lovely lemony scent!
wow! look so lucrative and I wish I could taste right now. I think I can make this awesome and yummy recipe. Lets try. Thanks for share
You’re welcome, enjoy Adam!
I like how easy it is to get all that nice Asian flavor together for one’s meal.