Cashew Chicken

CASHEW CHICKEN

If you’ve ever ordered cashew chicken from a Chinese restaurant, you’re likely familiar with the meal.

“Chicken with Cashew Nuts” (also known as “Chicken with Cashews”) features a simple, lightly sweet brown sauce that is the ideal accompaniment to roast cashews.

Our cashew chicken recipe, which evolved from our family’s restaurant days, is not overpoweringly sweet, but rather balanced and tasty.

Hoisin sauce and honey are blended with a combination of soy sauces to create the perfect brown sauce for our chicken cashew stir-fry.

To balance off the dish’s richness, a dash of rice wine vinegar is added.

It’s hard to go wrong with this Cashew Chicken Stir Fry if you’re a fan of the nutty nut like me. Cashew Chicken is a comfort food favorite.

INGREDIENTS:

CHICKEN AND MARINADE:

• 450g of boneless and skinless chicken breast, chopped into pieces
• 3 tablespoons of water
• 2 teaspoons of oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon of canola oil
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch

SAUCE:

• 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey
• 1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of hoisin sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of low sodium or homemade chicken stock
• 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1/8 teaspoon of ground white pepper

REST OF THE DISH:

• 75g of red bell pepper, chopped
• 80g of water chestnuts, cut into 1/2 inch
• 3 tablespoons of canola oil
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tbsp of water
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine
• 1 cup of roasted unsalted cashews
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger
• 1/2 cup of chopped scallions

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Chicken, 3 tablespoons of water, 2 teaspoons of oyster sauce, and 1/8 teaspoon of white pepper should be combined. Allow the chicken to absorb the marinated liquid for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. A little more water will go a long way to ensuring that your chicken is juicy and succulent. Finally, add 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1 teaspoon canola oil and stir well.
2. Set aside the sauce ingredients and combine them in a separate bowl.
3. Make a high-heat wok. Spread 2 tbsp. of canola oil around the wok’s perimeter and heat until it is just beginning to smoke.
4. Spread the pieces of marinated chicken breast evenly throughout the wok. Transfer to a serving bowl after frying for one minute on each side. The outside of the chicken should be browned, and the meat should be around 80% done.
5. Ginger and minced garlic should be cooked for 5 seconds in a wok with another tablespoon of oil. The red bell pepper and diced water chestnuts should be added right away. Take care not to overcook.
6. Scallions and Shaoxing wine should be added to the wok at this point. For 10 seconds, stir fried everything together quickly.
7. To deglaze the wok, use your wok spatula to pour in the sauce combination you prepared previously. The chicken and any fluids in the bowl should be added now as well. Your roasted cashews should be added at this point.
8. Add the cornstarch slurry to the stir-fry once it has been stirred up. The amount of cornstarch slurry you use will depend on how thick or thin you want your sauce to be. Continue swirling the sauce until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. If you’re serving it with rice, do so right away.