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Cashew Chicken (Chinese)

chinese-cashewchickenA saucy chicken stir fry with cashews, this is a terrific combination of flavours. You’ll love how saucy this is, and how you can adapt this to your taste by using vegetables of choice. Try this with Hot and Sour Soup and a side of Fried Rice for a homemade takeout experience.

Sauce:
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
3 Tbsp. soy sauce, all purpose or light
3 Tbsp. Chinese cooking wine or Mirin
3 Tbsp. oyster sauce
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 dash white pepper, freshly ground

Stir Fry:
1 lb chicken thigh, skinless, boneless, cut into 1" (2.5 cm) pieces (500 g)
2 Tbsp. peanut or vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ onion, chopped into ¾" (1.75 cm) pieces
1 green capsicum/bell pepper, chopped into 0.8" (2 cm) pieces
6 Tbsp. water
¾ cup roasted cashews, unsalted

Sauce:
Mix cornflour and soy sauce until there's no lumps. Then add remaining sauce ingredients and mix.

Marinate:
Transfer 2 Tbsp. sauce to chicken, mix to coat. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Cook:
Heat oil over high heat in a wok or heavy based skillet. Add the garlic and onion, cook for 1 minute.

Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes. Add capsicum and cook for 1 minute. Add Sauce and water. Bring to simmer and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until Sauce thickens. Stir through cashews, remove from stove. Serve with rice.

Makes 4 servings.

Cook's Notes:

  • Soy Sauce - ordinary all purpose or light soy sauce. Do not use dark soy sauce - flavour is too strong and sauce will be very dark.
  • Chinese Cooking Wine (Shaoxing Wine) - sub with Mirin or dry sherry (near perfect subs). If you can't consume alcohol, use low sodium chicken broth in place of the cooking wine in the Sauce and in place of the water.
  • Chicken - I prefer making this with thigh because it's juicier, but it can be made with breast or tenderloin. If using breast, option to tenderise using the Chinese method so it's super tender and juicy like you get at Chinese restaurants - see How to tenderise chicken the Chinese way (Velveting).
  • Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days. I don't recommend freezing - sauces thickened with cornflour/cornstarch tend to become watery if frozen. But other than sauce thickness, flavour holds up just fine.