CHICKEN AND CASHEWS

November 10, 2024
by Cindy Williams
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- Asian Dishes,
- Dinner
Cuisine: Chinese, Comfort Food
Difficulty: Easy

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Prep Time

30 minutes not including velveting
Cook Time

20 minutes
Serving

4
View

17

I love a stir fry. First, you do your mise en place. Then, velvet your protein. Next, chop your vegetables. And make your sauce. Then, go do what you want to do. Start the movie, open the wine, spend quality time with your dogs. When you are ready, fire up that gorgeous Le Creuset wok that is so well seasoned it has become completely ‘non-stick.’ Just don’t take a call from your mother once you start the stir-fry (you can call her back later). This recipe is from Nagi Maehashi’s cookbook DINNER (2023). I used chicken breasts instead of thighs, and velveted the chicken according to the instructions on the Woks of Life website. I wound up with the most wonderful tender chunks of chicken stir-fried with crispy celery, red bell pepper and cashews coated in a delicious better-than-take-out sauce. Technique is everything here. As for the vegetable fried rice, I picked that up at my neighborhood Hot Wok take-out only restaurant. I’m not sure I can out-do Hot Wok for vegetable fried rice and it rounded out a perfect Saturday night dinner.

Directions

Do your mise en place: chop the onions roughly. Slice and chop the celery on the diagonal and chop the red bell pepper into half dollar sized chunks. Mince the garlic.

Step 1

First: Velvet the chicken. You need to slice the chicken breasts against the grain into bite sized pieces. Put the pieces in a bowl and add a few TBS. of water and either soy sauce or oyster sauce. If the chicken has a lot of moisture, you may not need to add water. Rub the water and sauce into the chicken and put the bowl in the frig. After a half hour or so, take the bowl out and sprinkle cornstarch all over the chicken. Add a few teaspoons of neutral oil and rub this in the chicken pieces again. Let this sit on the counter about 20 minutes.

Step 2

Flash fry the chicken in a shallow pool of hot oil in a hot wok. Remove the chicken to a wire rack and set aside.

Step 3

Whisk together all ingredients for the sauce.

Step 4

Chop your vegetables (actually you have already done this).

Step 5

When you are ready to cook, pour out the excess oil in your wok. Reheat it to high again. Toss in the onions, celery, bell pepper first and fry it a minute or two. Then toss in the garlic. Don't burn it but let it brown and get fragrant. Then, toss in the chicken.

Step 6

When the chicken is cooked through, add the sauce. Let the sauce bubble up and thicken. Then add the cornstarch slurry and give everything a few good stirs. Add the cashews last and heat through. You're ready to serve!