Sunday Slow Suppers: Cashew Chicken

This week Candi of Candi’s Corner: Wanderlust and Passions suggested our recipe for this week. She based this stir fry on a recipe she first learned during a cooking class in Chiang Mai Thailand (though she chose to add more vegetables to it). It’s delicious – and the cooking is easy though there’s a lot of chopping for prep.

Ingredients chopped and ready to go

Note: as the picture above shows, I do like laying out all the ingredients for a stir fry before I start cooking. Stir fries come together so quickly that often there isn’t time to do any more prep, while something cooks.

Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry

2T canola oil
2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, finely diced
1 pound boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size cubes or strips
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
3 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
1 zucchini, diced
8 oz. jelly, oyster or shitake mushrooms, sliced
red-eye chili pepper to taste,seeded and finely chopped (I used 2 jalepeno and will use 3 next time)
1/3 cup chicken broth plus 1T
1 tsp. corn starch(optional)
1/2 cup unsalted cashews (about 70 grams)

Heat 2T oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and onions and stir-fry until browned. Sear chicken on both sides for about three minutes (The chicken should be almost fully cooked at this point, if need to, cook for longer). Add fish sauce, oyster sauce and sugar and mix for another minute. Add vegetables and stir-fry for a minute or two. Add the chicken broth, cover and simmer for three to four minutes until vegetables are tender and chicken is fully cooked.

If you wish to thicken the sauce, use a slotted spoon to transfer the chicken and vegetables to a plate (I didn’t do this, I pushed them to the side, leaving the “gravy” exposed in the center), and add cornstarch mixed with 1T broth, to the sauce whisking for a minute or two until sauce is thickened. Transfer the chicken and vegetables back to the skillet to keep warm.

Serve the stir-fry over your favorite rice (I used brown rice) and top with cashews.

Cashew Chicken

This came in at 8 WW points but it’s a huge serving (serving for 4), you could probably serve 5 or even 6 and knock down the points.