Cashew Chicken

One of my favorite go-to meals is Cashew Chicken. And the good thing about this is that almost every ingredient is usually on hand. So I just pick up some chicken and broccoli and I’m set. I snack on cashews daily, so they are always around. Sorry for the non-exact measurement, I just always wing this.

The sauce is my basic ‘Asian’ mix of Oyster Sauce, Fish Sauce, Sesame Seed Oil and Thai chili paste. If I don’t have Thai chili paste, I usually have some Gochujang sauce, which is about the same. I don’t have exact measurements, but I use less of the fish sauce and sesame seed oil, as they are both powerful.

I haven’t done it yet, but I always have red curry paste in the fridge, so I could sub that too. Could be interesting.

Roast your cashews. I usually put a cup or more of raw cashews into my air fryer at 350° for 8 minutes. But because or storm shortage, I had to use salted/roasted cashews. I treated them the same, and they were great.

In a wok, or sauce pan, heat some oil on medium high. Add some dried chili peppers and cook till they puff up, remove and save. In that oil add 4 diced boneless skinless chicken thighs and cook till well seared. Scoop these out, making sure you keep the oil that had the chilies and the fat of the chicken. Put about 1/4 cup of soy sauce on the chicken (low sodium) and stir to marinade.

Add a rough chopped onion and saute for a few minutes. Add a few minced garlic cloves and stir till fragrant. Add a rough chopped red and yellow bell pepper and stir for a few minutes. Then add a few handfuls of bite-sized broccoli. Stir for a minute.

Then dump in the chicken. To this add the sauce. Stir for a minute and add the green onions (cut both short and long) and the roasted cashews. Stir for a minute and serve.

This is a 30 minute meal that will beat out anything you get at a restaurant. It’s OK if you leave out the chili peppers, just lean more into the chili paste/Gochujang.

The left-overs are incredible. Sure, you can serve it on rice, but the goal tonight was to be starch-free.