Spicy Cashew Chicken

This is my recipe after taking a Thai cooking class at Sur La Table in Dallas.  I made some modifications to their recipe to gear it more around our taste buds.  I am a strong believer in my cooking tools and did purchase a Scanpan Wok, which is fabulous.  I took advantage of the 10% discount that they give during the classes!

I would suggest that your prep everything in early in the day.  It makes if much faster.  

Prep Ahead

1 medium size white onion - sliced thin but not chopped

3 Thai Chiles | Red bird Chiles - I leave the seeds in and just cut the stem off and dice.  

1 Red Pepper - sliced in strips

1 Green Pepper - sliced in strips

1 Bunch green onions - chopped 

Other Ingredients

3 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon flour

1/4 cup flour

2 chicken breasts -  pounded and sliced thin

1 cup dry roasted cashew nuts - pounded into chunks

3 tablespoons oyster sauce 

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 tablespoon Crushed Red Pepper (like the stuff you put on pizza, and I used very hot - may want to adjust this)

salt and pepper

Canola oil (don't olive, you need high heat oil)

Gather up your Prep ingredients from above

Put the chicken breast between two pieces of wax paper and pound them.  If you don't have a pounder typer tool, use the bottom of a glass.   Then cut the chicken into strips.    

Pour 1/4 cup of flour in a zip lock bag with some salt and pepper.  Put your chicken in there and give it a shake.  Shake off as much flour as your can.    Heat your pan to high and put in a 4 tablespoons of oil.  You may need more.  Put your chicken in and cook until light brown.  Remove from the pan. 

Mix in a little bowl or cup - 3 tablespoons of water with 1 tablespoon of flour.  Stir to dissolve the flour.

Now, this is the secret - which I learned in the class.   Put more oil in your pan (2 tablespoons) and brown your cashews.   After about 2 minutes, remove them and put them on a paper towel to get the grease off.   

Add a little more oil to your pan and add your white onion, red and green peppers, Thai chiles and cook until soft.  

Put the chicken back in and add the soy sauce and oyster sauce.   I added only half the flour water mixture and stirred.   Mix in cashews, red pepper and green onion.  Salt and Pepper to taste.

Serve alone, over rice, or with rice noodles.   Enjoy!

Saffie Leedy Farris
BubbleLife Media

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