Cashew Chicken

One thing we absolutely love to use our chicken for is making traditional 'take-away' dishes taste even better and with fresher ingredients. We've made pizzas, Indian curries, fried chicken, morrocan tagines and more! I don't think any come close in terms of simplicity to this Chicken Cashew recipe but my goodness it might taste the best! By Jennifer Segal, inspired by Everyday Food: Great Food Fast by Martha Stewart Living.

Ingredients

4 x Free Range or Organic Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast Fillets, or 1 x 1kg bag Frozen Diced Chicken Fillet

• 100g roasted, unsalted cashews
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 6 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 8 Spring Onions (1 bunch), white and green parts separated, each cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 4 tablespoons hoisin sauce, best quality such as Kikkoman or Lee Kum Kee
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 60ml water
• 1/4 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

Method

1. Begin by lightly toasting your cashews. Either do this by lining them on a baking sheet and placing in a medium oven for around 5 minutes, or by dry-frying in a pan. You will know when they're done by the smell!
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the water, cornstarch, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce.
3. In a separate larger bowl, add the diced chicken and season with a little salt and pepper.
4. Preheat a non-stick pan on a high heat. Add a tbsp of vegetable oil and half of the chicken. Fry on high until all sides of the meat have turned a golden brown. Remove from the pan and transfer to a plate.
5. Add another tbsp of vegetable oil and fry the other half of the chicken meat. Transfer this to the same plate.
6. Add the last tbsp of vegetable oil and still fry the garlic and white parts of the spring onions for 30 seconds. Be careful that the heat is not too high as overcooked garlic is bitter!
7. Return the seared chicken to the pan, and turn the heat down to medium.
8. Add the rice vinegar; cook until evaporated, about 30 seconds.
9. Add the sauce mixture to the chicken; cook, tossing, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is nicely thickened, about 1 minute.
10. Remove from the heat. Stir in the greens of the spring onions, cashews and sesame oil. Serve immediately.