Kung Pao Chicken With Cashews

Submitted by dawnie2u

"I have been looking for this recipe for years, and finally found it. I am posting it here for safe keeping. If it is as good as I remember, it will be a five-star recipe. I made this last night, and it was good. My changes are in parenthesis. I would definitely add the hoisin sauce for a little sweetness."

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 22
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 3 tablespoons chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄8 teaspoon white pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (my addition)
• 1 1⁄2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil, divided use
• 6 small dried hot chili peppers (8)
• 1⁄2 cup cashews (1 1/2 c)
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1⁄4 teaspoon fresh ginger (to taste)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon minced garlic (4 cloves)
• 2 whole scallions, cut in 1/2-inch slices (one bunch)
• 8 ounces sliced water chestnuts, drained
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce (this is my addition but Zaar is being touchy and won't let me enclose it in parenthesis)
• cooked rice

directions

1. Cooking sauce:In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon dry sherry, 3 tablespoons chicken broth, red pepper flakes and 2 teaspoons each sugar and cornstarch. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine 1 tablespoon sherry, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon white pepper. Add chicken and coat well. Stir in 1 tablespoon peanut oil, and let stand 15 minutes to marinate.
3. Heat wok over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil. Add chile peppers and nuts; stir until peppers begin to char. Remove and set aside. Add remaining 2 tablespoons peanut oil and increase heat to high.
4. Add chicken, stir fry unti chicken is almost done.
5. Add the onions, garlic, chiles and cashews. Stir fry for a minute.
6. Stir cooking sauce and add to wok. Cook, stirring until sauce bubbles and thickens. Serve over steamed rice.

Reviews

[mianbao]

This came out quite nice. I'm regretting leaving out the hoisin sauce now, because I don't know if that would have changed "quite nice" to "wonderful" or not. For that reason, I'm leaving off stars. I scaled the amount of chicken, and the marinade, but left the amounts of the ingredients of the sauce as is. I Asianized the ingredients by using rice vinegar and Chinese rice wine, instead of wine vinegar and sherry. I live in Asia, it's just cheaper and more convenient for me. Instead of water chestnuts, I used par-boiled bamboo shoot, green bell peppers, and the green onions called for. I gave the finished dish a drizzle of sesame oil. Very nice. Thank you for sharing this with us. I was particularly interested in how the cashews were cooked. It's a change from the usual deep frying, and seemed to work fine.