- 4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds total), cut into 1-inch cubes
- Peanut oil (about 3/4 cup, can substitute other vegetable oil)
- Chili Powder (about 3 Tbsp)
- Tamari (about 1/2 cup) (if you don't have access to tamari you can substitute soy sauce, use Wheat-free tamari or soy sauce if you need to cook gluten-free)
- Honey (about 1/2 cup)
- 2 cups raw cashews
- Salt
- 3 cups roughly chopped onions (about 2 medium large onions) I added one medium yellow onion and one medium purple onion
- 3 cups roughly chopped mushrooms
Optional
- 1-2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
- 1/4 cup chopped green onion greens
I added both the ginger and onion, we usually make some sort of Chinese food twice a week and by far this is the best cashew chicken I have ever had.
1 Marinate the chicken. Place the cubed chicken in a medium bowl. Add the oil. Add the tamari until the marinade turns dark brown (about 2 Tbsp per breast). Sprinkle the chili powder over the chicken pieces while stirring, so that each piece of chicken gets well coated with the chili powder and marinade. Stir in the honey, about 2 tablespoons for each breast. Add chopped ginger if using. Marinate for 1/2 hour to several hours, the longer the better.
2 Heat a skillet on medium high heat. Spread the cashews in a single layer over the bottom of the pan. Stir until lightly browned, remove from heat.
3 Heat a large skillet on medium high heat. (it spatters i think due to the honey so make sure you have a splatter screen, I didn't and had a mess to clean up after dinner) Working in batches if needed so you don't crowd the pan, use tongs to remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and place them in the pan, reserving the extra marinade. Sauté the chicken pieces until just cooked through, remove from the pan and set aside. Place any extra marinade back in the pan and simmer for several minutes (to kill any bacteria). Pour off all but 1 Tbsp of the marinade into a separate bowl and reserve.
4 In the same pan, sauté the onions on medium high to high heat for several minutes. Add mushrooms and continue to sauté until onions are translucent and mushrooms are cooked, several minutes more. Add some reserved marinade to the pan if necessary.
5 Combine chicken, mushrooms, onions, with the cashews. Stir in onion greens (if using) right before serving. Serve over rice.
Makes: Serves 4-6.