If you love cashews like I do, then this is a glorious dish. The chicken which is 'velveted' in Shaoxing and corn flour is beautifully soft, and a gorgeous contrast to the roasted cashews.
Although some versions of this recipe use hoisin, my preference is to use a good quality oyster sauce. Combined with soy sauce, more Shaoxing and sesame oil, it makes for a lovely sauce.
The key, as with many stir fry type dishes, is to cook the ingredients in batches before combining them all at the end. If you add too many ingredients at once, then they just won't fry!
Check out my Instagram reel and see how I make it!
For the chicken marinade:
3 chicken breasts
1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
¼ - ½ teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of cornflour
For the sauce:
3 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
2-3 tablespoons of light soy
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
3 tablespoons of water
Good pinch of white pepper
For the stir fry:
2 tablespoons veg oil
1 large white onion
1 green pepper
2-4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons of finely chopped ginger
90g roasted cashews
- Cut the chicken breasts into 2-3cm chunks.
- Place the chicken in a large bowl with the remaining marinade ingredients and stir well to combine.
- Mix together all of the sauce ingredients in a small jug or bowl.
- Peel the onion and cut it into bite-sized chunks.
- Cut the pepper in half and remove the seeds, then cut into bite-sized chunks.
- Peel the garlic cloves and slice thinly.
- Peel the ginger and finely dice.
- Heat the oil in a large sauté pan (or wok) over a medium heat.
- Once the oil is really hot, add ⅓ or ½ the chicken to the pan (depending on the size of the pan) and stir, keeping the chicken pieces moving until they have some colour and no pink meat is visible.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and repeat for the rest of the chicken, then set aside.
- Add the onion, pepper, garlic and ginger to the hot pan and stir, keeping the vegetables moving, until the edges colour and soften.
- Return the chicken to the pan along with the cashews.
- Reduce the heat, stir to combine the ingredients and then pour in the sauce. Stir again.
- Cook for a few minutes more until the chicken is just cooked through.
- Serve with jasmine rice.
