Next time you are tempted to get take-out, ditch that idea and try this recipe. A chicken cashew stir-fry with broccoli, shimeji mushrooms, carrots, ginger, garlic and cashew nuts, all tossed in a slurry with light soy sauce and sesame oil. The chicken is incredibly tender, the vegetables aren't mushy and the cashew nuts take the stir-fry to another level. Utterly delicious!
Especially when you're looking for something quick to put together, and you aren't in the mood to stand for ages to get a meal ready, then this is the one. The good thing is that you could put your rice into the rice cooker and by the time the chicken cashew stir fry is ready, so will the rice.
If you aren't a meat-eater or you just want to switch it up, then this tofu stir-fry is also an amazing alternative. Want to make it even more colourful? Then add a side of this pink rice and a small side of kelewele.
If you are looking for other chicken recipes then you can also check out this charcoal-grilled spatchcock chicken, groundnut soup with chicken or udon stir-fry.
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Ingredients for Chicken Cashew Stir-Fry
Generally, for stir-fries, you want to get your vegetables, protein, the slurry with soy sauce (and any other sauce) and then mix that all together quickly over high heat, and voila!
Instructions
The first thing to do is to tenderise the chicken and I typically do that by adding some water and baking powder to the pieces. I then let that sit for about 10 minutes and wash the baking powder off. The chicken is then marinated with some light soy sauce and a bit of chopped garlic.
After this, the chicken is fried and set to the side and then the stir-frying can begin. First, the onions, garlic, and ginger are fried for a short period and then the broccoli is added to the pan.
The carrots can also go in. As the broccoli and carrots take a while to get soft (not mushy!), they are fried for a few minutes. After that, the mushrooms go in and then the cashew nuts. The slurry consisting of light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, corn starch, and water is then added to get that nice velvety finish Lastly, the spring onions are added and the heat is turned off.
Substitutions
- Mushrooms - instead of shimeji mushrooms, you can use any other kind readily available to you.
- Grilled Chicken - if you have any leftover grilled chicken, you can use that instead of preparing fresh chicken.
- Bell Peppers - these add an amazing smell and flavour to the stir fry and you can use these instead of broccoli.
Variations
- Pork or Beef - you can also make this stir-fry using pork or beef. You can use the same baking powder method to tenderise the meat.
Chicken Cashew Stir-Fry Recipe
Ingredients
- 100 grams chicken cut into thin strips or slices
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- light soy sauce
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 medium onion cut into large squares
- 1½ teaspoon ginger blended or grated
- handful broccoli florets
- 1 large carrots cut into thin slices
- handful shimejii mushrooms
- handful cashew nuts
- 1 teaspoon red chili pepper powder
- vegetable oil
Slurry
- ½ tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 100 ml water approximately
Instructions
- Add baking powder to chicken with about 5 tablespoons of water and leave for 10 minutes.
- Rinse baking powder off and add about 3 tablespoons of light soy sauce and a quarter of a teaspoon of garlic to the chicken and leave to marinate for about 10 minutes
- Fry chicken in hot wok or pan with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil for about 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
- In the same wok add some vegetable oil and quickly fry onions, garlic and ginger for 1 minute.
- Add broccoli and carrots and stir for about 3 minutes.
- Add mushrooms stir, for a further minute and then add the slurry, as well as tabout 1 teaspoon if red chilli powder.
- Add cashew nuts and then lastly the spring onions. Stir for a further 2 minutes and turn off the heat.
- Serve with rice.
Video
Notes
- Taste for salt and only add if necessary. Soy sauce has enough salt as is, especially light soy sauce but you can add some more if it is not enough for you.
- If you need your chicken cashew stir-fry to have more sauce, you will need to make more of the slurry.
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