Twice the Spice Chicken Cashew
Chunks of chicken meat are floured and fried until crisp, tossed in a sticky spicy sauce and garnished with bell peppers and crushed roasted cashew nuts.Right. This isn’t cashew chicken from the neighborhood Chinese restaurant. This is spicy crispy cashew chicken nuggets.
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breast fillets
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons Sriracha (Thai chili sauce)
- 2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chili paste)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon rice wine sake, mirin or Shaoxing
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
- cooking oil for deep frying
- ¼ to ⅓ cup tapioca starch or corn or potato
- ¼ cup roughly chopped roasted cashew nuts
Instructions
- Wipe the chicken breast fillets with paper towels. Cut into one-and-a-half-inch cubes. Toss with the salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Dice the bell pepper after discarding the seeds.
- In a bowl, mix together the Sriracha, gochujang, soy sauce, honey, rice wine, ginger and sesame seed oil.
- Start heating enough cooking oil in a wok or frying pan to reach a depth of two inches.
- Place the chicken cubes in a resealable bag. Add the starch. Shake well.
- When the oil is hot, fry the chicken cubes (in batches if your frying pan is rather small) over high heat until lightly browned and crisp. Scoop out and drain.
- Pour off the cooking oil leaving only about a tablespoonful.
- Stir fry the diced bell pepper with a little salt and pepper for about a minute. Scoop out and set aside.
- Pour the prepared sauce into the pan. Cook over medium heat for about a minute. Turn off the heat.
- Add the cooked chicken to the sauce. Toss to coat every pice. Add the diced bell pepper and half of the cashew nuts. Toss a few more times.
- Transfer the chicken and peppers to a serving plate or bowl. Sprinkle the remaining cashew nuts over the chicken.
- Serve the twice the spice chicken cashew at once.
Notes
Why use starch for flouring the chicken? Starch makes a crispier crust than wheat flour. And the crispiness is retained even after the fried chicken nuggets are tossed in the sticky spicy sauce.
Updated from a recipe originally published in 5/26/2016
Updated from a recipe originally published in 5/26/2016
