Cashew Chicken

 I am a fan of American Chinese Cooking and have been since I was a teenager and ate it for the first time in Minneapolis. The rest will put up with eating it so I can have some and here is a take on Cashew Chicken that everyone liked. Bettie likes hers spicer than me so she added some Hoisin sauce to hers. I use the tubes of grated ginger as it keeps so much better than ginger root. In the refrigerator section of our local store with the salad ingredients is where I find it.

 I started out with a basic recipe so I would have the amounts and then changed ingredients to what I had on hand and that we like. I almost always have cooked chicken breasts in the freezer and also cooked mushrooms frozen. I used thinly sliced baby carrots and celery and canned sliced water chestnuts. The most time for this dish is cooking the rice and if you have some rice frozen you are really going to get a meal fast. Add the vegetables you have on hand though this combination was excellent. Just remember to slice the carrots thinly so they cook in a short time but still stay crisp.

Cashew Chicken

Ingredients

½ cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 tablespoons soy sauce

3/4 teaspoon minced fresh ginger or ½ teaspoon ground ginger 

½ teaspoon red pepper sauce (or chinese red chili sauce)

1 teaspoon molasses

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 pound of boneless chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces 

1 cup thinly diagonally sliced celery

½ cup thinly sliced carrots

1 can sliced water chestnuts

4 ounces or half of a 8 ounce package of fresh mushrooms sliced

1 cup cashews (whole and pieces are less expensive and work fine)

Directions

 Mix broth, cornstarch, soy sauce, ginger, pepper sauce and molasses. Set aside.

 If using fresh raw chicken heat large skillet. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil, add chicken and stir fry till done Remove chicken and keep warm. If using already cooked chicken skip this step.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet add the celery and carrots, stir fry 2 to 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, water chestnuts, cashews and the cooked chicken, cook and stir fry 4 to 5 minutes. Add the cornstarch mixture to vegetables and cook about 1 minute or until sauce thickens. Serve with hot rice if desired.