Cashew Chicken

We wanted to try something totally different in the wake of Thanksgiving and cashew chicken was just the ticket.  This recipe is adapted from this one over at Simply Recipes.   I wanted to try to lighten things up a bit so that the dish would actually fit into my daily calorie allotment.  I upped the veggies tremendously and axed the onions since hubby isn’t a fan.  This works out to 3 servings at 524 calories and 32.3 grams of fat without the rice.

Ingredients:

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1.5 tablespoons chili powder
  • .375 cup (half of 3/4ths cup) vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
  • 1 cup frozen stir fry veggies, thawed
  • 2 medium zucchini, diced
  • 1/2 cup shelled edamame
  • 1 1/2 cup mushrooms, rough chopped
  • 1 cup roasted cashews
  • 1/2 cup green onions, minced

Directions:

  1. Mix the oil, soy sauce, ginger, chili powder, and honey.
  2. Add the chicken to the marinade and allow to marinate at least 30 minutes, the longer the better.
  3. Meanwhile, chop your veggies and start your rice.
  4. Heat a skillet over high heat and toast the cashews, moving frequently, 2-3 minutes.
  5. Heat a wok over medium high heat.  Remove the chicken from the marinade and add to the pan.  You may have to cook in batches so as not to crowd the pan.  Saute until just cooked through.
  6. Remove the chicken to a bowl.
  7. Pour the remaining marinade into the pan and simmer for several minutes in order to kill off any bacteria.
  8. Pour all but one tablespoon of the marinade into a separate bowl.
  9. Add the zucchini and saute until almost tender.
  10. Add the mushrooms and saute until tender.
  11. Pour the zucchini and mushrooms in with the chicken.
  12. Add another tablespoon of marinade to the pan and saute the edamame and stir fry vegetables until tender crisp.
  13. Add the chicken, zucchini, and mushrooms back to the pan.  (you should wind up with approximately 1/2 a cup of marinade remaining to toss–you could use it if you want more sauce on the stir fry, but it has a lot of fat and calories).
  14. Add the cashews and green onions.  Stir well.
  15. Serve over white rice.

Printable version.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.