Years ago, I ordered cashew chicken (or chicken with cashews) at a Chinese restaurant–it was delicious! The cashews were nearly carmelized, which is what I liked the most about the dish. Whenever I’ve ordered this dish since, though, it has never been anything similar to what I was served before. Most of the time, it is chicken in a creamy-type sauce to which cashews have been added.
I’m thinking that maybe it was a stir-fry, but all of the recipes I’ve been able to turn up (so far) on the internet have the cashews added at the end, and most of them are the “chicken in a creamy sauce” type. Was the dish prepared incorrectly the first time I had it? Is there a recipe out there for a chicken with cashews that has the cashews cooked in the dish, to the point of near carmelization? I’ve tried the creamy-sauce type dish and didn’t like it much at all, unfortunately. I think it’s a stir-fry recipe, but haven’t had any luck in finding a recipe for it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
My girlfriend makes insanely good cashew chicken, and it’s definitely not “creamy” in any way. I know one of her secrets is sherry (sp) wine. I’ll get the rest from her tonight when she gets home and post it.
I had a recipe for kung pao chicken that called for the peanuts to be stir-fried separately until they were browned a bit, then removed from the pan and set aside until the end. Maybe that’s what they did?
The phrase “break the glaze with some wine” comes to mind.
You get a glaze in the pan from cooking the chicken, toss in the nuts and splash some wine or dumpling sause (soy sauce being too salty) and stir like hell. They brown nicely.
Well you could start with a smoking hot dry wok and sprinkle a little salt and a half teaspoon of sugar in …immediately add the cashews and keep them moving. Stir fry them for a couple of minutes and remove them, follow the regular recipe and add the cashews at the last minute.
Did the cashews seem sweeter than usual? Honeyed walnuts (which are deep-fried walnuts that are covered in a sweet sugar glaze) figure in Chinese cooking sometimes; maybe this particular restaurant honeyed their cashews as well.