Nutty chicken and noodles

Today I fancied something super Asian with chicken, vegetables and noodles. To be honest, I could eat Asian almost every day for a month without getting fed up, as long as the odd meatball was thrown in every so often. Love it, love it, love it. Chinese, Thai, Japanese... Bring it on!

In my quest to pin our meals to 52 different countries this year, I wanted to know exactly which nation that proudly claimed Cashew Chicken. I assumed it would be China. It wasn't. It was America. Who knew that the traditional Cashew Chicken dish was invented by a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Springfield, Missouri to suit the American taste? Mind blowing, but finding out yet again proved the old saying that you learn something new every day.

The knowledge of the meal's origin scuppered my international plans today. There is no way I'm pinning this Asian inspired dish to America, when there are so many things I want to cook from the land of the steaks, ribs and smoked stuff. Not that I was planning ahead as such before Christmas, but there is now a hot smoker in our household. Once we finally get some decent BBQ weather, there may be an American dish or two made in it. Until then, there will be noodles.

I believe the original Cashew Chicken dish featured deep fried chicken, but I'm not entirely sure. Thinking of my waist line, I shy away from deep fried food. I love it, don't get me wrong and I will happily eat it every so often if offered. I will however not cook it myself, so if I come across a recipe that mentions deep frying, I will either keep searching or adapt the recipe to suit me. As luck would have it, during a Pinterest mission I found an already adapted recipe, made my My Natural Family.

Although it was already ready to go, I still made my own amendments to match what I had at home and this is what I used:

1 kg chicken fillets, cubed

2-3 tbsp corn flour

2 peppers, sliced

1 courgette, cubed

1 large carrot, mandolinned

1/2 leek, cut into sticks

1 onion, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

a small piece of ginger, finely chopped

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (soy sauce would have been much better and less vinegary)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/3 cup honey

salt & pepper

chilli flakes to taste

1. Prepare all vegetables and set aside.

2. Cut the chicken and place in a big bowl. Add the corn starch and mix well, until the cubes are evenly coated. 

3. Soften the carrot and leek sticks for the noodles in a little oil in a small pan.

Knowing now how long the chicken would take, I could have waited with these vegetables. I ended up cooking and putting them aside, to heat up later.

4. Season the noodle vegetables according to your liking.

I had a jar of hoisin & five spice sauce, which I used a couple of spoons of. Not nice! I love hoisin sauce, but prefer to stay well clear of the five spice mixture. It was a big mistake to use this sauce, but it was in my fridge and I didn't want it to go to waste. The rest of it has now been poured out and the jar has been recycled. Getting rid of it is the most clever thing I have done lately. In the future, never run out of soy sauce for seasoning and if you do, use sweet chilli sauce. 

5. In a large pan, brown the chicken. 

This was meant to be done in 15 minutes, according to the recipe. It took forever. Never trust a recipe, not even mine. Actually,  I don't recommend ever trusting my recipes. Use them as guidelines if you wish, but always remember that anything can happen in my kitchen and it often does.

This time, I reckon the chicken was full of water and it all came out when I started to cook, seriously delaying the browning process. Patience is the key. Wash up and clear up the kitchen while you wait. This is advice I will keep offering and it is something I live by. I never start making something new until I have cleared up after my previous adventure. Having a small kitchen makes this habit extra important. Rather than leaving something out to clutter the work surface, I'd rather wash it up and put it away, only to take it back out later. Yes, I have to open a cupboard twice, not exactly hard work.

6. Set the browned chicken aside and soften the onion. Add garlic, ginger, pepper and courgette and cook for a while. You don't want the pepper to go soggy, so don't cook it too long.

7. Add the chicken back into the pan and mix with the vegetables.

8. Mix the sauce ingredients: soy sauce (I don't recommend using balsamic vinegar, like I did), honey, fresh garlic or powder, fresh ginger or ground, salt, pepper and chilli flakes. Pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetables.

9. While the chicken mixture is cooking with the sauce, boil the noodles and start warming up the vegetables for the noodles.

I used Sharwood's fine egg noodles, but the choice is yours. If you are a low carb person, I can recommend adding finely sliced cabbage to the carrot and leek pan and stir frying it at this stage. Cabbage with a bit of bite left in it is a great substitute for noodles.

10. Mix the noodles and vegetables.

11. Sprinkle chopped cashews over the chicken and add a little leaf coriander if you wish. 

As well as having run out of soy sauce (terrible, I know and it will never happen again), I also didn't have any cashews. Who cooks Cashew Chicken without cashews? Oh well, peanuts did the trick. I thought I may as well own up to it, as someone may spot the shape of some of the nuts. This is why I called the dish Nutty Chicken and noodles instead of using it's proper name. 

12. Enjoy!

I would have enjoyed this meal so much more if I hadn't used the stupid five spice sauce for the noodles and if I hadn't trusted the recipe and believed that balsamic vinegar would be a good substitute for soy. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I shall try and try again and hopefully make it better next time, or the time after. This recipe has potential.