Hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to deconstructing Americanized Chinese cuisine with a shot at the Cashew Chicken from PF Chang’s, courtesy of a request via youtube a few months back. For those new to the channel, in this series, we have been deconstructing iconically Americanized dishes from Chinese cuisine, and seeing what it might look like if we were to cook the dish through the lens of more traditional Chinese wok cooking. This dish is a great example of how the Americanization of Asian cuisine centers a lot around just jamming as many goddamn things as we possibly can into one dish. The PF Chang’s cashew chicken as I understand contains bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, celery, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, almonds, cashews, and of course, chicken. Which, good lord. That is a LOT of things to shove into a stir fry, many of which are simply filler ingredients, like water chestnuts, celery, and almonds.
So! For our version today, we’re gonna be dialing back our ingredients list a good bit so that we might place a bit more focus on our cashews, which I personally think is a really wonderful toothsome addition to a stir fry, and would be a shame if we drowned it out with filler ingredients. Then to pair with this, I’ll also be assembling a fairly light and acid forward sauce base with just a tiny bit of black bean paste to give us a bump of umami as well. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
3 medium chicken thighs
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
4-5 Thai chiles
1 red bell pepper
1/2 medium white onion
peanut oil
corn starch slurry (2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water)
sesame seeds
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp black bean sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
INGREDIENTS (marinade)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp corn starch
PREP
CRUSH and mince 4 cloves of garlic, set aside
MINCE ginger, set aside
SLICE the Thai chiles, set aside
LARGE DICE the bell pepper, set aside
LARGE DICE the onion, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
DICE the chicken, then combine with all marinade ingredients and let marinate for 30 minutes
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the chicken to the wok, holding back as much liquid as possible, then spread out flat on the wok surface and let sear undisturbed for 2.5 minutes
TOSS the wok and tilt the side of the wok toward the open flame of the stove to ignite the chicken fat for wok hei (optional)
REMOVE the chicken and deglaze the fond with sauce mixture plus 1/2 cup water
LET sauce reduce by 20% or about 2 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside
WIPE down the wok, reheat, add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic, ginger, and Thai chiles and toss for 15 seconds until fragrant
ADD the bell pepper and toss for 2 minutes
ADD the onion and toss for an additional 2 minutes
ADD the chicken back to the wok, followed by the sauce mixture and toss to combine
ADD the corn starch slurry gradually until the sauce thickens to desired thickness
REMOVE from heat and finish with sesame seeds