Thai Stir Fried Chicken with Cashew Nuts
(Excellent mid-week supper which is quick and easy to prepare)
This recipe is based on one of the dishes that that we cooked whilst attending the excellent Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School www.asiascenic.com in Chang Mai (you will find the original recipe by following the link). We were over there last November and this school came highly recommended to us by our guide on a 2 day trek we did in the Thai hills around Chang Mai.
Having attended other Thai cooking schools on previous trips I was a bit wary of going especially as we were attending as a family, including my 13 and 9 year all daughters. But it turn out to be a great success, the teacher's English was excellent, the ingredients were all fresh from a local market which we also visited and all of us were able to prepare the meals from scratch. The best part, which goes without saying, was eating the meals hot straight from the wok. Having said that I still occasionally wake up in a cold sweat thinking of the large knifes and wok of boiling oil my 9 year old daughter used to cook her meals but she thought it was great.
The ingredients I have used here are nor exactly the same as what we had in the cookery school but that is the beauty of this dish is that you can improvise with what you have in the fridge. The main thing about this dish is to get everything chopped and ready before hand because once you start cooking it comes together quickly.
Ingredients
Serves 4
For this dish you want your ingredients to be similar in size as demonstrated in the picture above.
500g chicken thighs cut into 5 or 6 slices (you don't want them too thick or they won't cook all the way through)
120g cashew nuts
1 onion cut in half then into slices
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 carrot pealed and sliced
1/2 red pepper sliced
1 pak-choi rip leaves to even size
1 spring onion diced
5 red dry chillies
2tbs cooking oil
3tbs oyster sauce
2tbs fish sauce
1tbs brown sugar
Using a frying pan place it on a medium heat and add the cashew nuts. Occasional toss the nuts until they have turned a golden brown then remove from the heat and allow to rest.
Place the oil in a wok on high heat and when it starts to bubble add the onions, stir gently for a couple of minutes then add the garlic and dried chillies (turn the heat down slightly or they will burn)
Add the carrots and keep stirring for another minute
Add the chicken and cook for a minute but keep stirring
Add the peppers and pak-choi, after a minute turn up the heat to full and add the oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Keeping stirring gently for a further 3 to 4 minutes and when the chicken has cooked through add the cashew nuts and spring onions to garnish and serve with boiled rice.
