Chicken Cashew Lettuce Wraps
Two posts in one week??? Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. My goal is to post at least post once a week.
But this afternoon I turned to my boyfriend and asked "Whatcha want for dinner?" He responded "White Meat." Chicken ?!? Now here's where I tell you a little bit about myself.....I HATE cooking chicken. I hate cutting it, touching it, buying it, everything about it. It's a weird phobia I have that I'm just not going to cook it right and therefore I end up over-cooking. That being said, I decided to be a nice girlfriend and go for it. We looked through my recipe Pins and while he's not a huge fan of nuts, we both agreed on Cashew Chicken (the most acceptable nut, he says).
I head to the gym and on the way home, head to Fresh and Easy (seriously, get used to it!). Thanks to having a pretty stocked pantry, I have 4 things on my list:
2 chicken breasts - ended up buying pre-cut super lean chicken strips (no cutting!!)
1 onion - while you can buy diced onion, I went for the whole onion to dice myself
Lettuce - stayed away from Iceberg Lettuce and bought Boston Lettuce
Cashews - bought the most natural ones I could find - not roasted, no extra salt, etc
I also ended up buying Exotic Stir-Fry Mix Veggies so that I could add some more vegetables to the dish besides lettuce.
Other things you need that I grabbed out of the pantry: Brown sugar, red pepper, canola oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic cloves, ground ginger.
Step One: I got everything set up. I find it's easier to cut everything before I start cooking so I don't have to worry about anything once I get going, in case anything cooks faster than expected. Not much prep for this dish. Chopped the onion and diced the garlic and left the together on the cutting board since they go into the dish together. Make the stir-fry sauce. I doubled the recipe so I could put some on the Stir-Fry Veggies too.
Step Two: Heat a pan with Canola Oil. Once it's nice and hot, start cooking the chicken. The chicken needs to get fully cooked and start browning. Once it's brown, put it on a plate, leaving the oil in the pan.
Step Three: Throw the onions, garlic, and soy sauce in the pan and start cooking and browning. At this point, I heated a little sesame oil in another pan and began cooking the Stir-Fry Veggies. ***This is where the wine started coming in
Step Four: Once the onions are brown, toss the chicken back in, half the stir-fry sauce, and the cashews. I then put sauce on the Stir Fry Veggies that were nice and cooked by now. I didn't quite need half so I put the rest in with the chicken. Now I just let things simmer for a little. The veggies only took about 2 minutes and I let the chicken go until a cashew was warm and soft.
Chicken Cashew Lettuce Wrap: SUCCESS 3.75/5 Stars
The original recipe came from Amy at She Wears Many Hats
CHICKEN CASHEW LETTUCE WRAPS
Serves: Makes 6-8 lettuce wraps.
INGREDIENTS
For stir fry sauce:
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground red pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
For Cashew Chicken:
- 2 chicken breasts (about ¾ lb. total), diced
- 8 leaves of greenleaf or iceburg lettuce
- 3 tablespoons canola oil (or oil of choice)
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- ¼ cup cashews, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
For stir fry sauce:
- Mix all stir fry sauce ingredients making sure to dissolve brown sugar. Set aside.
For Cashew Chicken:
- Heat canola oil in pan over medium to medium high heat. Add diced chicken and brown (about 4-5 minutes). Remove chicken from oil. Add onions, garlic and 1 teaspoon soy sauce to pan; brown. When onions and garlic are brown and tender, add stir fry sauce, browned chicken, and cashews. Saute mixture for a few minutes and remove from heat.
- Spoon chicken mixture into individual lettuce leaves. Add your favorite hot sauce, more cashews or basil.
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