On tonight’s menu? Cashew Nut Chicken Stir-Fry with Cauliflower Fried Rice. The thing I love about this meal is it has that sort of comfort food kind of feel to it–sometimes when I want to veg, I want some really good Thai or Chinese food, and I can usually find this dish on both types of menus. What I appreciate about this recipe and making it at home is I know exactly what ingredients, and how much, are being added to the stir-fry. When you look at the breakdown of it, it’s a pretty clean recipe. On top of that, substituting the grains–rice–with cauliflower for the “fried rice” side dish, and keeping it a total veggie dish but with the consistency of rice tastes so yummy as it goes down, but doesn’t leave you feeling completely stuffed (as I do sometimes feel after the end of a rich, rice/noodle-heavy meal). Okay, so let’s dive in…!!
SHOPPING THE MEAL: When I grocery shop for the ingredients I want to use in my daily meals, I ALWAYS try to go for ‘organic’ items. Organic produce, meats, eggs, milks, and so forth. I realize ‘organic’ products tend to be more expensive, but I prefer to save in other areas in order to splurge on ‘organic’ food. With all of the hormones, preservatives, and unnatural elements that food corporations and distributors are allowing into conventional foods and farming these days, its hard not to bring up the question whether or not those are a big factor in a lot of the diseases and health issues our society is dealing with today. Enough ranting on my end about organic foods, but if you can save a little elsewhere and splurge on them, I highly suggest going for it! Okay–let’s shop. You’ll want to grab your organic chicken breasts–I usually like to get Simple Truth’s Natural Boneless/Skinless Organic Chicken Breasts. Then head over to your ‘sauces’ aisle…the aisle that has Asian-inspired food and spices tends to have the Low Sodium Soy Sauce, Hot Pepper Sauce, and surprisingly, the can of Water Chestnuts. When I was first shopping for this recipe, I kept trying to find the Water Chestnuts in the canned vegetables aisle, but they ended up being in the Asian-inspired food aisle, so take note ;-). Next grab your cashews, Low Sodium Chicken Broth (I like Pacific’s Low Sodium Organic/Free Range Chicken Broth), coconut milk, and eggs–make sure they’re organic & while pasture-raised is ideal, it may be easier to find free-range, and then head on over to the frozen food aisle. Here, make sure to grab some of the items you’ll want in your “fried rice.” You can grab frozen peas, carrots, broccoli, un-shelled edamame, green beans or corn. In my “fried rice,” I like to use mostly fresh produce, except for the peas, edamame, and corn–I’ll usually buy those frozen. Next, head on over to your baking aisle and make sure to grab Corn Starch for your stir-fry sauce. Once you’ve got that, don’t forget to grab your olive oil in the same aisle as the Ground Ginger spice (and Sea Salt and Black Pepper if you don’t have any at home). Last, let’s make a stop in the produce section. Again, if I can find the veggies and herbs I’ll need in the ‘Organic Veggie’ section, that’s what I get. Here you’ll want to grab your Green Bell Pepper and one small Yellow Onion for the cashew chicken stir-fry, as well as Garlic, a small bundle of Green Onion, Celery, one large Carrot and a small handful of Green Beans (if you didn’t already get frozen, and want carrots/green beans in your ‘rice’), and one medium head of Cauliflower.
PREPARING THE MEAL: Okay, so now we move into the kitchen. Let’s start out by heating a wok or a deep fry saute pan on Medium to Medium-High heat. Pour in the Chicken Broth and then stir in the Corn Starch, stirring until it dissolves. Then stir in the Soy Sauce, Ground Ginger, and Hot Sauce…stir until they’ve all dissolved and sauce is a little thickened. Pour into a bowl and set aside. Next, start cutting our chicken breasts into small strips or cube-sized strips. Heat up some olive oil on the same wok/deep fry pan, and add the chicken. Cook on Medium heat for about 5 minutes or until no more pink is showing, occasionally stirring/turning chicken strips. In the meantime, let’s get our water boiling in a cooking pot to place any of our frozen veggies into. If you bought carrots and/or green beans fresh, you can also chop these up into cubes/small halves and add them in the boiling water with whatever frozen veggies you’ve chose to include. Once the water’s come to a boil, turn down to Medium-Mid./High heat and steam veggies until they’re tender (about 3-4 minutes). Drain water, and set steamed veggies aside in a bowl. Don’t forget to head back over to your cooking chicken, and once it’s cooked through, remove the chicken from the saute pan and set aside. Now let’s take our head of cauliflower. Rinse it and cut off the big stalky parts on the end. Take the florets and chop them up in a food processor until they resemble the size of rice. Now, let’s chop up our celery and green onion that we’re going to add into the cauliflower rice–once you’ve done so, set aside. In the same wok/pan we cooked the chicken sauce and chicken in, heat up the remaining olive oil and stir in the onion, green bell pepper, and water chestnuts. Cook until water chestnuts are hot and onions are softened–about 5 minutes or so. Then, stir up the sauce we set aside in the beginning and add to the pan of onions, bell pepper and water chestnuts. Stir occasionally and heat until it boils. In a separate deep fry pan or wok, let’s heat up some olive oil and saute our cauliflower “rice” in it on Medium heat for about 5 minutes (until tender but still firm). Add our steamed veggies to the mix, as well as our celery, chopped green onion, sea salt, black pepper, and minced garlic, stirring occasionally. Cook for another 4-5 minutes. Now, whisk our eggs together with a little coconut milk in a small cup, and start cooking them in a small separate frying pan, with a slab of butter on Medium High heat. Add a little salt and pepper to the eggs, and stir as you cook them until they’re scrambled and fluffy. Toss the scrambled eggs into our cauliflower “rice” mixture and cook a little more, but without letting cauliflower get soggy. Back to our onion/bell pepper/water chestnuts pan. Add the chicken back into that pan and stir until it’s covered in the sauce, mixed in with the veggies, and hot. Add the cashews and cook for one more minute. Both dishes (the stir-fry and rice) should be about done. Make sure you’ve constantly been stirring both occasionally and set heat settings on your stove accordingly as they cook. Spoon your delicious recipes onto a plate, and voila! Enjoy!
CASHEW CHICKEN STIR-FRY:
1 lb. Organic Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast, cubed or cut into strips
2/3 cups Low Sodium Organic Chicken Broth
2 Tablespoons Corn Starch
3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/2 teaspoon Hot Pepper Sauce
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil (or can use vegetable oil if you’d like)
1 Small Yellow Onion, chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
1 can of sliced Water Chestnuts (8 oz.), drained
2/3 cups Cashews
(SEE DIRECTIONS ABOVE ON HOW TO PREPARE)
CAULIFLOWER ‘FRIED RICE’:
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1-2 Tablespoons Butter (for cooking eggs)
2-3 Large Organic, Free-Range Eggs
Splash of Coconut Milk, whisk together with eggs
Frozen peas, carrots, corn, broccoli, green beans, un-shelled edamame, equaling 1 cup total (you can also substitute some of the frozen veggies such as the carrots, edamame or broccoli with fresh produce, and chop into small cubes/halves)
1/4 cup of Celery, thinly sliced
6 Green Onions, thinly chopped
1-2 Cloves of Minced Garlic
1 Medium head of Cauliflower, shredded to look like ‘rice’
2 Tablespoons Low Sodium Soy Sauce
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste
(SEE DIRECTIONS ABOVE ON HOW TO PREPARE)
**Ideally it’s good to have a few different pots/pans for this recipe to keep the cooking flow going during preparation. Two woks or deep fry sauteing pans, one small frying pan, and one small-medium cooking pot is great!