Chicken and Cashews in Lettuce Cups

Who doesn’t love a dinner of fun Chinese food?  It’s even better when you make it yourself and know the ingredients being used.

This recipe is from Real Simple, May 2008.

Substitutions made, noted below.

3 tblsp low-sodium soy sauce
3 tblsp honey
2 tblsp canola oil
1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 3/4 inch pcs – I used turkey breast
pepper
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tblsp grated ginger – I used 1/4 tsp dried
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and sliced – I used green onions
1 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained – skipped this
1/4 c roasted unsalted cashews
1 small head Boston or Bibb lettuce, leaves separated – I used Romaine

Combine the soy sauce and honey in a small bowl; set aside.  I used a small whisk to mix these properly.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over med-high heat.  2 tblsp of oil is A LOT, I would cut this in half.

Season the chicken with 1/2 tsp pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown, about 3 minutes.

Lower heat to med and stir in the garlic and ginger.  Add the scallions and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in the water chestnuts and half the soy sauce mixture and continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and sprinkle with the cashews.

Divide the lettuce leaves among individual plates and spoon the chicken over the top.  Serve with the remaining soy sauce mixture for drizzling.

I served these with chicken pot stickers and steamed pork buns from Trader Joes.  The chicken/cashew mixture was pretty good, not quite level with PF Changs, but pretty close.  In the future, I would use ground chicken or turkey, use a bit more dried ginger and add a little spice, white pepper?  Red Pepper flakes?  It needed a little bit of heat.