Pictorial: Chicken Cashews in Bean/Hoisin Sauce

[hzrt8w]

Chicken with Cashew Nuts in Bean/Hoisin Sauce (醬爆鸡)

(a.k.a. "Cashew Chicken" in some Szechuan/Beijing style restaurants)

jo-mel: I know you like Northern style Chinese cooking. This recipe is for you. I learned this recipe from a respectable top chef in a Chinese restaurant ("Mandarin" style) in San Diego. It is one of the best sellers. It is fairly easy to make. If you have some chili bean sauce, brown bean sauce and hoisin sauce and other basic seasoning ingredients, you are all set.

Serving suggestion: 3 to 4

Basic ingredients. Use 3 boneless chicken breasts (about 2 lbs). 3/4 bag of cashew nuts (about 10 oz). Back row from left to right: corn starch, brown bean sauce, chili bean sauce, sweet flour sauce (this is similar to hoisin sauce but sharper and salty), and chicken broth. (Not shown in picture: hoisin sauce)

Trim fat from chicken breasts. Dice into 1 inch cubes.

Marinate the chicken in a mixing bowl. Use 3 tsp of sesame oil, 2 tsp of ground white pepper, 3 tsp of light soy sauce, 2 tsp of Shao Hsing cooking wine, 2 tsp of corn starch (not shown).

Mix chicken and seasoning well. Set aside for about 20 minutes in room temperature, or 1 hour in the refrigerator before cooking.

Use a pan/wok, first dry-roast over medium heat about 3/4 bag of cashew nuts (about 10 oz) for a few minutes until slightly caramelized. You may also add 1 tblsp of cooking oil. Be cautious that the oil will brown the cashnuts very quickly. Remove from pan.

Add 2 tblsp of cooking oil in the pan, set stove for high heat. Velvet the chicken meat until pink color has just disappeared. (Note: don't overcook it.) Remove from pan.

Deglazing and making the sauce:

Use the same pan, add 2 tblsp of cooking oil. Maintain stove setting at high. Wait until oil starts fuming. Add about 3-4 cloves of minced garlic, 2 tsp of chili bean sauce, 2 tsp of brown bean sauce, 2 tsp of sweet flour sauce, 4-5 tsp of hoisin sauce. Dash in 2 tsp of white vinegar. Stir well. (Note: No extra salt is needed because most of these sauces are quite salty.)

Continue to cook the mixture for about 30 seconds to a minute. Add 1/4 cup of chicken broth and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Keep stirring.

Add some corn starch slurry (e.g. 1 to 2 tsp of corn starch and 1/8 cup of water) to thicken the sauce. Keep adding until the sauce is at the right consistency - not too runny and yet not too thick.

Re-add both the chicken and cashew nuts into the pan. Stir well.

Keep stirring until the chicken and cashew nuts are heated up. Make sure the sauce is evenly spreaded. Finished.

The finished dish. Portion shown is less than half of the quantity made in this recipe.

[wesza]

Ah Leung:

Thank you for timing your latest recipe so perfectly.

My son-in-law is a Cashew Nut Lover who dropped in at about the same time your posting appeared for lunch.

He already had stopped at "Trader Joe's" and had a package of "Unsalted Cashew Nuts" and after looking at your photos asked if he could attempt to prepare the recipe.

This was a "All time first" as he almost never cooks anything, but couldn't resist the Cashews.

I started the rice while he went out to buy the Chicken Breasts. Everything else was available except for "Sweet Flour Sauce" but I have "Hoisin". We also added a small Chili sliced as he enjoys spicy hot tastes.

It was fun to watch him follow your instructions. He wouldn't even use a "Wok" because the pictures showed a fry pan. His only change except for the Chili I recommended was asking for permission to use all his Cashew Nuts as he really loves them.

It came out delicious and he proudly asked if he could bring home the rest to show off to his family tonight.

How's this for fast response to your recipe posting. He signing up for eGullet and intends to check out all your recipe postings since I told him your inclined to use leaner cuts in your recipes and everything is pictured including the ingredients.

Irwin

[hzrt8w]

Wow! What a testimonial, Irwin! Thank you! I am so pleased to hear others enjoying these recipes and getting some decent meals, as I very much enjoy sharing what I know.

I understand that most may not have "sweet flour sauce" (甜麵醬) teem mein jiang [Cantonese] at home. You may skip this one and still have some wonderful flavor. Sweet flour sauce is not used often in Cantonese cooking, only in some braised dishes mostly.

[torakris]

I hate to be a pain in the butt, but could you write the names of these sauces (brown bean sauce, chili bean sauce, sweet flour sauce) in Chinese characters?

It is hard to see in the picture and unfortunately in Japan they can't be found under their English names....

[hzrt8w]

...could you write the names of these sauces (brown bean sauce, chili bean sauce, sweet flour sauce) in Chinese characters?

←

Sure, be glad to:

Chili Bean Sauce: 豆板醬

Brown Bean Sauce: 磨原豉

Sweet Flour Sauce: 甜麵醬

Hoisin Sauce: 海鮮醬

[torakris]

...could you write the names of these sauces (brown bean sauce, chili bean sauce, sweet flour sauce) in Chinese characters?

←

Sure, be glad to:

Chili Bean Sauce: 豆板醬

Brown Bean Sauce: 磨原豉

Sweet Flour Sauce: 甜麵醬

Hoisin Sauce: 海鮮醬

←

Thank you!

I have 豆板醬 (the Japanese call it tonbanjian) and 甜麵醬 (tenmenjian in Japanese), I know where I can get some hoisin (I usually have it but am out) and I need to be on the look out for the brown bean sauce.

[hzrt8w]

Found 2 of these sauces on Lee Kum Kee's website:

Brown Bean Sauce:  磨原豉

Hoisin Sauce:  海鮮醬

Edited October 20, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[Dejah]

Ah Leung,

Gaining quite the following here! How does it feel? Did I ask you to reserve the first copy of your impending cook book for me?

I'm going to look over your pictorials and see what I will serve my visiting professors from China. One is shadowing hubby, and the other is a "student" in my class while he is teaching Chinese painting and watercolour.

Got any suggestions to wow them?

[hzrt8w]

I have 豆板醬 (the Japanese call it tonbanjian) and 甜麵醬 (tenmenjian in Japanese), I know where I can get some hoisin (I usually have it but am out) and I need to be on the look out for the brown bean sauce.

←

Brown bean sauce is also called Ground Bean Sauce, or maybe just Bean Sauce. It is ground fermented soy beans.

[hzrt8w]

...Did I ask you to reserve the first copy of your impending cook book for me?

I'm going to look over your pictorials and see what I will serve my visiting professors from China. One is shadowing hubby, and the other is a "student" in my class while he is teaching Chinese painting and watercolour.

Got any suggestions to wow them?

←

Of course. You will have the first autographed copy. Heck I may just fly out to Brandon to personally deliver it!

The visitors: are they from the Canton areas or from Northern China? The 2 groups don't usually agree on their diets.

[Dejah]

I'll have my kitchen stocked up for your visit. You'll have to demonstrate some of your favourite recipes while you are here to deliver my book!

One professor is from Nanjing, the other is from Jinan City.

See what you can cook up so I can set up my menu.

I should substitute beef with bison for one dish. That way, I can sneak in a bit of Canadian food!

[hzrt8w]

He already had stopped at "Trader Joe's" and had a package of "Unsalted Cashew Nuts" and after looking at your photos asked if he could attempt to prepare the recipe....

It was fun to watch him follow your instructions. He wouldn't even use a "Wok" because the pictures showed a fry pan....

←

Some more thoughts:

I understand how intimidating it would be for someone to follow a recipe strictly by the text if one is not familiar with Chinese cooking: the special ingredients, the sauces, the processes. That's why I decided if I were ever going to write a cookbook, I will make it all illustrated. That's the motive behind these pictorials. Basically: let me show you how I do it. Just follow me... If I can do it, so can you. (Hey, isn't that the motto of Yang??? I hope he didn't have it trademarked. )

[torakris]

He already had stopped at "Trader Joe's" and had a package of "Unsalted Cashew Nuts" and after looking at your photos asked if he could attempt to prepare the recipe....

It was fun to watch him follow your instructions. He wouldn't even use a "Wok" because the pictures showed a fry pan....

←

Some more thoughts:

I understand how intimidating it would be for someone to follow a recipe strictly by the text if one is not familiar with Chinese cooking: the special ingredients, the sauces, the processes. That's why I decided if I were ever going to write a cookbook, I will make it all illustrated. That's the motive behind these pictorials. Basically: let me show you how I do it. Just follow me... If I can do it, so can you. (Hey, isn't that the motto of Yang??? I hope he didn't have it trademarked. )

←

This is such a wonderful idea and I wish my more cookbook writers would pick up on it.

The Japanese put out the most beautiful cookbooks, every single recipe has a photograph and often many of the steps as well. I think this is especially important for learning to cook cuisines that one is unfamiliar with. I often cook a recipe (from a typical American cookbook with no pictures) and have no idea if it came out right or not.

[docsconz]

Ah Leung these recipes are really nicely done. I will have to try them soon. Thank you for doing them.

[hzrt8w]

I'll have my kitchen stocked up for your visit. You'll have to demonstrate some of your favourite recipes while you are here to deliver my book!

←

Do you have a wok and a 24000 BTU stove?

One professor is from Nanjing, the other is from Jinan City.

See what you can cook up so I can set up my menu.

←

Hmmm... both northern cities. (Well... anything north of Canton is north to us. ) Maybe make just one southern (Cantonese dish).

I would suggest: 3 entrees and 1 vegetable dish and 1 soup

1 entree: steamed dish - this is best for southern cooking. Suggestions:

- Steamed pork with salted fish (your favorite)

- Steamed pork/bison with preserved vegetables

- Steamed fish with black beans/ginger

- Steamed salted chicken

1 entree: braised. Suggestions:

- Soy sauce chicken (see pictorial)

- Pork braised with mui choy and soy sauce, rock sugar

- beef shank (bison shank?) braised with soy sauce, five spice and rock sugar

1 entree: stir-fried. Suggestions:

- "imperial shrimp" (shrimp with tomato/garlic/chili sauce)

- tomato bison! (bison meat with tomatoes and eggs)

- shrimp with (water-down) eggs (waht dan ha)

- kung pao chicken/shrimp/scallop

- beef/chicken with black bean sauce

1 vegetable. Suggestions:

- Snow peas with bamboo shoots and black mushroom (see pictorial)

- Hairy melon with dry shrimp and mung bean threads/oyster sauce

- Eggplants with Sa Cha sauce and mung bean threads

- Eggplants with garlic sauce (yu hern style)

- Blanched bok choy with garlic (see pictorial)

1 soup. Suggestions:

- Tofu with fish filet and mustard green soup

- Pork neck bone and lotus root soup

- Pork neck bone and winter melon soup

This is with consideration to how many dishes you need to juggle simultaneously. Braising can be set in motion early. Steaming doesn't need much attention once in the steamer. Soup can be started early. So you just need to pay closer attention to the stir-fried dish and the sauteed vegetables closer to meal time.

What do you think? Can you handle that? Want more suggestions?

[pcbilly]

...could you write the names of these sauces (brown bean sauce, chili bean sauce, sweet flour sauce) in Chinese characters?

←

Sure, be glad to:

Chili Bean Sauce: 豆板醬

Brown Bean Sauce: 磨原豉

Sweet Flour Sauce: 甜麵醬

Hoisin Sauce: 海鮮醬

←

To Hzrt8w and torakris:

Brown Bean Sauce: 磨原豉 (also cab ce 原磨豉) is actually another name for Yellow Bean Sauce (黃豆醬) as Chinese call soy bean "yellow bean".

It is a thick brown sauce made from fermented soybean, salt and flour.

There was a discussion in this forum about it "Brown Bean Paste : Yellow Bean Paste".

To make this even more confusing, some northern Chinese also call this 豆板醬

and call the Chili Bean sauce 辣豆板醬.

There is a need for a standard nomenclatures for all these Chinese Sauces and preserved vegetables because differnt part of the country use different names.

William

[hzrt8w]

There is a need for a standard nomenclatures for all these Chinese Sauces and preserved vegetables because differnt part of the country use different names.

←

Yeah, tell me about it! Wouldn't that be nice? But who would be the "authority" to pick and choose? So far it's all dependent on the sauce manufacturers. And that's why we have so many preserved "turnip" because some marketing departments don't do their due diligence to translate the names properly.

I don't think this is unique to the Chinese though. Are there something called differently by Americans in the North versus South, East versus West?

[jo-mel]

hzrt -- Why thank you!!!! Yeah -- I do love Northern cooking, and it may be because of the hoisin, or the pepper/vinegar ---I don't know. Maybe because I've spent more time in Beijing than the other areas. But I also have a thing for Eastern lately. But then there is the zing of Western, and the purity of Southern ------AARRGGHHHH! What to do. The one thing I have is that since I'm not Chinese, I am not locked into any area. When I have a big dinner, I try to balance all the regions.

Your Chicken with cashews is better than the one I've used -- maybe because of the different blends of sauces. Seems like a lot of depth in it. But I will have to have the cashews on the side. DH can't eat them, so I will serve him first and then mix them in.

---------------------------

Wesza -- I had to laugh when you said that your SIL wanted to use ALL the cashews. When I was in a dorm situation in China, one of the popular dishes was pork with peanuts and chili peppers. Usally fatty, but very good and because I love peanuts, I had it a lot. Well, one time the dish should have been called Peanuts with pork flavoring and chili peppers! I guess they ran short on pork! But I loved it. All those peanuts!!

------------------------

pcbilly --

You have brought up one of my questions, -- on the bean sauces, but I will put it on a separate thread.

[pcbilly]

There is a need for a standard nomenclatures for all these Chinese Sauces and preserved vegetables because differnt part of the country use different names.

←

............ I don't think this is unique to the Chinese though. Are there something called differently by Americans in the North versus South, East versus West?

←

Ah Leung:

You are right.

One prime example will be the differeent names for a submarine sandwich for different parts of the United States:

New Jersey: Hero, Hoagie, Wedge, Sub, Italian Sandwich.....

New England: Grinder

New York: Hero sandwich

New Orlean: Poor boy

Boston: Spuckie ?

MidWest: Sub....(at least around WI

Califonia: "Sub"?

I am sure there are more.

William

[Ben Hong]

Ohhh Yums Wonderful pictorial, Ah Leung. I can't show my wife this made with all white meat, as I have been telling her that traditionally the dish is made with dark meat (my preference)

[project]

Another approach to specifying the sauces is just to thoroughly describe the labels on the actual bottles used! This approach would be less generic and versatile but more precise!

[project]

This thread is a good candidate for the best information, instruction, or documentation on Chinese cooking I have ever seen, and I have a large stack of famous books on Chinese cooking. Three loud cheers for digital images, the Internet, and eG!

Cashews are widely available. The cashews you bought, were they, as you bought them in the bag, already salted or not, roasted or raw? If they were just raw whole unsalted shelled cashew nuts, then I will know what to look for.

The 10 ounces, was that the weight of the bag or the weight of the nuts you actually used?

Is there a reason you used breast meat instead of thigh meat?

[Pan]

Ah Leung, I've noticed white pepper several times cropping up as an ingredient in the dishes you've presented in pictorials. Is the use of white as opposed to black pepper mainly for (lack of) color or because of a subtle difference in taste between white and black pepper, or is it just a personal preference?

[Dejah]

Great list of suggestions, Ah Leung....I'm think! I'm thinking...

Wintermelon soup with diced Chinese mushrooms with pork

Bak jahm gai with ginger and scallions

Steamed basa with fermented black beans and garlic sauce

Kung pao shrimp on deep fried funsee

Bison stir-fried mixed veg (snow peas, lotus root, black fungus, bamboo shoots, etc)

These will all be very manageable on my NON-24000BTU stove!

I know my family and I love steamed meats with mui choi, etc, but I wonder if it is suitable for guests? I should mention that 2 other guests are Caucasian...one we are meeting for the first time.

Maybe I should make tofu soup with ham yeu tow (with Ben's favourite ingredient: fu yu, and hzrt's signature shrimp sauce) Just kidding!

[jo-mel]

This thread is a good candidate for the best information, instruction, or documentation on Chinese cooking I have ever seen, and I have a large stack of famous books on Chinese cooking.  Three loud cheers for digital images, the Internet, and eG!

Cashews are widely available.  The cashews you bought, were they, as you bought them in the bag, already salted or not, roasted or raw?  If they were just raw whole unsalted shelled cashew nuts, then I will know what to look for.

The 10 ounces, was that the weight of the bag or the weight of the nuts you actually used?

Is there a reason you used breast meat instead of thigh meat?

←

Project -- I agree! These pictorial sequences can't be found anywhere. I, too, have many many books. One is "Chinese Step-by-Step Cooking (Yan Kit Mar.in), but it is not as complete as Ah Leungs. The WeiChuan books also have picture guide, but also lacking the fool proof pictures here.

hzrt --- Get thyself to an agent!!