Cashew Chicken and a Washington red blend
We had a blast with this one – it’s fun to make this dish. It comes together quickly, so be prepared to eat right away.
How It Went
This one is fun if you have a lot of prep bowls, chop and put everything in bowls early. Then clean up from prep so you are ready to go when you want to eat. We took liberties with this recipe, but you don’t need to. Our edits:
- Cashew chicken is not a spicy recipe. We made it spicy, since we like heat with flavor. Added @10 Thai chiles (what we had on hand) and ground Szechuan peppercorn.
- Water chestnuts we can take or leave, so we left those out and added more red bell peppers instead.
- We forgot to add the onion when the recipe said, so the green onions went in towards the end. They are also great as a topping for the dish.
- Made more sauce. We added more of everything (we like a lot of sauce).
Wine Pairing: Mellow Red Washington Blend
We paired it with a Washington red blend. It was easy to drink, with soft fruit, not a lot of tannins or a lot of acidity. Normally this would not be a surprising pairing with chicken. But, since we added all the spice this was a bigger red than a typical pairing recommendation would go. One of us in particular (Jason) likes big red wines, so it’s always fun to play with pairings and see how we trade off between his palate while still trying to find a good complement for the flavor.
Cashew Chicken Restaurant Recipe
Past Pairings
Mushroom Puff Pastry Pizza and Washington Sauvignon Blanc