Cashew Chicken and Broccoli

I always enjoy making Asian dishes - they are usually a perfect culmination of flavor, texture, and deliciousness. I also love the dinners that are an all-in-one type of thing.

This recipe caught my eye because lately I have loved almost any dish that has nuts in it like this.

Cashew Chicken and Broccoli

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked white rice
3 tbls soy sauce
2 teaspoons grated gingerroot (or as much as you want - I love this stuff so I add a lot)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil, if desired
1 lb chicken but into bite size pieces
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 tbls vegetable oil
3 cups broccoli
2 green onions (we omitted these)
1 cup salted roasted cashews (I love nuts but I still cut this in half - it is just too much for this dish)

Directions:
* Cook rice as directed (this is why my rice cooker is my best friend)
* Mix soy sauce, gingerroot, sugar and sesame oil and coat chicken - marinate for at least 15 min (or you can do this step a head of time and let it sit for a few hours - I did mine for about 6 hours)
* In a small bowl mix 1/4 cup chicken broth and cornstarch until cornstarch is dissolved, set aside
* In a skillet, heat vegetable oil on high heat, remove chicken from marinate (set aside remaining marinade) and cook for about 3-5 minutes or until no longer pink in the center
* Stir in broccoli and the remaining 1/2 cup chicken broth, cover and cook for 1 minute
* Add onions and cashews
* Stir reserved marinade into cornstarch mixture and add to skillet, cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly.
* Serve over rice

Tips/Ideas:

• I really like the sauce of this but felt there wasn't a whole lot of it, so I think I am going to double the marinade and just add more chicken broth as I see fit.
• We LOVED the broccoli in this so I am going to add more of that next time.

I have to thank good old Betty for this one - I can't take too much credit for this...