Madhouse recipe : Chinese Chicken with Cashews

This was a dish that I threw together during confinement with whatever was in the fridge, which explains the complete lack of vegetables, as we'd run out. You could definitely add some strips of carrot and maybe some onions, red peppers and broccoli to the recipe, or even just throw some frozen peas into the rice when you cook it. A side salad would be another option. It is a lovely, sweet, slightly exotic and totally kid-friendly dish though that the Madhouse kids gobbled up.

Chinese Chicken with Cashews

ingredients:

2tbsp maple syrup (or runny honey)

2tsp sesame oil

4tbsp sweet soy sauce (or hoisin sauce)

1/2tsp garlic granules (or 1 garlic clove, crushed)

1/2tsp ginger (or fresh ginger, grated)

1tsp Chinese Five Spice powder

5 chicken thighs

a good handful of cashew nuts

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Put all of the ingredients except for the chicken and cashews in a bowl or a cup and stir to combine. Go easy on the maple syrup and have a little taste before adding more, as you may find it too sweet otherwise.

Put the chicken in a roasting tray (I put in some foil first for easier cleaning) and pour over the mixture. You could slash the skin two or three times to enable to marinade to soak in deeper, but this isn't essential. You could also leave the chicken to marinade for a few hours, if you have time. Cook it in the oven for about 35 minutes, basting during the cooking time.

Add the cashew nuts to the dish, stir through and return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes.

Serve the chicken with rice then drizzle over the remaining cooking sauce. Enjoy !

It's a really simple but tasty dish and used up lots of ends of bottles from the kitchen cupboard.

Check out the #KitchenClearout roundups for ideas on how to use up random ingredients from the back of the cupboard.