Low Sodium Cashew Chicken

I wanted to try a recipe from Annie's Eats called Thai Chicken with Cashews.  However, the recipe has soy sauce, which my husband won't touch with a ten-foot pole because of the high salt content, even if it's the lower-sodium version. 

It also calls for red bell pepper.  Our grocery store doesn't sell organic red bell peppers so, because they are on the Dirty Dozen list of foods that contain the most pesticides, I left them out too.

I also left out the salt.

So, after taking out these ingredients, I figured this dish would be just a step up from regular chicken but not very tasty.  I was actually surprised at how delicious it was, even without the soy sauce.  I think I'll be making this often.


Low Sodium Cashew Chicken

Ingredients:

1 bunch scallions
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken (we didn't use this much since it was just the two of us)
Pepper to taste
A few tablespoons of olive oil
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger (or 1 1/2 tsp. dried; but I think using fresh ginger really added a lot of flavor)
1/4 tsp. roasted red pepper flakes (optional)
3/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup roasted whole cashews (I put them in a 350 oven for about 5 minutes; if they come salted you could rinse them first to get rid of the extra salt)
Brown rice

Directions
-Begin cooking the brown rice.
-Chop scallions, separating white and green parts.
-Cut the chicken into small pieces and toss with pepper.
-Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat and then add olive oil.
-Stir-fry the chicken until cooked through (5-6 minutes).
 -Add garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and scallion whites to skillet and stir-fry about 5-6 minutes.
 -Stir together broth, cornstarch, and sugar, then stir it all into the skillet.
-Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 1-2 minutes.
-Stir in cashews and scallion greens.
-Serve with brown rice.

p.s. If there are other vegetables you like to eat with stir-fry I'm sure you could add as many as you like.