Cashew Chicken

Someone once pointed out to me that on the competative cooking show Iron Chef, the chefs always said the same thing when they were asked what their strategy was in preparing their dishes. The answer was always "I tried to accentutae the natural flavor of the (whatever food the show was about)" Now this makes sense when talking about venison or lamb or swordfish or many things. But could one ever say it about chicken? The natural flavor of chicken? Does chicken taste like everything? Or does everything taste like chicken? Or does chicken just taste like nothing and manage to accomplish both at the same time?

Of all the meats we eat, chicken seems to have least distinctive flavor of its own. It's perhaps why the little bird is completely left out of my book on meat, or why poor Gallus gallus probably doesn't feature prominently in the signature dish of any famous chef. Yet chicken is a staple all the world over, picking up flavor from whatever it's cooked in or with.

My chicken tonight picked up its flavor from a marinade of peanut oil, soy sauce, lots of chili powder, ginger and garlic. Naturally it was then sautéed, (one of these days I'm going to get around to using an oven, I promise), and set aside while the cashews boiled a bit, and the onions and scallions had their turn in the skillet. Then everything got thrown together and piled on top of rice. As planned, the marinade gave the chicken a much fuller taste then it would have on it's own, and who doesn't like cashews?

If anyone has noticed my new-found regularity yet infrequency in posting, most of it is due to a busier semester that cuts down on my nights available to cook. That as well as the fact that cooking big meals for only yourself can be moderately depressing, particularly around this time of year. But next week I think I'll give pork another shot, I still have to work on that cooking time..