Cashew Chicken Curry

Good news for you AND your stomach {but mostly my stomach and Thomas' stomach}: I have been cooking a TON lately. I'm reading My Life in France by Julia Child and I'm perpetually hungry because she describes food in such fabulous detail. When she writes these things about food, it makes it all sound so easy and delicious. Sure, I can make light, fluffy croissants! Sure, I can make fish in a complicated white wine sauce! Sure, I can bone a chicken without gagging! At any rate, I've been trying to spend more time in the kitchen and just enjoy the process of cooking. I never had enough time when we were married in college to cook things that were complicated or involved buying a lot of ingredients, so this has been a fun thing for me.

The recipe I'm going to share today is Thomas' all time favorite dish. He made the proclamation the other night that he'd eat it every day if he could. That seems like a pretty dangerous statement, but he did eat the entire recipe. I don't have the cookbook of origin with me {you guessed it! It's in storage} so I had to go by memory. And judging by the fact that Thomas ate it all, I think I did just fine. I used to make it without the fresh ginger and let me tell you, BUY THE GINGER ROOT and spend the time chopping it up. It is so.very.worth.it.

I'm going to call this Cashew Chicken Curry because I can't remember the name. So, here is the "recipe" for Cashew Chicken Curry. Measurements are all estimates.

2 chicken breasts, cubed
2 T olive oil
1 T ginger root, chopped
1 T curry powder (I use a lot because Thomas loves it)
2 c. low sodium chicken broth (or better yet, make your own broth)
3/4 c. bismati or brown rice
1/4 c chopped cilantro
1/2 c chopped cashews

Heat oil in a large pan {preferably a good dutch oven}and add chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook about 10 minutes. I am obsessed with chicken being completely done so use your discretion on the time here. Remove chicken and set aside. Stir ginger and curry power into the pan for about 30 seconds, then pour in chicken broth, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add the rice, bring to a boil and then simmer for 45 minutes or until all of the liquid is gone. Stir in chicken, cilantro, and cashews until heated through. Serve to your big, hungry husband who is agitated that it takes the rice a full 45 minutes to be done.

I also served a salad and my sister's Crispy Kale, because we are obsessed with it. And as Julia would say, Bon Appétit!