I’m going to need you to go out and make this immediately. And while you’re at it, you might as well corner the market on cashews because this could become your go-to dish of the summer.
I mean, think about it: your smearing chicken with cashews. It doesn’t get much better than that.
You have the option in this recipe of marinating the chicken for either the time it takes to heat the grill or as much as 12 hours. Mine was probably about 7 or 8 hours and my general feeling is, if you can do it ahead, why not?
The pureed cashew mixture (with cilantro, lime, garlic and a pinch of brown sugar) is inspired. It smelled so good as I smeared it over the chicken I had little doubt that this would be a winner. And of course dark meat is always my preference, especially for the grill when chicken can go from under-done to poultry-flavored mitten in a matter of seconds. And don’t forget to separate the cashew mixture that you will use on the cooked chicken before you start applying it to the raw chicken.
I chickened out (pun intended) and seeded the jalapeno so mine was not very spicy at all, but this, obviously, is completely within your control.
Spicy, Garlicky Cashew Chicken (doesn’t that name suggest stir-fry?) is on page 494 of The Essential New York Times Cookbook and right here online.
Can I use frozen blueberries?