20 min Thai chicken with litchis and cashews

I am going to visit SA in three weeks and can not wait eeeek...

My husband and I have started to make an "all we want to eat" list and it keeps on growing by the minute. Give me a big mug of coffee and a "lekker" Mug and bean brekkie and I am a happy camper!! Oh yeah and that also includes not doing housework for a week and a half...things can get better ppl! Things that are on our list are full house sushi (we'll drive straight there when we arrive in Bloemfontein), Any place that serves breakfast will do(of course), Wakaberry frozen yogurt, Decent Euro cafe cappuccino with vanilla whipped cream, Bella casa pizza, Avanti dinner and for me my fav, Barista red wine.

We had some friends over for dinner last week and I have always stressed about having people over, because I generated this pressure of everything being perfect. I guess I get it from my mom. My mom would always ask how does the food taste and thereby also saying it needs salt or the meat is though, judging even before we even took a bite. We are too tough on ourselves when it comes to cooking, don't you think ladies.

I have calmed down a whole bit. Now I get to enjoy having friends over and not stress about the dishes (Dishwasher please hubby...) So what if you forget to add salt or if the meat is tough. It is for sure a learning process. All I made for my husband whilst we were dating was chicken stir fry and when we got married I brought a bit more game to the kitchen. He was pleasantly surprised!

My mom would always say that she can only make one kind of cooking and that is "Boerekos" now in English (if you're no South African) that is traditional Afrikaans cooking like lamb shank with rosemary and butter, mashed carrots, mashed green beans, pumpkin fritters soaked in caramel sauce and fried potatoes... loaded with butter and fat, but you'll never taste a better home cooked meal than that!! I do love traditional Afrikaans cooking, but I tend to get a bit bored and leave that part up to my mom when we go visit. She was also pleasantly surprised by my cooking by the way...

Chicken is one of my favorites meals to make. I made a delicious chicken curry for our guests that is in my featured feed, but this week I also made a Thai sticky creation and boy it was good. PS: I always buy ingredients at the supermarket that I don't always know what I am going to use it for and at the end, the "experiment" turns our great, well most of the time. I bought litchis and it's quite hard to incorporate it in somewhere. I added it to my Thai dish and it just complimented the flavours so well. This is seriously one of the best Thai dishes I have ever made.

Thai chicken with litchis and cashews

4 chicken breasts

1 egg

1/2 cup sliced bacon

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 red onion

2 garlic cloves

1 1/2 tsp ginger fresh or powder

1/2 tsp paprika

2 tbsp sesame oil

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Coconut milk/cream

1/2 Cup Cashews

Pasta (rice noodles or linguini)

1. Start off by making the sauce. Place the oil in a hot skillet, add the sesame oil, garlic and onion.

2. Sauté till soft, add the bacon, ginger, paprika, honey, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce and soy sauce and let it simmer on low heat.

3. Roll the chicken breast in the whisked egg and then dip it in the corn starch till fully covered. Drop it in to the sauce and let it cook by flipping it over every now and again.

4. Just make sure that your heat is on medium to low because the sauce can burn on quite quickly.

5. Whilst the chicken is cooking, drop the amount of pasta you want in boiling water and a bit of salt and olive oil.

6. Cut up your litchis (remove the pit) and mix that with your cashews. Drizzle over some extra sesame oil and honey and bake for 10 minutes @180°C.

7. Once everything is cooked and ready , plate by starting with the noodles, chicken, extra sauce, litchis, and cashews. You can drizzle over some extra coconut milk if you want to. This just adds a bit of creamy texture to your dish.