I’d like to start off with a simple statement: Ree Drummond is a great big liar-pants!! At least on the subject of Recipe #108, Cashew Chicken, being a “16-Minute Meal”. I don’t know what time warp she must live in, but rest assured, this dish was no 16 minutes… First of all, I would like to hear one good reason all the Chinese recipes in this book have 482 ingredients!
There was nothing especially “difficult” about preparing this recipe, but the sheer amount of prep work was ridiculous. Let’s just say that I started “throwing dinner together” around 5 o’clock, and I didn’t sit down to eat until 7. Chopping (drink wine), mincing (drink wine), and dicing (drink wine), all took a ton of time! 
Second, I am pretty sure I should triple up on my blood pressure meds, because this was salty as all get out. The cooking liquid started with a 1/2 cup of soy sauce, which should have been my first clue. Note to self: only buy low-sodium soy sauce from here on out…and still use half! I don’t care for salty foods on the whole, so other people might like this the way it is, but consider yourself forewarned!
Of course you can’t have just one dish when you order Chinese food, and you can’t have just one when you are cooking it at home either. Besides, I have no reason to make Recipe #109, Chow Mein, all by itself at another time. I’d never actually had chow mein in my life, so frankly I had nothing to compare it to. Nonetheless, I give this a thumb’s up! I am a white rice girl, but these stir fried vegetables mixed with rice noodles made a pretty decent bed for the chicken entrée. The real trick to this was juggling both recipes on the fire
at the same time. Once I started the actual cooking process, it moved really quickly; almost like a REAL 16-minute meal! Thank goodness I prepped for making the chow earlier in the week, so all I had to do was dump pre-chopped things into the wok as I cooked that one. Make-ahead meals for the win! Two more REE-cipes (ha, I just made that up!) done and done. But for the sake of my blood pressure, I’m moving to a salad next!
Have Book, Will Cook 