This is not your standard Kung Pao Shrimp recipe that you are going to get at a fast food Chinese restaurant – it’s packed with sweet and sour flavors, fresh garlic and ginger, and a bit of heat.  This recipe has a lot of ingredients, but the most important thing is to have all of them ready when you start cooking, as the shrimp cook fast and are easy to over-cook.  Adapted from Cooks Illustrated.

Ingredients

• 1 pound extra-large uncooked shrimp
• 1 T rice wine
• 2 t soy sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, minced
• 3 T vegetable oil
• 1/2 c roasted cashews (unsalted is preferred)
• 1 t dried chili flakes
• 3/4 c low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 t rice vinegar
• 1 T toasted sesame oil
• 1 T oyster sauce
• 1 T hoisin sauce
• 1.5 t cornstarch
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 3 medium scallions, sliced thin

Instructions

1. Toss shrimp with rice wine and soy sauce in medium bowl, and marinate about 10 minutes.
2. Mix garlic, ginger, dried chili, and 1 T oil in small bowl and set aside.
3. Mix chicken broth, vinegar, sesame oil, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, and cornstarch in small bowl and set aside.
4. Heat 1 T oil in 12-inch skillet over high heat until just beginning to smoke, then add shrimp and cook, stirring frequently, until barely opaque, about 30 to 40 seconds.
5. Stir cashews into shrimp and continue cooking until shrimp are almost completely opaque, 30 to 40 seconds longer.
6. Transfer shrimp and cashews to bowl and set aside.
7. Return skillet to burner, reheat briefly until hot, and add remaining 1 T oil, swirl to coat pan.
8. Add red bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 45 seconds.
9. Clear center of pan, add garlic-ginger mixture, cook until fragrant, 10 to 15 seconds, and stir to combine with peppers.
10. Add broth mixture to skillet and heat the sauce up past room temperature.
11. Add the reserved shrimp and cashews, and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits on bottom of pan, until sauce has thickened to syrupy consistency, about 45 seconds.
12. Stir in scallions, and remove from heat or transfer to serving plate.