Regional Food Specialties: Springfield Style Cashew Chicken

I'm a big time foodie, and when traveling, I make it my business to find out everything I possibly can about local cuisine. However, Springfield, Missouri (my boyfriend's hometown) had never made it on to one of my itineraries when we met. What, you've never been there either? Well, it's not exactly a tourist Mecca. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that Springfield - which is home to three bible colleges, five Walmarts, one Bass Pro Shop and countless rednecks - is also home to a Chinese-American specialty food, known as Springfield Style Cashew Chicken. My boyfriend grew up eating this dish three times a week, and he is still in love with it. I think he loves it more than he loves me. It's his favorite food in the world, bar none.

Now, I know cashew chicken (at least the type that you find in Chinese restaurants throughout the United States), so I found it hard to believe that Springfield Style Cashew Chicken was anything special. BF assured me that Springfield Style Cashew Chicken was totally unlike any other cashew chicken dish in the country, and proceeded to give me a rundown on the history of his favorite local delicacy.

A Chinese chef by the name of David Leong created Springfield Style Cashew Chicken while working at a now-defunct restaurant in Springfield, back in the 1960s. Springfield residents were notorious even then for their love of fried chicken, so to please the locals, Mr. Leong concocted a dish of breaded, deep-fried chicken chunks doused in brown oyster sauce-based "gravy," topped with a handful of cashews and green onions. Due to the absence of vegetables or anything else nutritionally redeeming, the dish was an instant hit. Mr. Leong eventually opened his own restaurant, featuring Springfield Style Cashew Chicken. His original restaurant is now closed, but there are literally hundreds of other Chinese restaurants in Springfield, all of which serve some variation on the original recipe.

Because we now live in NYC, Springfield Style Cashew Chicken is impossible to come by. So, for BF's birthday dinner, I decided I would try to make the dish at home. I researched the recipe on the internet, but couldn't find anything that looked like it would be even remotely palatable. I adapted some techniques from the recipes I found, and improvised the rest. Here's what I came up with:

Chicken:
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you could use white meat, but why try to be healthy about it?)
Flour mixed with cornstarch for coating, seasoned with salt and white pepper
2 eggs, beaten
Oil for deep frying

Sauce:
2 cups chicken stock
1 T. sugar
3 T. oyster sauce
1 t. white pepper (or to taste)
2 T. soy sauce
3 T. cornstarch dissolved in 2 T. water

Garnish:
Cashews
Green onions (optional - BF hates them)
Rice for serving (in Springfield, fried rice is preferred - shocking, I know)

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and dredge in flour, then egg, then flour. Allow the chicken to sit in the flour after the 2^nd dredging for 15 minutes (this creates a thicker crust). Deep fry until golden brown. In the meantime, mix all sauce ingredients except cornstarch in a saucepan and heat until hot. Taste for seasoning (some people prefer a darker, saltier sauce, in which case you can double or triple the soy sauce and/or oyster sauce), then add the cornstarch slurry and bring to a boil. Stir until thickened to the consistency of gravy, then remove from heat (you may find that you need more or less cornstarch to reach your desired consistency). Serve chicken chunks and sauce over rice, topped with a handful of cashews and chopped green onion if you like.

BF was in the throes of ecstasy when I served this to him for the first time. I've never seen him eat so much in one sitting, ever. I let him eat my plate too, because I found the concoction unspeakably foul. Bland, boring and a tragic waste of perfectly good cashews. I thought I must have done something wrong, but BF promised me that I had duplicated it perfectly. Wow. There is a whole city full of people who willingly eat this? Anyway, BF's two favorite places for Springfield Style Cashew Chicken in Springfield are Hong Kong Inn and Dragon Inn II, but there are hundreds of others. According to him, the recipe as it's written above most closely resembles the version served at the Hong Kong Inn. I haven't had the (dubious) pleasure, although I did taste it at a place called Jade East, which definitely failed to impress. However, if you're looking for a recipe for authentic Springfield Style Cashew Chicken - look no further!