Chinese chicken with almonds--Pollo con almendras

Yesterday I had a horrible day. No energy to cook but we had to eat! Saw almonds in cupboard and immediately thought: let's try a Spanish-Chinese classic: pollo con almendras. It was so easy seriously, and it came out well in such an easy manner. Amazing. Cannot lose this one. This is the original recipe I followed. 

INGREDIENTS:

-4 chicken thighs cut up in pieces.
-50 grams of salty toasted or non salty almonds.

-2 carrots.

-1 sweet onion.

-some green onions.

-2 shitakee mushrooms.

-4 tablespoons of soy sauce.

-2 heaped teaspoons of cornstarch.

-300 ml of water.

-Some coconut oil, or canola oil or sunflower oil.

STEPS:

1. Dice up the meat of thighs (obviously leave the bone out) and dice and seal the meat in pretty high heat in a wok in oil. I used coconut oil but you can use the other I mentioned.

2. Add the almonds and continue cooking, but turn down heat so that it doesn't burn. Cook for about 5 more minutes all together. Set apart the chicken and almonds in a plate and start cooking the vegetables. 

3. Cut carrots in slices and onions in eigths, they have to look like the onions of the chinese. Chop up a few stems of green onions. (You can use any veggies, I just happened to have those, peppers and mushrooms also work wonderful). Cook veggies in medium fire for 10 minutes till they soften a little but are still crunchy.

4. Now add the chicken and almonds back to the wok and bring altogether for a few minutes. 

5. Now add the soy sauce, about 4 or 5 tablespoons and mix well for a couple of minutes.

6. Now add the cornstarch to 300 ml of very hot water and stir and add to the wok. This is your thickener and what will create a wonderful sauce. 

7. Bring everything to a boil and then reduce fire to a minimum and let it sit until the sauce reduces and becomes thick. 

That's it. Delicious, like so impressive. How this sauce turns out kinda sweet is beyond me cause it has no sugar. Serve with rice.  Pic: Hong Kong.