Cashews are the new Mushroom

Last night I had a somewhat random assortment of ingredients available: a couple of chicken breasts, a couple of peppers, couple of carrots, some celery, onions, and garlic.  I asked Nina if she felt like stir fry (we eat a lot of stir fries).  Nope.  How about pasta?  (We'd already had past this week.)  No thanks.  So I mused for a bit and while I was musing happened to find a bag with about a cup of cashews in it in the freezer.  That's when the recipe below hit me, and it turned out so well I will definitely make it again.

1 cup cashews
1 clove garlic, minced
2 large onions, cut in ribbons
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup white cooking wine
1/2 cup vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/8 - 1/4 cup flour

Heat the butter and oil over medium heat and sauté the cashews until they start to brown.  Add the garlic, onions and celery and continue to sauté until the celery is bright green and the onions are becoming translucent.  Add the cooking wine and then the stock.  Reduce heat to low and then place the chicken breasts in the middle of the pan.  There should be enough liquid in the pan to mostly--but not quite--cover the chicken breasts.  Cover an simmer until the chicken is done.  Remove the chicken and reduce the sauce by 1/3 to 1/2, adding salt and pepper to taste in the process.  Add flour and stir until the sauce just starts to thicken.  Serve the sauce over the chicken breasts accompanied by a favorite starch and/or vegetable.  The result is a rich, slightly sweet flavor that is somewhere between French onion soup and a mushroom sauce, but with the nutty deliciousness of the cashews.