Cashew Chicken (Better-Than-Take-Out)

Homemade saucy stir-fried cashew chicken is better than your take-out version. It’s so easy to make, you can bring dinner to the table in less than 30 minutes. Served with rice, it satisfies your craving for stir-fried chicken any day!

Forget your takeout, make a healthy and better tasting stir fry chicken recipe at home. The sauce has a wonderful balance of sour-sweet-hot. You can customize the sauce depending on your preference. For a quick stir-fry dinner recipe try shrimp and broccoli stir fry, Chinese tomato egg stir fry, or General Tso tofu.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Quick and easy to make.
• You can bring dinner to the table in less than 30 minutes.
• A balanced meal that can be served with brown rice or white steamed rice.
• That delicious brown sauce is so full of flavors. Make sure to have enough sauce to pour over the rice.
• Stir fry recipes are so versatile, you can pretty much use whatever you have, and change it to your liking!

Ingredients

Chicken – use boneless chicken breasts or chicken thighs.

Cashew – whole cashews lightly roasted on stove top until golden brown. I roasted cashews in a preheated oven for 2-3 minutes until golden. While roasting nuts in the oven, keep a hawk eye, it can get burnt pretty quickly.

Rice vinegar – the best choice is to use Chinese cooking wine Shaoxing wine (Shaosing wine) or mirin. If you don’t have Chinese wine, use rice vinegar.

Hoisin sauce – gives a wonderful sour taste. To add in more flavors mix hoisin sauce and oyster sauce together.

Note: Some prefer to add ginger and garlic into their sauce, I like to stir fry it in oil at the beginning so it removes the raw smell and taste of ginger and garlic. You do have the option to add it to your sauce which gets poured over cooked chicken almost towards the end.

Additions and Substitutions

Feel free to use beef as a substitute for chicken. You can also try it with shrimp.

Vegetables like broccoli, mushrooms, green bell peppers, and asparagus may be added.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1: Add hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, chili sauce, cornstarch, and sesame oil in a mixing bowl.

Step 2: Whsik well, keep it aside until use.

Dry roast whole cashew nuts in the oven. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Dry roast cashews for 3 to minutes stirring it in between. Do not let cashews brown. You want to roast not brown it. Remove roasted cashews from the oven and let it cool down.

Step 3: Cut chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces. Add chicken into a zip lock bag or a wide bowl. Season it with pepper, salt, and corn flour.

Step 4: Shake well to coat all chicken pieces evenly. Let the chicken sit in the marinade for 7 to 10 minutes.

Step 5: Heat oil (divide oil so you can add oil for every batch) in a skillet or wok. Add a few marinated chicken pieces onto the skillet, without overcrowding it. Sear it for about a minute on medium-high heat, flip, and cook it on the other side.

Step 6: No need to fully cook chicken. Remove seared, browned chicken to a bowl and set aside.

Step 7: Pour the remaining oil into the skillet. Add the white part of green onion (spring onion as called in some parts of the world) along with minced ginger and garlic. Stir for about a minute on medium-high heat. Scrap the brown bits. Those brown bits are all flavors.

Step 8: Add back seared chicken and stir well.

Step 9: Pour in the sauce into the pan. It may look like a lot of sauce and the dish can look too saucy with liquids, but it’ll evaporate as you cook for a few minutes.

Note – If you find the sauce to be too thick add chicken stock or water to the pan as required to adjust the consistency of the sauce and help the chicken cook in the sauce.

Step 10: Add dry roasted cashews and stir well.

Turn off the heat after a minute. Garnish with green onions and toasted sesame seeds. Serve this saucy stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts over steamed rice.

Best Tips

1. Using boneless chicken thighs will give you tender chicken.
2. Do not crowd the pan while searing chicken. Do them in batches.
3. As soon as you add the chicken to oil, stir it immediately, else it will stick to the pan (As you see in the video, I got distracted for a minute and the chicken pieces were stuck, but I got it out of the pan without breaking successfully with some effort haha!)
4. Use low sodium light soy sauce in this recipe. Dark soy will have a strong taste and will taste bitter.
5. If the sauce turns thick, add chicken stock or water to the pan as required to help cook the chicken.
6. Whole cashew nuts are a better choice.
7. Don’t use salted and roasted cashews.
8. Buy raw whole cashews and dry roast them at home in the oven or on the stovetop. I roasted cashews in a preheated oven for 2-3 minutes until golden. While roasting nuts in the oven, keep a hawk eye, it can get burnt pretty quickly.
9. The recipe for sauce does not make the dish spicy. If you like spicy stir fry chicken, add more chili sauce. You can also reduce the amount of sugar by half in the recipe to make it spicy. But do it with caution so you can handle the heat you add to the sauce.

Storage

Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. I do not recommend freezing it, cornstarch (or corn flour) tends to become watery when frozen.

Recipe FAQs

5 from 21 votes

📋Cashew Chicken (Better-Than-Take-Out)

Jyothi Rajesh

Homemade saucy stir fry cashew chicken is better than your take out version. It’s so easy to make, you can bring dinner to the table in less than 30 minutes. Served with rice, it satisfies your craving for stir fry chicken any day!

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Servings 4 servings

Calories 563

Ingredients

  

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For Sauce:

• ▢ 1 ½ tablespoon hoisin sauce
• ▢ 1 ½ tablespoon low sodium light soy sauce
• ▢ 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• ▢ ¾ tablespoon granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Asian chili sauce or sriracha sauce
• ▢ ½ tablespoon corn starch
• ▢ ½ teaspoon sesame oil

For Chicken:

• ▢ 1 lb boneless chicken thighs or breasts cut into 1 inch pieces
• ▢ 1 cup cashew (whole)
• ▢ ½ tablespoon corn starch
• ▢ 2 tablespoon vegetable oil like sunflower oil or canola oil
• ▢ ½ teaspoon pepper
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
• ▢ ½ cup white part of spring onions chopped
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ginger minced
• ▢ 1 teaspoon garlic minced

For Garnish:

• ▢ Green onions
• ▢ Sesame seeds

Instructions

 

• First make the stir fry sauce. Simply whisk together hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, chili sauce, corn starch, sesame oil in a bowl. Keep it aside until use.
• Dry roast whole cashew nuts in oven. Pre heat oven at 300 degree F. Dry roast cashews for 3 to minutes giving it a stir in between. Do not let cashews brown. You want to roast not brown it. Remove roasted cashews from oven and let it cool down.
• Prepping Chicken – Cut chicken breasts into 1 inch pieces. Add all chicken into a zip lock bag or a wide bowl.
• Season it with pepper, salt and corn flour. Shake well to coat all chicken pieces evenly. Let chicken sit in the marinade for 7 to 10 minutes.
• Heat vegetable oil (divide oil so you can add oil for every batch) in a skillet or wok. Add few marinated chicken pieces on to the skillet, without overcrowding it. Immediately stir fry it for about a minute on medium high heat, flip and cook it on other side. Don’t cook chicken completely. We only want to sear it or fry it lightly in oil. Remove cooked chicken into a bowl and repeat the same process with remaining chicken. Once done remove all chicken to a bowl.
• Pour remaining oil to the skillet.

  Note – don’t worry about the brown bits, you scrap it off the pan as you stir fry chicken and cashews. Those brown bits are all flavors. I do like to have them in my stir fry.
• If you aren’t comfortable, use another clean skillet before you start stir frying chicken.
• Add white part of spring onions along with minced ginger and garlic in. Stir for about a minute on medium high heat.
• Add back partially cooked chicken pieces give it a stir.
• Pour in the sauce into the pan. It may look like a lot of sauce and the dish can look too saucy with liquids, but it’ll evaporate as you cook for few minutes.

  Note – If you find the sauce to be too thick and the chicken is turning thick and dry, add chicken stock or water to the pan as required to help cook chicken.
• Stir in everything and cook for about a minute or two tossing it frequently.
• It’s time for cashews. Add in dry roasted cashews and stir again.
• Turn off heat after a minute.
• Garnish with green onions and toasted sesame seeds.
• Serve this saucy stir fry chicken with cashew nuts over rice.

Video

Notes

1. Using boneless chicken thighs will give you tender chicken.
2. Do not crowd the pan while searing chicken. Do them in batches.
3. As soon as you add the chicken to oil, stir it immediately, else it will stick to the pan (As you see in the video, I got distracted for a minute and the chicken pieces were stuck, but I got it out of the pan without breaking successfully with some effort haha!)
4. Use low sodium light soy sauce in this recipe. Dark soy will have a strong taste and will taste bitter.
5. If the sauce turns thick, add chicken stock or water to the pan as required to help cook the chicken.
6. Whole cashew nuts are a better choice.
7. Don’t use salted and roasted cashews.
8. Buy raw whole cashews and dry roast them at home in the oven or on the stovetop. I roasted cashews in a preheated oven for 2-3 minutes until golden. While roasting nuts in the oven, keep a hawk eye, it can get burnt pretty quickly.
9. The recipe for sauce does not make the dish spicy. If you like spicy stir fry chicken, add more chili sauce. You can also reduce the amount of sugar by half in the recipe to make it spicy. But do it with caution so you can handle the heat you add to the sauce.

 

Nutritional Info – Please remember that the nutritional information provided is only a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on the products used. The nutritional information mentioned excludes rice.

Nutrition

Calories: 563kcalCarbohydrates: 19gProtein: 31gFat: 41gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 953mgPotassium: 711mgFiber: 2gSugar: 7gVitamin A: 186IUVitamin C: 5mgCalcium: 34mgIron: 3mg

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