Cashew chicken is a quick and delicious homemade Chinese recipe made with simple everyday ingredients. This recipe is family-friendly, affordable and might just give your usual Chinese takeout a run for its money.
Easy Cashew chicken recipe
Well apart from this shrimp stir fry, this easy cashew chicken recipe is about to be on rotation for your fakeout night in. It is quick, easy and utterly delicious.
I did a taste test on my neighbourhood takeaway and YES, Mine tastes way better (if I do say so myself)! For a start, it is not sugar-laden and it doesn’t contain MSG. I have control over what goes into my food and where it is sourced. Nothing beats using fresh ingredients in making homemade meals.
My cashew chicken recipe is somewhat spicy but you can surely adjust the spice level to suit your taste. Also, I used a lot of garlic in this recipe, adjust to taste if you don’t like garlicky taste.
This homemade takeout recipe can be made under 30 minutes but I like to marinate the chicken with the stir fry sauce so it tenderises the chicken a bit. I mostly do this when I use chicken breasts. You might skip this if using chicken thighs as it is a lot juicier than chicken breasts and it doesn’t need the extra TLC.
You should definitely skip your next takeout to try this easy cashew chicken, you can make it saucy (I like mine with some sauce to soak up my rice) or a bit thick. It is perfect with some fried rice, freshly steamed jasmine or basmati rice.
Writing this is making me salivate and I think I would be making this again. I have a good excuse as it is Friday. Right, let me show you how to make this delicious recipe in simple steps.
Ingredients
Skinless boneless chicken breasts: substitute with boneless skinless chicken thighs
Cornflour also known as cornstarch
Salt and pepper
Red and green bell peppers: cashew chicken is mostly cooked with green bell pepper but I love to use the two especially the red for colour.
White onions
Vegetable oil
Roasted cashews
For the chicken stir fry sauce
Soy sauce: I used both light and dark soy sauce but more of light soy sauce.
Oyster sauce
Sesame oil
Cornflour
Hot sauce: skip this if you don’t like spicy food
Brown sugar: this is optional but I use it sometimes to balance out the saltiness from the soy sauce
Rice wine vinegar: use mirin or Chinese wine if that is what you have.
Other vegetable options
Broccolini
Broccoli
Celery
Carrots
How to make easy cashew chicken recipe
It is important that you have all your ingredients handy before you start stir frying, this is a quick recipe and you don’t want to burn anything.
Make the stir fry sauce and set aside
Cut the chicken breast into small cubes, season with pinch of salt and pepper, 1 ½ tablespoon of cornflour, 1 tablespoon of the stir fry sauce, mix to combine then leave the chicken to marinate while you prep the other ingredients
Heat up 2 tablespoon of oil in a wok/skillet over medium high heat, add chicken pieces, making sure you are not overcrowding the pan and brown the chicken (this process takes about 3 minutes) You can work in batches if the chicken doesn’t fit your pan in one go.
Take out the brown chicken and transfer to a bowl. Don’t transfer to a kitchen towel as you want to retain all the juice from the chicken.
Still using the same wok/skillet, heat up a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the wok, add chopped bell pepper and onions and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and stir fry for another minute. Stir fry for longer if you want your vegetables soft.
Add chicken and toasted cashew and continue to stir fry for another minute or two, Finally, add the stir fry sauce and about ⅓ cup water (if you want it saucy) and simmer for about another minute or until the sauce thickens.
Finish with chopped green onions (this is optional) Take it off the heat and serve immediately with rice. Enjoy
How to store
Cashew chicken is not only great as homemade takeout meals, it is also great for meal prepping. It would stay good in the fridge for up to 5 days. Make sure it is completely cooled and portioned for easy access.
Unfortunately, you can’t freeze this recipe as the cornflour in the sauce becomes watery.
Other quick and easy recipes
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Cashew Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 600 g Skinless boneless chicken breasts substitute with boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 ½ tablespoon Cornflour
- Salt and pepper
- 2 Red and green bell peppers
- 1 small white onions
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ½ cup toasted cashews
Stir fry sauce
- ⅓ cup light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- ⅓ cup oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 2 tablespoon hot sauce skip this if you don’t like spicy food
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar this is optional but I use it sometimes to balance out the saltiness from the soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar use mirin or Chinese wine if that is what you have.
Instructions
- It is important that you have all your ingredients handy before you start stir-frying, this is a quick recipe and you don’t want to burn anything.
- Make the stir fry sauce and set aside: add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix to combine.
- Cut the chicken breast into small cubes, season with a pinch of salt and pepper, 1 ½ tablespoon of cornflour, 1 tablespoon of the stir fry sauce, mix to combine then leave the chicken to marinate while you prep the other ingredients
- Heat up 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok/skillet over medium-high heat, add chicken pieces, making sure you are not overcrowding the pan and brown the chicken (this process takes about 3 minutes) You can work in batches if the chicken doesn’t fit your pan in one go.
- Take out the browned chicken and transfer to a bowl. Don’t transfer to a kitchen towel as you want to retain all the juice from the chicken.
- Still using the same wok/skillet, heat up a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the wok, add chopped bell pepper and onions and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and stir fry for another minute. Stir fry for longer if you want your vegetables soft.
- Add chicken and toasted cashew and continue to stir fry for another minute or two, Finally, add the stir fry sauce and about ⅓ cup water (if you want it saucy) and simmer for about another minute or until the sauce thickens. Finish with chopped green onions (this is optional) Take it off the heat and serve immediately with rice. Enjoy
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional data: Please note that the nutrition label provided is an estimate based on an online nutrition calculator. It will vary based on the specific ingredients and brands you use. Under no circumstances will thedinnerbite.com be responsible for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on nutritional information.
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? PLEASE RATE IT AND LEAVE ME A COMMENT. USE #THEDINNERBITE OR TAG @THEDINNERBITE ON INSTAGRAM SO I CAN SEE YOUR PHOTOS, I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS. THANK YOU!
Brenda says
I’ve just finished making this. It delicious and easy
Awesome
Ajoke says
That's awesome, thank you for the feedback. I am happy you enjoyed it
Charlotte Andrew says
Made this last night, because I love cashew chicken and I wanted to use "some" of the cashews for "cooking" so I wouldn't have to be the person that snacked on an entire large bag of cashews by herself!! I only used a tiny bit of hot sauce, and I used a little less sesame oil as I find it tends to be overpowering. I only used red pepper because I didn't have green. I served it with basmati rice. I thought it was pretty good for my first time making it at home and definitely comparable to your fav takeout. The chicken pieces were really juicy and flavorful and my carnivorous children commented on it! Thanks!
Ajoke says
Hi Charlotte, I can relate to the resistance in snacking on a bag of nuts 😊, thank you for the great feedback, I am glad you all enjoyed this cashew chicken recipe.
Elizabeth says
600g?
I love your recipes and thank you for sharing them.
My question is the first item in the ingredients list of some (most) of the recipes are listed in grams or kg, etc. How to change it to the equivalent of pounds or cup measurements?
Thank you,
~ Liz
Ajoke says
Hi Liz, thank you for your feedback, 600g is about 1.5 lb. I have now edited the recipe card to include the metric value.