A saucy chicken stir fry with cashews, this is a terrific combination of flavours. You’ll love how saucy this is, and how you can adapt this to your taste by using vegetables of choice. Try this with Hot and Sour Soup or Chinese Corn Soup with a side of Fried Rice for a homemade takeout experience!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Cashew Chicken
This is takeout made at home that truly stacks up to your favourite Chinese restaurant. No false promises here! Just read some of the glowing reviews from the many people who have tried this. 😇
You’ll have it on the table faster than ordering home delivery, it’s healthier (way less greasy!) and it’s versatile so you can add or switch the vegetables as you please. So much easier to just adapt this yourself rather than trying to explain what you want over the phone to your Chinese takeout place…… right?? 😉
The secret ingredient is Chinese Cooking Wine
Chinese Cooking Wine, also known as Shaoxing wine or Shaosing wine, is the secret ingredient that makes homemade Chinese food truly taste as good as take out.
It’s an alcoholic wine used for Chinese and other Asian cooking. Totally unpleasant to drink, salty, cheap as chips from Asian stores (~ $1.50 for a big bottle), lasts forever and you can read more about it here (if you’re so inclined).
While you’d never drink it straight, when used cooking, it completely transforms. It seasons the sauce, gives it depth of flavour and complexity, that “something something” to make it just like Chinese restaurants.
Substitutions for Shaoxing Wine
The best substitute is Mirin, or dry sherry – these produce virtually the same result. If you can’t consume alcohol, the best alternative is to substitute low sodium chicken broth for the water in the sauce.
Ingredients in Cashew Chicken
I promised quick and easy, and I exaggerate not! There’s not that many ingredients in the sauce (see photo above) nor in the stir fry itself (see below).
I like to use chicken thigh for stir fries because it’s juicier than breast and tenderloin. If I make this with chicken breast, I always tenderise it using a Chinese restaurant technique using baking soda (bi-carb). It’s super simple, see directions here: How to Velvet Chicken.
I make Cashew Chicken with green capsicum (bell peppers) and onion because they are the most common vegetables I’ve seen in Cashew Chicken. But feel free to add other vegetables into this. I’ve also seen it with red capsicum, celery, Asian Greens, broccoli, carrots and scallions/shallots.
Making Cashew Chicken
Cashew Chicken is very straight forward to make and also very forgiving (especially if you use chicken thigh).
Mix the Sauce, use a bit to marinate the chicken just for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the vegetables, have a glass of wine, browse through the Asian Takeout recipe collection and think about all the other things you want to try one of these days…😊
When you’re ready to cook, have everything ready to go because it takes less than 5 minutes! Sauté garlic and onion (1 min), cook chicken and capsicum (3 min), add sauce, simmer 1 minute until thickens, serve over rice.
As with all my stir fries, this Cashew Chicken comes with plenty of sauce. There’s nothing sadder than when you’re left with a bowl of plain white rice with no sauce to eat it with. Right??!
Hope you enjoy! – Nagi x
PS For a healthy low carb option try Cauliflower Rice – 77% fewer calories and 87% less carbs than rice!
Watch how to make it
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Chinese Cashew Chicken
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 tbsp cornstarch / cornflour
- 3 tbsp soy sauce , all purpose or light (Note 1)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or Mirin (Note 2)
- 3 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- Dash of white pepper (sub black)
Stir Fry
- 500g / 1 lb chicken thigh , skinless boneless, cut into 2.5cm/1″ pieces (Note 3)
- 2 tbsp peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 onion , chopped into 1.75 cm / 3/4″ pieces(yellow, brown or white)
- 1 green capsicum / bell pepper , chopped into 2 cm / 0.8″ pieces
- 6 tbsp water
- 3/4 cup roasted cashews , unsalted
Instructions
- Sauce: Mix cornflour and soy sauce until there’s no lumps. Then add remaining Sauce ingredients and mix.
- Marinate: Transfer 2 tbsp Sauce to chicken, mix to coat. Set aside for 10 minutes+.
- Cook: Heat oil over high heat in a wok or heavy based skillet. Add the garlic and onion, cook for 1 minute.
- Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes. Add capsicum and cook for 1 minute.
- Add Sauce and water. Bring to simmer and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until Sauce thickens.
- Stir through cashews, remove from stove. Serve immediately with rice – or for a low carb, low cal option, try Cauliflower Rice!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published October 2015. Updated post with new photos, better video and most importantly, Life of Dozer section added! No change to recipe.
More Chinese takeout favourites
- Chow Mein
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Sweet and Sour Pork
- Crispy Honey Chicken
- Beef & Broccoli
- Chop Suey (Chicken Stir Fry)
- Spring Rolls
- Prawn (Shrimp) Stir Fry
- Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siu)
- See ALL Chinese Takeout recipes
Life of Dozer
Wow, it’s true. You really can make anyone look intelligent with glasses. 🤓
Wow, like others l have to say this recipe is fabulous.
My wife and l just got up from the supper table after eating
your recipe for cashew chicken.
Like l said wow! ( from Canada )
THANK YOU Jim! So glad you loved it!
Hi Nagi, Can you please what can I substitute for the wine, as I do not use alcohol
Hi Sameera! For this recipe, I would use either 1/2 apple cider vinegar and half apple juice (or water) OR chicken broth/stock OR apple, pear or pineapple juice. 🙂 Hope that helps! N x
My husband cannot have any seafood in his diet. Even cross contamination on a grill has caused problems. What alternative would you use for the oyster sauce? I’ve loved all your recipes that I have tried, but the oyster sauce has kept me from some I really want to make. Thank you!
Hi Shannon! The best substitute is Mushroom Flavoured Soy Sauce or even better, Mushroom Flavoured Stir Fry Sauce which you can get from some large supermarkets and at any Asian grocery store. Just double check the ingredients but I have a friend who is severelley allergic to seafood and this is what I have recently started using and here in Australia, it is 100% seafood free. 🙂
I’m discovering your blog, it’s amazing! And this cashew chicken looks so appetizing, I love your smooth and velvety sauce, so yummy 🙂
Thank you so much!! I do love the sauce in this. So good for soaking the rice with!!
Amazing little tip, Nagi! I find cornflour works like that, too. The added bonus is that the flour then melts into the liquid and thickens your sauce slightly.
That sauce sounds delicious. I love using Chinese rice wine in stir fries 🙂
Absolutely! I think I use cornflour in almost every stir fry I make!! N x
I am going to try this with pheasant. I use baking soda and vinegar on an older buck deer and it gets rid of the gamey taste at the same time that it tenderizes the meat.
Ooh! I think this will work fabulously with pheasant! Love to know what you think! N x
I sort of want to marry you for introducing me to this “velveting” shenanigans. I have always wondered how my takeout chicken is just so DARN AMAZING. Cashew chicken is totally my takeout jam, so I need to get my face into this PRONTO!
Definitely try it Taylor! You’ll be amazed what a difference it makes to the chicken! 🙂
I am glad you are doing well despite all the fears of the weather!! Perhaps it was your arrival that made it dissipate? Now I never thought about baking soda with chicken. I did the baking soda with my shrimp — it removes some of the moisture so when I grilled the skewers it grilled better. The shrimp were delicious! I am going to have to try it with chicken — I love stir fried chicken. When I saw the natural tenderizer I thought you were going to say yogurt because I done that too. Stir fried chicken is on the menu this week. Thank you Nagi and please stay safe — we all love you!.
Woah! Shrimp? I have never heard of that! I have to go look it up!!
Husband allergic to peanuts and cashew would it work with walnuts?
Sure will! Or Macadamia or even almonds actually 🙂
Hola Nagi!
Have always wonder how they came up with that texture, this is a favorite in my house, so going to be trying it very soon! and totally agree with you, I do not like this texture on beef. Thanks for sharing this.
I’m so glad it’s not just me who finds the texture odd with beef! 🙂
Hola in Mexico! Como estas? haha
These photos are so beautiful and I love your background boards!! Oh and the dish looks good too 🙂
Two words Jolene: Taco Heaven. N x
Thank you for the tip Nagi, never heard of coating the chicken in baking soda, but will try and see. 🙂
My grandma’s tip is to soak the chicken in a mixture of crushed garlic and milk for some time (overnight is even better), and it makes the chicken very tender and juicy, not at all dry when baked (which can occur with chicken breast easily).
Gosh I haven’t tried that! I wonder if it is similar to buttermilk? I’m thinking the crushed garlic might be the acidity that buttermilk adds?Hmm, I must give it a go!
Cashew chicken is my absolute go to favourite when eating at a Chinese restaurant. I have never tried velveting the chicken, but I am going to give it a go. I can’t believe how easy it is. Thanks for the tip.
You must! You really will be amazed, it is exactly like at Chinese restaurants!!
Seriously we need to get out of each others heads!!!! I had velvet chicken down to blog too!!! Send you an email!!!!
This looks lush. I love the addition of white pepper. I used to work with a very old Chinese man and he always had a bowl of salt and white pepper next to the stove. He added it to everything he cooked. He was as mad as a box of frogs but a wonderfully kind and generous person. When I was on the night shift in the hotel he would whip up Chinese omelettes that were just amazing! He also made a tea made from what looked like stones! I never got to the bottom of what it was and despite his offers I wasn’t brave enough to try it. Especially after he told me “It is a secret recipe that makes men men” LOL
Anyway this chicken looks wonderful I love the extra sauce, no wants to have a pile of rice left and no sauce to pour over it.
Yum.
That is SO FUNNY!!! Great minds think alike, hmm? N x
Jackpot! This is J Daddy’s all-time favourite stir fry chicken – he loves cashews! I will be sure to make this next week.
NO WAY! Seriously??
Made this a few nights ago and oh so delicious. So so so easy to make, and so flavoursome and tasty. This is a super quick stir fry that will be great next year when I’m back at work. J Daddy enjoyed this dish very much. Cashews are his favourite nuts and he loves cashew chicken stir fry.
I didn’t velvet the chicken as i didn’t think it was necessary (and I was lazy), and I replaced the onion with 2 stalks of celery, thinly sliced. And added a few more cashews than prescribed in the recipe, because we do love cashews!
https://instagram.com/p/9lPQxuqyXc/
Thank you Gloria!!! And thanks for your tip about the cashews too, I’m going to update the recipe. 1/4 cup is a bit skimpy, definitely needs more!
If you ask J Daddy, 1 cup of cashews is perfect. If you ask me, this needs at least 1/2 cup of cashews. We splashed out the other night and I spoiled J Daddy by adding 1 cup of cashews. 😛
Hi Nagi! OMG Yes! It looks so juicy and creamy! Would velveting work with pork? PS CA food blog conference?
YES it works with pork!! It works really well with pork actually. Personally I find beef is a little bit odd with velveting. 🙂 Yes! Hosting a conference in LA in the middle of November. I’m so excited to meet everyone! Hope you are well Dorothy. Getting cold? 😉 N x
And this is one of the many reasons I love your blog so much! You always offer such wonderful tips, tricks, and insights. You’re a total rock star and I hope you’re having an incredible time in Mexico! I seriously can’t wait to see what inspires you!
What inspires me? Well, the likes of YOU! 🙂 I’m sharing the blackened tacos on Friday, thank you so much. I honestly can’t tell you how excited I am – do you know, I have never made “blackened” anything? N x
This looks wonderful Nagi! I also loved chinese cashew chicken as a kid. Also we made your Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Bowls for dinner last night – delicious! So fresh and flavourful! Thank you for your recipes.
Wow Jessica, thanks so much for trying the Vietnamese noodle bowls! I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂 Isn’t the marinade incredible?? N x
I’ve never heard the term “velveting” but I do know what you’re talking about, that the chicken at Chinese restaurants has a very tender quality. I’m looking forward to trying this at home – thanks for sharing the recipe!
I hope you do try it!! I think you’ll be amazed 🙂
Cashew chicken is one of my Chinese food faves, and this looks delicious! Thanks for sharing the tip about velveting – I’ve never heard of that but now I need to try it! I love when I can make restaurant favorites at home, but healthier!
Thanks Kristine!! Definitely try it, you will be amazed how well it works!!