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. 🤓
So good and SO easy! Will definitely be making this one again!!
So good, so easy! Loved this one and will definitely make it again!
So glad you enjoyed it Deana!! 🙂
Nagi love, love this recipe. I’ve shared it with everyone in my office, I have laminated my copy of the recipe and make it at least once a week, my children love it. I’m making it for dinner tonight but I’m going to use almonds and add carrot and broccoli.
Laminated? I’m tickled pink at the thought 🙂 N x
Made this for dinner tonight, and it is the closest I’ve come to making cashew chicken that could compete with a restaurant. I also found it to be a bit salty. I used light soy sauce, so maybe that was the issue. I forgot to buy rice wine, so I used a dry white wine. I added celery and mushrooms. It was very good, and I will definitely make it again. Thank you!
YAY! I’m so glad you enjoyed it Leslie! If you used light soy sauce, yes it will have been too salty because light soy sauce is saltier than ordinary soy sauce. 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed it still!!
Needed a quick Asian lunch for a friend and this came up! I have never heard of velveting but can’t wait to try it. Might try this trick for some other chicken dishes too! Thanks for making it easy for me as Asian cuisine is not my forte!
Oooh, hope you do try it! The velveting is magic – just like Chinese restaurants!!
Hi Nagi, I would love to try this and wonder if you can suggest a substitute for the Oyster sacue? Shellfish allergies unfortunately. Thank you.
Hi Patricia! Mushroom soy sauce would be the best substitute 🙂
Nagi,
Outstanding! The first thing my husband said was, wow, is this chicken ever tender! (and the rest of the stir fry was great as well). I will be velveting for more than just stir fries in the future — anything that calls for diced chicken.
I’m so glad you loved it Carol! Thanks for your message!! And YES to velveting chicken for all stir fried chicken – it works, it really works! N x
I always had thought velveting chicken was done by marinating slices of chicken in egg white, wine, and cornstarch which is then quickly blanched in hot oil and then drained prior to a stir fry. I am definitely giving this EASY version a try! Thanks!
Actually, that’s the “other” way of velveting 🙂 This is just much easier with the same result!
That’s what I’m talkin’ about… easy and the same? I’m in!
Hi there Nagi
I made this for dinner tonight, the chicken was lovely and ‘spongy’ like you described after the velveting process, however I found the sauce very salty. I doubled the recipe and the sauce due to the amount of people I was serving. It looked lovely and tasted very nice initially but the saltiness really overpowered the dish. Did I do something wrong?
Vanessa.
Hi Vanessa! Wish I could have been in the kitchen with you to troubleshoot 🙁 I’m sorry you found the sauce too salty. I just checked the recipe again and it is the right quantities. Did you use ordinary soy sauce? Light soy sauce or thick dark soy sauce is a different type of soy sauce which is much saltier and that would definitely explain why it was salty? N x
I also found the sauce to be too salty and dark in color. What do you mean by regular soy sauce? I used Chinese light soy which is what my Chinese mother-in-law usually uses. I have several different types and choose according to the cuisine. By the way, I love your recipes.
Hi Lisa! I’m sorry you found it too salty. It’s because you used Light Soy Sauce which is much saltier than all purpose soy sauce. In response to this, I actually wrote up a little guide on soy sauce. 🙂 Here it is here -> https://promotown.info/soy-sauces-right-one/%3C/a%3E
In a nutshell, it says that: There are 2 main types of soy sauce that I use – all purpose soy sauce and light soy sauce. All purpose soy sauce does not have light, dark or sweet written on the label, it just says soy sauce. I use Kikkoman. LIGHT soy sauce is the other one I sometimes use. It is lighter in colour and much saltier than all purpose soy sauce.
Which is why this came out too salty. I wish I could have been in the kitchen with you! 🙂 And thank you for your kind words about my recipes. 🙂 N x
I wish I had known you were in Mexico. I live in San Miguel de Allende. I would have loved to have met you. I enjoy your recipes and your dialog very much!
What a BEAUTIFUL city San Miguel de Allende is! I just looked it up instantly! I’m currently in Oaxaca for Day of the Dead festivities, just got here from Mexico City. I am having a blast of a time, everyone is so friendly and helpful (despite language barrier!) and the FOOD! My gosh, it’s been an eye opener! I’m in absolutely heaven! 🙂
This is brilliant. The guy at our local Chinese restaurant says his trick is to whisk egg whites until foamy and he dips the chicken in that before cooking. I think your method sounds better and I’m dying to see how it works for me.
Hey Maureen! I haven’t heard that one actually! I have to read up on it 🙂
This is not velveting at all. Velveting involves marinating in cornstarch, egg white and wine to tenderise the chicken. This also works for chicken being poached for example in Chicken and Sweet Corn soup. Beef is not velveted as such but the addition of bicarb and water will make the beef more tender and gives the typical spongy texture found in Chinese meat. Bicarb is used so that you can use cheaper cuts of meat that you would not normally stir fry.
Hi Denise! Thanks so much for your contribution! 🙂 You are absolutely right, the cornstarch, egg white and wine method is also used to tenderise chicken in Chinese cooking! This bi-carb method is another way of doing it and it produces a slightly different result in that there is no cornflour batter coating on the chicken when it is cooked. As you know, when you marinade chicken in a the cornstarch, egg white and wine mixture, the chicken pieces have a a bit of batter on it which is not rinsed off when you stir fry it. Whereas with the baking soda method, you don’t have that. 🙂 Same same….but different! -Nagi PS I also like that this requires less ingredients but produces the same effect 🙂
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!!