Thai Cashew Chicken is a weeknight dinner dream – better than take-out, made in 30 minutes, loaded with flavorful sauce, and less than 350 calories.
Okay, so I totally know what you’re thinking of when I mention Cashew Chicken. A sort of ordinary, Chinese food buffet version, right? Good but lacking in pizzazz. This, my friends, is NOT Chinese food cashew chicken. This is the Cashew Chicken of Thailand. Cooked in a fiery hot wok in a matter of minutes, it’s packed with flavor, tender peppers and onions, perfectly cooked golden brown chicken, and a sauce that will make you go back for seconds…and thirds…and get excited for leftovers at lunch.
In Thailand, this is still considered a Chinese-style dish, but it is so prevalent in Bangkok that it’s become Thai food in its own right. Spice is optional here, but as with most Thai food, a little heat is always welcome. When I make it for my kids, I skip the spice – the sauce is perfectly flavorful all on its own.
Like most stir-fry dishes, this is a weeknight favorite. A few minutes of prep means all of the ingredients are ready to go and the dish can be finished in the wok in 15 minutes or less. Cooking everything in the right order is key. Here we go!
Step 1: Make Sauce
Garlic, soy sauce, water, cornstarch, and red pepper flakes (optional) are things you probably already have in your pantry. This also calls for a bit of Oyster Sauce. Don’t be afraid of it! You’ve surely had oyster sauce if you’ve had Thai or Chinese take-out. The finished dish won’t taste like oysters, but will have a savory flavor that shouldn’t be missed. You’ll also need Sweet Soy Sauce. It’s inexpensive and available at any Asian market. This is the brand we keep in our pantry. (Check out the Guide to Essential Thai Ingredients for more details.)
Step 2: Prep Ingredients
The ingredients list is short and sweet. Slice peppers, yellow onions, and green onions. Toss diced chicken with a bit of salt and all-purpose flour (to help it brown in the pan). Get everything ready before you start. This will cook FAST.
Step 3: Fry Cashews
Since cashews are the key ingredient of cashew chicken you really want them to shine. Add cashews to some hot oil and cook for about a minute until they are golden brown. You’ll be amazed at how much toasty flavor and crunch this step gives the finished dish. It also gives the cooking oil a bit of extra flavor. Set cashews aside.
Step 4: Fry Chicken
Leave the oil from the cashews in the pan and add the flour-coated chicken. Saute until golden brown and cooked through (6 to 7 minutes). Set chicken aside with cashews.
Step 5: Cook Peppers and Onions
To the hot pan, add those peppers and onions and saute until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Add a splash of water if the pan starts to look dry.
Step 6: Simmer with Sauce
And here’s my favorite part of Thai Cashew Chicken. Add the sauce and let it bubble and thicken.
Step 7: Add Green Onions, Chicken and Cashews
Add the green onions and add chicken and cashews back to pan. Toss everything to coat in sauce.
Dinner is served!
Favorite Tools
- Joyce Chen Carbon Steel Wok – I absolutely love this affordable, beautiful wok. This is the exact wok that is shown in all the photos above (after much love and use).
- Wok Spatula – This spatula is the right shape to fit in the corners of the wok, making it easy to toss everything together.
Thai Cashew Chicken
Ingredients
Sauce:
- 2 cloves Garlic, chopped
- 1/2 cup Water
- 2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Dark Sweet Soy Sauce
- 2 tsp Oyster Sauce
- 1 tsp Cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes (opt - skip if you don't want the dish to be spicy)
- 1/4 tsp Ground White Pepper (opt)
Cashew Chicken:
- 1/2 Yellow Onion, sliced
- 1/2 Red Bell Pepper, sliced
- 3 stalks Green Onions, chopped
- 1 lb Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, chopped
- pinch of salt
- 1 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup Raw Cashews (or use roasted and unsalted cashews)
- 1/4 cup Cooking Oil (like vegetable or peanut oil)
- Rice, for serving
Instructions
- Make sauce: Whisk together garlic, water, light soy sauce, dark sweet soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Whisk in cornstarch. Add red pepper flakes and white pepper (if using). Set aside.
- Prep ingredients: Slice onion and bell pepper and combine. Chop green onions. Dice chicken and toss with a pinch of salt and flour.
- Set onions / peppers, green onions, chicken, sauce, and cashews near the stove. Place a paper towel on top of a plate and set that near the stove.
- Heat cooking oil in a wok over medium-high heat.
- When oil is hot, add cashews and saute until golden brown and toasted, 1 to 2 minutes (watch carefully to prevent them from burning). Set cashews on paper-towel lined plate. Leave oil in the wok.
- To remaining oil in wok, add chicken. Let chicken cook for 2 minutes without stirring (this will help it to brown on the bottom).
- Continue cooking, turning occasionally, until chicken is golden brown and cooked through, 6 to 7 minutes total.
- Transfer chicken to the plate with the cashews and return wok to heat.
- To any remaining oil in the wok, add onions and bell peppers.
- Saute until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. (Add a splash of water if the pan starts to look dry.)
- Pour sauce over onions and peppers.
- Simmer until sauce starts to thicken, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add green onions, chicken, and cashews to pan. Cook everything together for 1 minute to coat in sauce.
- Serve over rice.
Notes
Dark Sweet Soy Sauce - Don't have this on hand? Instead of the dark sweet soy sauce, use 1 Tbsp light soy sauce whisked with 1 Tbsp brown sugar.
Nutrition
We’re SO ready for spring, but still having many days that require us to bury ourselves under blankets over here.
Delicious Recipe. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe. Will try it at my home as soon as possible.
You’re so welcome! Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
hmmm..mouth-watering food!!! I would cook this for my family. I bet they will love it.
This looks really delicious. I am actually looking for something light but filling and I believe this Thai Cashew Chicken is just perfect. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Too bad I missed your giveaway. Looking forward to your other posts.
I plan to make this tonight, however in place of the peppers I’d like to do carrots. When do you recommend adding those? I assume right where the onions and peppers would go in together but wanted your opinion first. Thanks for this amazing recipe. We have a great Thai restaurant in our town but it would be so nice to make something similar at home for less money!
Hi Alexis – I think carrots would be a great addition. I’d chop them fairly small, use pre-shredded or just plan to cook them a bit longer – they’ll take longer to cook to tender than the peppers. Enjoy!
Thank you!!
Delicious Recipe. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe. Will try it at my home as soon as possible.
Delicious! Substituted broccoli florets for bell pepper as I didn’t have any on hand. Also didn’t have any sweet soy sauce so added brown sugar for the sweetness. Definitely a keeper!
So glad you liked it Vicki, and I’m so happy to hear that the brown sugar sub worked out – good to know for others who don’t have sweet soy sauce on hand.
Thank you very much! This is now my son’s favorite dish, I’ve made it four times in a few weeks! My son says it has the ‘magic sauce’ referring to authentic Thai dishes he has tasted.
I’ve taken the shortcut of adding the peppers and onion to the chicken after the chicken has been quickly browned.
That’s so great to hear! And thanks for the tip on the shortcut – I’m sure others will appreciate that, Eva!
If you don’t have a wok will it work with a skillet pan as well?
A skillet would work great, Tina! Use the largest skillet you have to prevent crowding – the chicken and other ingredients will cook most evenly in a large pan.
Made this last night for dinner and it came out perfectly. Have had so many Pinterest stir-fry fails but this recipe worked great so thank you so much for posting and also for the great directions. I can always use another “no fail” recipe in my rotation! Really delicious and the whole family enjoyed it a lot!
p.s. Meant to give this five starts, not four. Also, appreciated the substitution advice for the dark sweet soy sauce, which I could not find 🙂
Great! Glad the sub worked. Dark sweet soy sauce is delicious, but it is a bit more difficult to find. 😉
Wonderful Cathy! We work really hard to test and re-test our recipes before publishing them. (We’ve had more than a few Pinterest fails from other sites too!)
I think this might be the first time I have left a review for a recipe I found on Pinterest. I just needed to drop by and say DANG this was sooo GOOD! My entire family finished their plates and asked for seconds. My favorite dish to order at Thai restaurants is cashew chicken and this did not disappoint. I was also able to whip it up really quick on a week night, served with Thai style jasmine rice on the side. One tip, really watch the cashews and keep stirring while they are cooking in the oil. I stepped away from mine for less than a minute and they had already started to burn. Luckily the sauce covered up any too-brown taste that was left. I also didn’t have any of the sweet soy sauce on hand so I just added the brown sugar as suggested. I luckily doubled the recipe so I have some for lunch at work today, looking forward to it!
Thanks so much for leaving a note, Sarah! I’m glad and this was a hit with the family and that the brown sugar sub worked! Good point about the cashews – they do have to be watched so carefully, but that toasty flavor is worth the effort.
Cashew chicken is my favorite, I used to eat it almost everyday til I got sick of it lmao. Gave your recipe a shot at home and it turned out amazing 👌
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Awesome! So glad you liked it Chris. I’ve definitely been through the too-much-cashew-chicken phase myself – I used to eat it SO much too!
This is one of my favorite dishes and it turned out fantastic. I did double the garlic, because I always at least double the garlic (haha!), but otherwise stuck with the recipe. Next time I think I will up the veggies a bit (maybe just need larger veggies), and maybe add carrot, but otherwise don’t think I’d change it. Thank you for sharing!
This did not taste like the Thai restaurant version whatsoever. All it tasted of was soy sauce for us. Really no discernible flavor. Only change was tofu for chicken and we added extra veggies. Bummer because we were looking forward to the sweet, garlicky dish at home. Back to the search for a good home made version.
Hi Bevin – I’m so sorry that this didn’t turn out the way you expected. I ate this dish many, many times in my years of living in Bangkok, so I found the flavor to match my memory. Did you use Thai brands of the sweet and light soy sauce? (A Japanese or Chinese version of regular soy sauce would give you a very different result – one that would likely taste much more of soy sauce than the Thai version of the dish.)
Hi
Do you think that I could replace the sauce with a tamarind concentrate? Curious because I just bought tamarind to try to replicate a spicy/savory thai cashew dish that I recently tried.
Thank you!
I think that would be delicious! Definitely taste it as you go though and add a bit of soy sauce and / or pinch of sugar to balance the tart flavor of the tamarind.
Fantastic! I added a yellow pepper and also used chicken thighs and breast meat. Turned out really good. Will definitely be making again. Next time I will double the sauce part of the recipe.
Awesome – thanks for letting us know, Mike! Good call on the sauce – I always love extra sauce!
Sooooooo close to a genuine restaurant taste, and I attribute the difference to the fact that I only had Japanese Soy Sauce. I substituted chicken thighs for chicken breasts because I have some weird aversion to breasts, but it was so. Dang. Good. I added a dash of brown sugar at the end because I felt it needed just a touch more sweetness and used half the oil because I was using a fattier chicken cut. Would recommend to anyone. (:
Awesome – thanks so much for the note Mariah and thanks for sharing those substitution / variation tips!
Jess, can I substitute low sodium soy sauce without having a negative impact on the recipe?
Thanks!
Anne – absolutely! I’ve made it with low sodium soy sauce and the result is delicious. I like to add a small amount of additional sweetener (sugar or honey) to balance it out if using regular low sodium soy sauce.
Thanks for an excellent recipe and the easy to follow cooking instruction. I made this on Friday evening, adding carrots, green beans and some noodles. The meal was very well received.
Thanks again.
Roddy
Looking very forward to trying this Amazing recipe! It looks awesome 😊 thank you for sharing!
Thanks so much Vickie! Enjoy!
Hi there! I’m wondering how you make the dark sweet soy sauce if you don’t have it, like how much brown sugar do you add? Thanks so much! Can’t wait to make this!
I really enjoyed this recipe. The one thing I added was 1/4c of dark brown sugar. That would have given this a 5 star all the way! I added a full bell pepper, and added sugar snap peas! Will definitely make this again with my one modification! Ty!!
Really enjoyed it! Used pork instead of chicken and added broccoli, mushrooms and basil, otherwise I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out amazing! Better than my local Thai restaurant! Thank you!
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