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Chinese Cashew Chicken
There are many recipes online, but I am going to teach you the best homemade and authentic Chinese cashew chicken recipe that tastes just like takeout from the best Chinese restaurants.
The secret to becoming an expert on this recipe lies in the silky velveting techniques of the chicken and the sauce. Master those and you won’t need takeout again, believe me.
How to Make Cashew Chicken “silky”
If you have been to a good Chinese restaurant, you would notice that the chicken is extremely tender and silky smooth – almost velvety. Yes, most Chinese chefs “treat” the chicken with baking soda.
Baking soda removes the potential “meaty” odor from the meat and tenderizes at the same time (learn all about it in my Cook’s Note). Pairing the velvety chicken with crunchy cashew nuts adds texture and tastes absolutely delicious.
Cashew Chicken Sauce
What kind of sauce is used? Like most Chinese stir-fry, the sauce is a Chinese brown sauce that is made of oyster sauce, soy sauce, water (or chicken broth) and sugar.
For authentic flavors, sesame oil, ground white pepper and Chinese rice wine are also used to make the sauce. Lastly, corn starch is added to thicken up this traditional sauce.
Tips for the Best Cashew Chicken
- Use chicken breasts for the best result.
- Do not skimp on the cashews – include loads of cashew nuts.
- The brown sauce is the soul of this dish, so get the best quality Chinese soy sauce and oyster sauce.
- Add red or green bell peppers and cook in a wok or skillet. Make some steamed rice to go with it and you don’t need Chinese takeout ever again!
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 515 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Cashew Chicken
Ingredients
- 10 oz (280g) boneless and skinless chicken breast (cut into small cubes)
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 5 slices peeled ginger
- 1 small red or green bell pepper (cut into small squares)
- 1/2 cup unsalted cashew nuts
Marinade:
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (optional)
Sauce:
- 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 3/4 teaspoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3 dashes ground white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon rice wine (optional)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- Salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken breast with cold water, pat dry with paper towels. Cut the chicken into cubes and marinate with corn starch and rice wine (if using). Mix all the ingredients for the Sauce together. Set aside.
- Heat up a wok or skillet with 1 tablespoon of the oil and stir-fry the chicken until they turn white (not bot completely cooked). Dish out and set aside.
- Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of the oil into the wok or skillet and add the ginger and bell pepper. Stir-fry until you smell the peppery aroma from the peppers, then add the chicken back in. Stir in the Sauce and toss and stir fry continuously until the chicken is cooked and the sauce thickens. Add salt to taste.
- Add the cashew nuts and do a few quick stirs. Dish out and serve immediately with steamed rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
I’ve never used fresh ginger. I watched a youtube video to learn how to peel and slice. But your recipe only says “5 slices” . How big is a slice? Thank you
Here is the how it should look: https://pngtree.com/freepng/ginger-slices_3270636.html
This is excellent. Easy, quick and tasty. Perfect for mid week dinner.
Awesome, thanks for liking my cashew chicken recipe.
Very, very good. Made this last night and our family liked this as much as the recipe we have from Thailand cooking school (a friend who traveled there for 2 weeks took a cooking class while in Thailand, returned with the recipe book they used). As other reviews mentioned, Rasa’s photos are great however the base recipe needed some color besides red & white, so thanks for the ‘heavy lifting’ Rasa for the delicious recipe, and we’ll just add some vegetable add-ons (see the website link for this comment, if it shows to visitors, if you’d like to see the photo of our meal)::
After tripling the sauce ingredients to make 6-8 portions, and using 1 diced finger pepper when cooking the chicken, easy enough to add some vegetables we were fortunate to have on hand:
a.) 1 large sweet onion (cut into 3/4 inch squares)
b.) 1 large red bell/capsicum pepper
c.) 1 poblano pepper
d.) about 1 cup matchstick-cut carrots (from 2 inches of carrot that’s about 3 finger’s thick)
e.) 14 ounces unsalted cashews (lightly browned in oil over Medium heat in the wok, taken out, added back in at the end)
f.) 2 cups of sliced mushrooms
Flavor was really good; I’d like to see the sauce be a little brown instead of light-colored, other than that can’t imagine changing a thing!
Hi Rasa, I should have read the recipe first before I first commented…..do you sprinkle the baking soda on both sides of the chicken breast ? So this recipe is made with only one chicken breast? And about how many will it feed ?
Can you please do a video the next time you make it, and let us see you do it all? From beginning to the end….that would be wonderful……Thanks
You cut the chicken into cubes first before sprinkling the baking soda on the chicken. The recipe serves 2.
This sound really good, can’t wait to make it….wish you would do videos and show us just how you use the baking soda on the chicken, take us thru the entire recipe…..no one ever said how long to leave the baking soda on….or how much to sprinkle on…..this would make it more helpful to know all this…..
I believe you said you could use on Beef too, what about pork, or other meats…..can you please email me personally with these questions…..
You only leave the soda on for 5 minutes. It’s in Rasa’s last paragraph of instructions. Make sure you don’t leave it longer or your chicken will turn out with an unpleasant texture and like she indicates. Make sure you rinse the cubed chicken well. Note: When using this method, your chicken will not brown well.
Correct. Thanks Marni. :)
Cashew Chicken is my favorite, I have never used the baking soda; but was wondering if it can be used on other meats?
Thank you, Mary
Yes you can use it on other meat.
Same here
Made this many times and is always a hit!, Since my husband loves fried rice, that is what I usually serve it with. Absolutely delicious.
Thanks Maureen, I am happy that you like my cashew chicken recipe!
Delicious! This tasted identical to the take away Cashew Chicken I get in Australia! Great recipe thank you!
Every recipe I’ve tried from Rasa Malaysia has been a huge success. This one is my favourite. It’s so easy and it’s delicious! I brought a few of my coworkers this cashew chicken for lunch and now they keep asking me when I’m making it again. I usually double or triple the recipe and add carrots, celery, and broccoli. So yummy! Even my picky mother who hates everything loved this (after picking out the peppers and onion lol). Thank you for such fantastic recipes!
Hi Michelle, thanks for your sweet comment. I am so glad that you love my cashew chicken. I love that you add in more vegetables. Good idea. Tell your friends to check out my site. Can’t remember my site’s name, just tell them easyasianfood.com and it will redirects here. :)