Cashew Chicken

Saucy, sweet, savory, spicy Cashew Chicken is here! And it is here to stay. It is a delicious melody of crispy chicken pieces tossed with the most delicious sauce and of course we added some toasted cashews into the mix for extra deliciousness!

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Listen up! If you have not tasted Sambal Oelek Chili Paste before you are missing out. It is the most flavorful hot sauce ever, and you need it, now!

p.s. this post is NOT sponsored. We just love the stuff and we are here to make sure you don’t miss out on this game changing (ok, life changing) hot sauce!

The sauce for this Cashew Chicken has got some zang for sure, although the honey and brown sugar mellow the spice a lot. But if you are not up for any kind of spiciness at all, all you’ve got to do is eliminate the chili paste and red pepper flakes. 

What goes with Cashew Chicken? 

Well, the first option is that you can just eat it straight from the pan, by the fork full (we won’t judge). But some other options are serving this Cashew Chicken with rice, steamed broccoli, or (my personal fav) buckwheat noodles!! 

Of course, you could also go the route of making a full blown feast and whip up some sweet and sour pork, rice, steamed veggies and chow mein, because why not, right?

On to the Cashew Chicken!

This recipe takes about an hour to come together and tastes exactly like the take out version!

Making the Sauce

In a small saucepan combine the brown sugar, hoisin sauce, garlic, white wine vinegar, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sambal oelek chili paste, and red chili flakes.

Whisk all of the ingredients together and bring to a boil over medium heat, as soon as the mixture is boiling add the water/cornstarch mixture. 

Lower the heat to a simmer and simmer until the sauce has just thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set the sauce aside. 

Toasting the Cashews

In a small frying pan add the raw cashews and heat over medium-low heat for 2 minutes, stirring a few times just until lightly toasted and starting to give a nutty aroma. 

Setting Up the “Breading Station”

This step is SUPER easy. 

First, you’ll want to set up two large frying pans on the stove and add around ¼ cup of vegetable oil to each of them, but don’t turn them on yet. 

You’ll also need to preheat your oven to 350°F and get a 9×13 baking dish ready. 

Cube up your chicken breasts into ~1” pieces and toss them with some salt and pepper, around ½ a teaspoon of each. Set that aside for a second and get the rest of your “breading station” ready. 

To assemble the breading station you will need two bowls. One for the cornstarch and spices, and one for the eggs. 

Combine the cornstarch, paprika, and garlic powder together in one bowl. And whisk the eggs together in another bowl. 

Turn the fry pans on over low heat on the stove and let’s get this chicken breaded in record time. 

I get it, you might be dreading the breading process, dip one piece at a time, blah, blah, blah. Nope, we don’t have time for that, your pans are already heating up!

Breading the Chicken

Throw all of the cubed seasoned chicken breast straight into the cornstarch mixture. Toss it around with your hands or a pair of tongs and make sure that the chicken is completely covered in the cornstarch. 

Now, you can work with a whole handful of chicken at a time. Grab 6-8 pieces and put them into the whisked eggs. Dip them just to cover and transfer them directly to the heated frying pans. 

Be sure to not crowd the fry pans with chicken. Depending on the size of your pans you may have to fry the chicken in batches. If you have to do the chicken in a few batches, just do not dip the chicken in the egg. Only dip the chicken into the egg right before you are ready to transfer it into the frying pan. 

Fry the chicken for 8-10 minutes, flipping a few times until the chicken is golden brown and fully cooked. 

Transfer the chicken straight from the frying pan into the 9×13 baking dish.

Next dump on the toasted cashews and the sauce, stir it around and bake it for 25 minutes. 

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When the chicken comes out of the oven it will be bubbling in a sticky sweet sauce and you’ll want to ditch whatever else you made to go with it and just hover over the dish with a fork. 

Although, if you have some self control (as I clearly DO NOT) serve the chicken up right away with whatever you have prepared to go with it!

Keeping the Leftovers

Leftovers? Yea right. 

But, if you do have some just keep them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days. Reheat by transferring to a frying pan and heating over medium-low heat until hot.

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