Easy Cashew Chicken Recipe

This easy cashew chicken recipe is saucy, sweet, and savoury. It is a delicious entree of crispy chicken pieces, tossed with the most amazing sauce and of course some toasted cashews.

Serve this cashew chicken with noodles and broccoli for a perfect meal.

If you love saucy and easy chicken recipes, you must try my honey hot chicken salad or my basil pesto and chicken baked pasta!

There are affiliate links in this post. Please see my disclosure policy to learn more.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• The Process
• What to serve with Cashew Chicken? 
• Storage
• Easy Cashew Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

for the chicken

• Chicken Breasts
• Raw Cashews
• Vegetable Oil
• Salt & Pepper
• Cornstarch
• Spices; Paprika and Garlic Powder
• Eggs

for the sauce

• Brown Sugar
• Hoisin Sauce
• Garlic
• White Wine Vinegar
• Soy Sauce
• Honey
• Rice Vinegar
• Sesame Oil
• Sambal Oelek Chili Paste
• Red Chili Flakes

See recipe card for quantities.

The Process

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

how to make cashew chicken sauce

To make the cashew chicken 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.

🌶 Tip: This recipe has a very mild spice. It is not super spicy but if you are not up for any kind of spiciness at all, then eliminate the chili paste and red pepper flakes. 

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

🧑‍🍳 Hint: a "slurry" is a term used for a water and cornstarch mixture.

Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes, until the sauce has thickened slightly. Remove the sauce from the heat and set aside.

toasted 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 browned.

preparing the chicken and setting up the breading station

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. If you don't have two frying pans, you can cook the chicken in batches too, you will just have to add more oil in between batches.

You’ll also need to preheat your oven to 350°F and get a 9x13 baking dish. 

Cube up your chicken breasts into 1 inch pieces and toss them with some salt and pepper. 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. 

In a large mixing bowl combine the cornstarch and spices.

In a medium sized mixing bowl add the eggs and whisk. 

Turn the fry pans on over low heat.

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!

the fast and easy way to bread 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 of chicken out of the cornstarch mixture 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 and cook in a single layer. Depending on the size of your pans, more than one batch may be required.

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 9x13 baking dish.

After all of the chicken is cooked and in the baking dish, add the toasted cashews. Stirring around to evenly distribute.

Then pour the prepared sauce over top of all of it. Stir again to distribute the sauce and then bake, stirring once in the middle of the cooking time.

What to serve 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).

Some other options include serving cashew chicken with rice, steamed vegetables, or noodles. Personally, I prefer serving this cashew chicken recipe with buckwheat soba noodles and broccoil!

Or you could also make a full blown Chinese food feast! Serve this cashew chicken recipe with sweet and sour pork, rice, and steamed veggies.

Storage

Leftovers? Yea right. 

But in all seriousness, if you do have leftovers store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 2-3 days.

Reheat by transferring the leftovers to a frying pan and heating them over medium-low heat until hot.