Cashew Chicken
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All the flavor of your favorite takeout, none of the fuss—this cashew chicken is quick, easy, and barely requires any prep. A weeknight dinner winner!
Craving that savory-sweet cashew chicken from your favorite Chinese restaurant? This version is quick enough for a weeknight and so much better than takeout. No wok needed—just a large nonstick skillet. Aside from the chicken, the only chopping you’ll do is some garlic and scallions. The rest comes straight from the pantry.
Just a heads-up: stir-fries cook fast, so have everything measured and ready to go before you start. And when prepping the chicken, keep the pieces on the larger side so they cook evenly and stay juicy.
“Quick and easy. My teenage son and his friends all raved how good it was. Thanks!rn”
What You’ll Need To Make Cashew Chicken
- Cashews: Roasted, unsalted cashews add crunch and a toasty, nutty bite that pairs perfectly with the savory sauce. If you’re toasting them yourself, keep a close eye—they can go from golden to burnt in seconds. You’ll know they’re ready when they smell fragrant and turn just a shade darker.
- Chicken: Boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins both work well here. Tenderloins are especially easy and stay tender in a quick stir-fry.
- Garlic & Scallions: Garlic brings bold, savory flavor, while scallions add both sharpness and fresh, bright color. Use the white and light green parts for stir-frying; save the dark green tops for garnish.
- Soy Sauce, Hoisin, Rice Vinegar & Water: This combo gives you that classic takeout-style sweet-salty-tangy balance. Hoisin brings sweetness and depth—go with a good brand like Lee Kum Kee or Kikkoman. Soy sauce adds umami, rice vinegar adds a little acidity, and water loosens the sauce just enough to coat everything evenly.
- Cornstarch: Helps the sauce cling to every bite and gives it that glossy, restaurant-style finish.
- Vegetable Oil & Toasted Sesame Oil: Use neutral vegetable oil for stir-frying, and finish with a drizzle of toasted sesame oil for its rich, nutty aroma. Be sure to use toasted sesame oil—the dark, fragrant kind—not the light, untoasted variety.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Toast the cashews. Preheat the oven to 350°F and toast the cashews on a baking sheet until fragrant, about 5 minutes—they’ll crisp up as they cool.
Step 2: Make the sauce. While the cashews toast, whisk together the water, cornstarch, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce in a small bowl and set aside.
Step 3: Brown the first batch of chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over high heat and stir-fry half the chicken until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. (Browning the chicken in batches helps it sear instead of steam.) Transfer it to a plate.
Step 4: Cook the remaining chicken with aromatics. Add the remaining oil, chicken, garlic, and the white parts of the scallions to the pan. Cook until lightly browned, then return the first batch of chicken to the skillet. Lower the heat, add the rice vinegar, and cook for about 30 seconds, until it evaporates.
Step 5: Add the sauce and finish cooking. Pour in the sauce mixture and stir everything together. Let it cook for about a minute, or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce thickens up.
Step 6: Finish with cashews and scallions. Off the heat, stir in the scallion greens, toasted cashews, and sesame oil. Adding the sesame oil at the end preserves its nutty aroma—and since a little goes a long way, you don’t need much. Serve with rice and enjoy!
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Cashew Chicken
Ingredients
- ¾ cup roasted, unsalted cashews
- ¼ cup water
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce, best quality such as Kikkoman or Lee Kum Kee
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins, cut into 1½-in (4-cm) pieces
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 6 medium cloves garlic, minced
- 8 scallions, white and green parts separated, sliced into 1-in (2.5-cm) pieces
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Place the cashews on a baking sheet in a single layer. Toast in the oven until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Set aside; they will crisp up as they cool.
- Meanwhile, prepare the sauce: in a small bowl, whisk together the water, cornstarch, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce. Set aside.
- Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper and toss to coat evenly.
- In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil over high heat until very hot. Add half of the chicken to the skillet and stir-fry until lightly browned but not cooked through, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
- Add the remaining tablespoon vegetable oil to the skillet; then add the remaining chicken, garlic and white parts of the scallions. Stir-fry until the chicken is lightly browned but not cooked through, about 3 minutes. Return the first batch of chicken to the pan. Turn the heat down to medium and add the rice vinegar; cook until evaporated, about 30 seconds.
- Add the sauce mixture to the chicken; cook, tossing, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is nicely thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in the scallion greens, cashews and sesame oil. Serve immediately.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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This recipe is the dinner trifecta, quick, easy and delicious. Thank you Jen for another amazing recipe.
I just tried this recipe, but I think it’s rather bland and has not much to do with Thai food. I would eat take-out “Chicken Cashew” any day over making this one. It’s not bad, but it’s just not what is expected. It tastes like a westernized version that removed all the signature ingredients that are usually found in Thai food, and replaced them with Hoisin Sauce.
Yeah! Snow day and home bound with my family. This recipe is AWESOME!! Thank you. Forever.
Found your blog yesterday and made this last night. It was pretty good, but I did adjust to my taste.
I found the hoisin made it quite sweet, so I would maybe back off that a bit, or experiment splitting the amount with another sauce next time (and there will be one!).
To adjust for the sweetness, as previous reviewers suggested, I added a little heat: a few dashes of sriracha and cayenne, and maybe a 1/4 t of chili paste. We don’t eat a lot of spicy food, so I had to layer those in a bit at a time until the heat level was just enough to balance out the sweetness of the hoisin.
With that slight adjustment, this was a really great dish.
Other note is that I should have broken up the cashews just a bit so that there was a piece in each forkful… maybe quarter them??
Looking forward to trying the pumpkin soup next. Very happy to have found your blog!
This sauce has way way too much hoisin in the recipe. I came looking here because I love the sauce used in every cashew chicken I’ve tried. This is not it
Everyone raves about this meal and it’s so easy to prepare! The only changes I make are to eliminate the corn starch and to add about 8oz of sauteed mushrooms (we love shrooms!) to the pan with the sauce mixture near the end of prep.
I love chinese food but was always disappointed with the food ordered from restaurants. So I’ve tried cooking my own chinese food with some mixed results but was still better than take out. Tried this recipe and it turned out exactly as advertised. It was delicious! Great with brown rice too. This definitely will be one of my goto recipes. Thank you for sharing it.
Is it ok to use seasoned rice vinegar or should I stick with regular?
Hi Rose, It’s best to use regular. Enjoy!
Disappointed in this recipe. Followed it to the “letter”. First time I ever had a recipe from this site that wasn’t spectacular. The sauce didn’t seem to have much flavor, there wasn’t enough sauce either, too garlicky (I definitely used the right size and amount too). I wish you could revisit this and tweak it. You are the best and my “go to” for recipes. Sorry.
If I want to make this dish veggie-heavy, I have a few questions: which of the ingredients in the sauce should I increase so there is enough sauce, should I steam the extra veggies first, and when do I add those veggies? Thanks!
Hi Barbara, Depending upon the quantity of veggies you are adding, I’d either make 1.5 or 2 times the sauce (the rice vinegar through sesame oil). And after stir-frying the second batch of chicken (with the garlic and scallions), I’d transfer it to the plate with the other chicken, add the vegetables to the pan and, after cooking them for a few minutes, add the chicken back and proceed with the recipe. Hope you enjoy!
The instructions above the ingredients list mention the soy sauce, but the instructions below do not. Neither section mentions the sesame oil.
Hi John, thanks so much for pointing that out–not sure how I missed that! I will add the mention of soy sauce to the recipe. The sesame oil, however, is mentioned in the recipe. It’s in the very last sentence of the instructions.
I was looking forward to making this Cashew chicken dish and when I tried to print it off, half of the directions were blocked off. This happened with another of your dishes a couple of days ago. Can you tell me what is happening? I love your recipes and have successfully made several of them. Also have you new book. Thank you! Sue
Sue, sorry to hear you’re having a problem with missing content when you print the recipes! I haven’t been able to duplicate the problem and haven’t gotten other complaints about it. You may want to try opening the blog using a different browser; I find that often times those odd glitches can be resolved by using a different browser. Hope that helps at least a bit!