Cashew Chicken (In 20 Minutes!)

This saucy Cashew Chicken is ready in a hurry — 15-20 minutes and you’ll be enjoying this tasty stir fry. No actual frying is required, though — I toss leftover cooked chicken with sautéed red peppers and roasted cashews in an irresistible savory sauce!

This Cashew Chicken is part of our Back-To-School Lifesavers — a series of recipes that are intended to have little (or no) veggie chopping, minimal prep time, around 10 ingredients or less (not including pantry staples), and use kid-friendly ingredients. Click here to see all the recipes in the series! 

A Quick Cashew Chicken Recipe

It doesn’t get much quicker than this recipe and you’ll feel like a total rockstar serving it. The flavors are so complex it will seem like hours were spent on this meal, but between you and me, it was whipped together in about 15-20 minutes — score!

Here are some of the shortcuts I employ to ensure ultra-quick prep:

What Is Cashew Chicken Made Of?

Besides the sauce (which I break down below), there are four main ingredients that make up the bulk of this recipe:

• Chicken: As mentioned above, we’re using rotisserie chicken or leftover grilled chicken. One of the best things about this recipe is that you don’t need to re-warm the leftover chicken in a microwave; simply throw it in the skillet and let the sauce heat it through!
• Red pepper: I thinly slice miniature red peppers, but 1 large red bell pepper works great too!
• Cashews: It’s hard to beat chicken with cashew nuts! That said, if some don’t enjoy them, feel free to add the cashews to individual portions at the end.
• Sesame oil: If you can find toasted sesame oil, even better — this really delivers a great authentic flavor. Sesame oil is typically found with Asian ingredients, not near the other oils in the grocery store.

Cashew Chicken Sauce:

• Corn starch: Corn starch makes the sauce thicker and tastier.
• Rice vinegar: This sauce gets a bit of tang from rice vinegar. If you see “rice wine vinegar” on the label, it’s the same thing.
• Hoisin sauce: Hoisin sauce is thick, sweet, and flavorful, giving the dish its tasty complexity.
• Soy sauce: I use regular soy sauce for its salty flavor. The “lite” or low-sodium versions don’t have enough saltiness.
• Brown sugar: Brown sugar balances out the spiciness of the sriracha sauce. If you’re worried about it being too sweet, start with a little and add more if needed.
• Sriracha sauce: Add sriracha for heat and flavor. You can use less or skip it if you don’t like spicy food, or add more if you love it.
• Garlic and ginger: These are important ingredients in many Asian dishes, including this one, adding delicious flavors.

How To Make Cashew Chicken

While this isn’t a baked recipe, it doesn’t require any frying either! Instead, I sauté everything in a skillet. This not only makes it more nutritious, but it’s also way faster than frying or baking! Here are a few recipe tips:

• Prep the sauce first. This dish comes together so fast, you’ll want the sauce ready to add in!
• Cut the chicken into 1-inch chunks. If using a rotisserie chicken, it may be second nature to shred it, but this recipe is best with the chunked chicken. Shredded chicken tends to get stringy when tossed with the sauce.
• Garnish. While the garnishes are optional, if you have an extra minute, they add a nice vibrancy and “finishing touch” to the dish. 

How To Make Cashew Sauce For Cashew Chicken

Making the sauce is really simple – just put everything in a bowl and whisk! I begin by mixing the corn starch and rice vinegar until they’re smooth. Then, I add the rest of the sauce ingredients. It’s important to dissolve the corn starch completely first to avoid lumps and ensure the sauce thickens properly when added to the skillet.

More Tasty Chicken Recipes

• Chicken Stir Fry with loads of veggies and an addictive savory sauce
• Chicken Chow Mein with cabbage and carrots
• Applebee’s Chicken Salad with a simple creamy and sweet dressing
• Chicken Ramen with a diced red pepper and broccoli
• Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps with ground chicken

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5 from 2 votes

Cashew Chicken

By Chelsea Lords

This saucy Cashew Chicken is ready in a hurry -- 15-20 minutes and you'll be enjoying this tasty stir fry. No actual frying is required -- I toss leftover cooked chicken with sautéed red peppers and roasted cashews in an irresistible savory sauce!

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 3 -4 servings

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

1x2x3x

Sauce

• ▢ 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• ▢ 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• ▢ 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• ▢ 1-1/2 teaspoons Sriracha
• ▢ 2 tablespoons each: regular (not lite/low sodium) soy sauce, light brown sugar
• ▢ 2 teaspoons each: minced ginger, garlic paste Note 1

Chicken

• ▢ 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil, separated
• ▢ 1-1/4 cup thinly sliced red pepper Note 2
• ▢ 3 packed cups (1 pound) cooked cubed chicken Note 3
• ▢ 1/2 cup roasted cashew halves
• ▢ Optional: thinly sliced green onions, sesame seeds, serve over Ready Rice Note 4

Instructions 

• SAUCE: Combine cornstarch and rice vinegar in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk until smooth then add the rest of the sauce ingredients. Stir until smooth and set aside for now. (Stir this sauce once more right before adding to skillet.)
  
• PREP: Cube chicken into 1-inch pieces and set aside. Thinly slice bell pepper(s).
• COOK: Heat 2/3 tablespoon sesame oil in a large nonstick sauté pan. Once the oil is hot, add in the thinly sliced pepper. Sauté for 3-5 minutes or until crisp tender. Add in the cubed chicken, cashew halves, and scrape every bit of sauce on top. Cook, stirring gently and constantly for about 1-2 minutes or until the sauce nicely thickens and coats everything and chicken is warmed through (Note 5). Remove from heat and drizzle the remaining 1/3 tablespoon sesame oil over everything.
  
• SERVE: Serve right off the stovetop over cooked rice and garnish with thinly sliced green onions and sesame seeds (if desired).

Video

Recipe Notes

Note 1: Quick ginger and garlic: Keep things quick by using refrigerated minced garlic and refrigerated ginger paste.

Note 2: Red pepper: Use one large bell pepper or about six or seven mini peppers. In the picture and video we are using mini red bell peppers and thinly sliced the whole peppers on a diagonal.

Note 3: Chicken: Use leftover grilled chicken breasts, already grilled chicken breasts from the store, or a rotisserie chicken. I don't recommend shredding the chicken; it's best when cut into larger cubes.

Note 4: Ready Rice® or microwaveable packaged rice. For a quick rice base use Ready Rice which is already cooked and just needs to be heated to warm it through. Follow directions to heat through in microwave — so easy and convenient! This type of packaged rice is typically found among other packets of rice and grains in the grocery store.

Note 5: Cooking: Since the chicken is already cooked, you don't want to cook it too long here or it will dry it out. You just want to warm through the chicken and ensure the sauce thickens nicely!

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 379kcal | Carbohydrates: 35.8g | Protein: 32.2g | Fat: 14.1g | Cholesterol: 83.2mg | Sodium: 558.8mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 10.3g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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