While Thai Cashew Chicken is not as saucy as Chinese Cashew Chicken, what it lacks in sauciness it makes up for in big flavour. Crunchy golden cashews and chicken are tossed in a simple yet bold Thai stir fry sauce with as much or as little fresh chilli as you want!
This is a great Thai food favourite that’s incredibly quick to make.
Thai Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
Stir fries featuring cashews are a favourite across Asia and the Thai version is one of the best! Unlike Chinese Cashew Chicken which is generous on sauce, the Thai version is a drier style stir fry where the sauce flavour is much more intense. So you don’t need nor do you want a ton of sauce to soak your rice. There’s plenty of flavour coating the stir fry ingredients that stains and flavours the rice when you mix it through.
Honestly, just look at this. No one would see this wok of goodness and think, “It doesn’t look like there’s enough flavour in that,”… Right? 😂
What goes in Thai Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
Here’s what you need for this Thai stir fry with chicken:
Cashews – The nuts are actually the star ingredient in this stir fry! They bring texture, flavour and nutty richness to the party. It’s best to use raw so they get toasted freshly in the wok (or skillet) for maximum flavour development. It only takes around 3 minutes. If you only have roasted cashews, that’s fine too. Just toast them lightly for around 90 seconds, they don’t need to be as fully cooked.
Whichever you use, be sure to use unsalted cashews. Salted cashews will make the dish far too salty;
Chicken – Thigh is best, for the juiciest and most flavoursome chicken pieces. If you prefer to use breast, consider tenderising it the Chinese restaurant way to make it softer and more juicy. If you’ve never done it before, it will blow your mind – it’s a simple trick yet a total game-changer!
Onion and garlic – Essential aromatics. It’s hard to find a stir fry in my world that doesn’t start with these two!
Green onion – For freshness and colour;
Chilli – For a hit of spiciness. 100% optional;
The sauce – Here’s what you need:
Oyster sauce – This packs a ton of umami as well as acting as a the thickener for this Thai Stir Fry Sauce. You can use vegetarian oyster sauce, if you prefer;
Dark soy sauce – The most intensely-flavoured soy in the soy sauce family, and just a tiny amount packs a serious flavour punch. It also stains foods a gorgeously deep mahogany colour;
Fish sauce – Fish sauce is used in Thai cooking like soy sauce is used in Chinese cooking, ie. as a primary seasoning. While it might smell a bit (ok, very!) funky straight out of the bottle, once it’s cooked it is completely transformed. It adds an incomparable complexity and depth of flavour into any dish. No fishy flavours at all in the end result!
How to make Thai Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
As with all stir fries, once you start cooking, things move fast! The key when cooking stir fries is to make sure you have all the ingredients chopped and ready to toss in, including the Thai Stir Fry Sauce. Also cook the jasmine rice beforehand – it takes longer to make than this stir fry!!
Sauce – Mix the sauce in a small dish;
Cashews – Start by cooking off the cashews. If using raw cashews (which I recommend for better flavour), it will take around 3 minutes to cook through on a medium heat. They will change from a pale cream colour to deep golden brown, and they should be crunchy (yep, you’re gonna have to try one to check!🤷🏻♀️).
If you are starting with cashews that are already roasted, then you only need to toast them for around 1 1/2 minutes just to heat them through and bring out the flavour (as opposed to cooking them);
Remove cashews from the wok / skillet. Reserve the oil – we will use that to cook the stir fry;
Stir fry! – As with all stir fries, we add ingredients in the order it takes to cook.
Start with garlic and onion, the aromatics. Just tossed for 30 seconds is all that’s needed to get them started and to flavour the oil. Next toss the chicken in.
Once the chicken is mostly cooked, add the white part of the green onions (ie. the thicker part at the base of the stem) along with the chilli. We add the white part of the green onions before the softer green part because it takes longer to cook. Cook for a further minute, and by this time everything that’s currently in the wok should be almost cooked through.
Sauce – Next, the sauce. Pour in, then continue to cook for another 1 minute or until the sauce reduces and everything in the wok gets stained a beautiful mahogany colour; and
Green onion and cashews – And finally, toss the green part of the green onions in, plus the cashews. Give it a toss for around 20 – 30 seconds which is all that’s needed for the green onion to wilt slightly.
And you’re done! What was that, a grand total of 8 minutes? I told you it was fast!!
What to serve with Thai Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
The traditional rice of Thailand is Jasmine Rice which has a lovely, subtle perfume, making it decidedly more interesting than plain white rice! Though really, any kind of rice will work just fine here – brown, white, basmati, jasmine, and for those of you on a low-carb bender, Cauliflower Rice.
I’d also add a simple side salad just to up the vegetable quota. A quick Asian Side Salad is a staple for me (that’s code for “an easy dressing that goes with any vegetables”), Smashed Cucumbers is another personal favourite I obsessively inhale all year round, along with Chang’s Crunchy Noodle Salad (Australia’s favourite salad!).
Then of course, my fallback that works with literally anything: simple, classic Asian Sesame Dressing. Use this for any vegetables – raw, roasted, steamed, blanched. You just can’t go wrong with it! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Thai Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp peanut oil (or canola or vegetable oil)
- 1/2 cup raw cashews , unsalted (Note 1 for roasted)
- 1 garlic clove , finely minced
- 1/2 onion (brown, yellow, or white), cut into thin wedges
- 200g/7oz chicken thighs , skinless and boneless, sliced into 1cm / 1/3" thin strips (Note 2)
- 2 green onions , cut into 2.5cm / 1” lengths, white part separated from green part
- 1/2 red cayenne pepper , deseeded and finely sliced on the diagonal (omit or reduce if preferred) (Note 3)
Sauce:
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce (Note 4)
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 5)
- 2 tsp fish sauce (Note 6)
- 1 tsp white sugar
- 3 tbsp water
Serving:
- Red chilli , finely sliced (optional garnish)
- Jasmine rice , for serving (or other rice of choice)
Instructions
- Sauce: Mix all the Sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
- Cook cashews: Heat oil over medium heat in a wok or large skillet. Add cashews and cook for 5 minutes until they become a dark golden colour and crunchy (yep, you might have to eat one to check!). Remove from skillet with a slotted spoon.
- Garlic & onion: Turn heat up to high. Add garlic and onion. Cook for 30 seconds.
- Chicken: Add chicken. Cook for 1 minute until the outside changes from pink to white.
- White part of green onion & chilli: Add white part of green onions and chilli. Cook for 1 minute until chicken is just cooked through.
- Add Sauce: Cook for 1 minute until it reduces down to a syrup, coating the chicken nicely.
- Green onion & cashews: Add green part of green onions and cashews. Toss for 30 seconds.
- Serve: Transfer to serving dish. Serve with jasmine rice, or other rice of choice, garnished with extra red chilli (if you can handle the heat!).
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Thai Stir Fry and Noodle Favourites
Life of Dozer
What Dozer ate this Easter – Beetroot Cured Salmon!!! 🙀
Delicious, easy to cook meal. Highly recommend! Took me straight back to Thailand.
Yum!! Made this recipe for 6 servings as we wanted left overs for the next day. Great flavour buuuuuut… I didn’t get the brown syrup finish I was hoping for. I left the sauce to thicken up but it didn’t and it ended up as a light golden colour. Any tips on getting the sauce thicker and a deeper brown next time?
Hi Louise, it should definitely be dark and golden like the photos. Did you use dark soy here? N x
I sure did!! It was still delicious just wondered what I did wrong. Thanks for replying 😀
Awesome recipe! Super quick to cook and everyone loved it.
Yum. Another hit Nagi. Thank you. It was so simple and we enjoyed the big flavours.
Tried it, tastes wonderful, perfect balance. Added lots of basil, makes it very Thai.
So easy but OMG, packs a real punch in taste!! Another fab recipe, thank you
As with all of your recipes this was delicious. I didn’t have a chili so I used chili garlic sauce.
Hi Nagi
Made this recipe for family dinner and it was sensational! I did the Changs noodle salad as the side which was also a great hit. I even used the chicken velveting method which turned out great as I only had chicken breast. I will use all these recipes again. Thank you!
Just made this, absolutely delicious and my hubby said it tasted authentic. I added sugar snap peas that needed to be used which was nice, but those cashews OMG they are stunning. Thank you
Sounds perfect Joanne! N x
This was tasty and easy, even using the vegan oyster sauce because we have a shellfish allergy in the family. And thanks for the vegan oyster sauce tip, did not know it existed but I found it easily in our supermarket once I knew it existed. I added some broccolini and next time I’ll add some thin carrot batons, just to add vegies. The Asian salad was great with it too.
Love it. Delicious 😋
Very delicious. Upped the quantities to 6 people for the family. They loved it
I am dying to try this recipe! I don’t believe fresh cayenne peppers are available in Canada, would a couple of serrano peppers work?
You could use those or Thai Birdseye chillies for a good kick! N x
Thanks Nagi, I will try it! We do have those here. I will only use 1/2, I know how spicy they are lol.
do U think shrimps will be OK? my girlfriend doesn’t eat meat
Yes definitely Radek, just add them to the pan and cook quickly so they don’t overcook. N x
I made this over the weekend and it was AMAZING!!! Others who don’t particularly like chicken even said how fabulous this was!!! Love that I can make Thai without the spice – which I can’t eat. It was pretty easy to make too! Nagi was right about the smell of Fish sauce but since I trust her I went with it and wasn’t disappointed in the final product!
So delicious! I was a bit worried because everything seemed to take so much longer than the timings and I didn’t get that gorgeous golden brown colour from the photos. But wow wow wow! So delicious. We all made piggy noises while we ate it.
Super delicious! And fairly easy, too. This is definitely a new favorite. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Another great one! Easy, quick and authentically delicious!
Caveat: make sure your source for nuts has fresh ones. Our grocer has them in self-serve bins, and they did not crunch up, plus tasted a bit stale. I was thinking peanuts might be good too! What do you think, Nagi?
This is a fabulous recipe. So tasty with so few ingredients. I will definitely be making this again. Thank you so much x
Just made for dinner, absolutely amazing. My 8 year old son said it made his tummy go yummmmmmm