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!!! 🙀
Unfortunately I never get the sauce to thicken. The stir fry is underwhelming for the effort involved.
The first time I made it I doubled the recipe and yep, took forever for the sauce to thicken by which point it was a soggy (but still tasty) mess. Now I double everything else but the water and it works a lot better. This is one of our favourite recipes now!
I have the same problem! What are we doing wrong Nagi??
I have the same problem with the sauce not thickening and it looks much lighter than in the video. Still tastes good but I would like a thicker sauce.
I do wonder if adding less water would work?
I’ve made this a few times now, it’s so easy & delicious!
Great recipe. I’d be careful adding the garlic to the hot pan. It’s very easy to burn garlic and nothing ruins a recipe quicker than bitter burnt garlic.
Oh WOW Nagi!! I made this the other night and served it in a repurposed Thai takeaway bowl. If I didn’t tell anyone, they would have thought it was a genuine takeaway only better. This was absolutely scrum-delish-e-oh. It’s made my favourites list. Thank you for another fabulous recipe. Can’t wait for your cookbook to come out 😍
S there a substitute flavoring for oyster sauce? As I am allergies to fish and seafood. Plz let me know
Many Asian shops now sell vegetarian oyster sauces Geraldine! N x
5th time lucky! Did not add water this time around and the sauce came out as per the video. Absolutely delicious! Now to master frying the cashews without burning them. Thank you for all your delicious recipes Nagi, people always compliment me on my cooking, but it’s only because of your recipes.
It was great to read you comment. Every time I try this the sauce is just watery & is very frustrating. I’ll leave the water out next time!
I’m sure your cooking has something to do with the compliments! N x
Quick,tasty and delicious
Hi Nagi, does the nutritional information for this recipe include if you’re serving it with rice or is it just the stir fry?
It’s just the stir fry Tia! N x
This is just unbelievably good. You are a wizard, Nagi.
I did skip adding the chilis in the stir fry because I still can’t handle heat after tonsillectomy, but even without the chilis it tastes truly amazing.
I never usually leave comment but this is such a wonderful and easy to follow recipe. Thank you for sharing !
Novice chef here – prep usually takes me about double times most people suggest! I’ve had a couple of goes at this now and getting closer, But 2 big problems. When I cook the (roasted, unsalted) cashews, many of them end up near black one side and mostly white on the other? I’m cooking in a non stick skillet, and think the problem is it’s too hard to flip them over and not enough oil for a flat surface pan? I tried tilting it like a wok last time & I thin that helps but still not right.
Second, the overall look of the final product, esp chicken, doesn’t have that nice dark brownish look. I’ve double checked I’m using the right measures of all ingredients, so not sure why it’s not right? All suggestions greatly appreciated.
yes, the color of my chicken was nothing like picture – it was definitely done, but not that nice mahogany color.
Also, I added the water and it took forever to cook down for a nice coating. Tasted pretty good, though. Not a bite left.
Hi MasterChef (Pending), I’ve made this twice now with roasted cashews. First time better than second. Tonight I think my wok was more high than moderate which burnt them and I probably should have kept stirring them more. Next time I’ll try raw cashews. I chucked them in the compost and just three new ones in at the end which was fine 😃
Easy to make and delicious.
This was absolutely amazing! Made it for dinner this evening and, once again, Nagi has hit it out of the park! Couldn’t find a red cayenne pepper so used powder and dialed it back a little as my husband isn’t a huge spicy fan. I would have added more for myself. So glad I have some leftovers for tomorrow.
We have this at least once a week! It’s so much better than any takeaway we have ever had! So delicious – thank you!
I was surprised by this! Considering that I completely messed the order in which to add the ingredients and ended up with over cooked green onions, this was fabulous! Will be making this again!
Another perfect recipe – I have learned so much from your considered and curated recipes over months now. ‘Recipe Tin’ is my ‘go to’ – love the quick videos especially, I replay them while prepping – thank you!!! (ps. I have never commented on a food/cooking blog before, ever)
I agree with the 15/10 taste rating above – you gave me the confidence to go further and darker with the cashews to a great result – and more oyster sauce It was amazing – thank you :-). (I served it with steamed rice and your brown sauce using stir fried carrot and snow peas, happy days)
Hi Nagi, I don’t have cashews on hand but I do have almonds. Do you think using almond would be fine? Or do you think it might affect the flavors?
I think almonds would work fine here Tina. N x
Nagi, do you think adding Thai basil would work in this dish or should I tweak any of the ingredients?
Sorry Nagi, I saw someone else’s comment (I should have kept looking before I asked) and I did try it… it was FAN-FLIPPEN-TASTIC! I’d tried the Thai basil chicken recipe you’ve posted but I preferred this one and can’t believe how much better it was than any dish I’d ever had at a Thai restaurant!
I added a handful of Thai basil and a capsicum (just to up the veg).
Thank you thank you thank you!
Quick question, you haven’t mentioned the ratios for the sauces so could you please clarify that? I don’t want to end up adding a lot of some sauce and destroy the dish 🙁
Hi Jake – the recipe as written is the correct amount of sauce for the portions as stated in the recipe. N x
Thanks Nagi. This was awesome. The cashews make it! We are spicy fans so the only thing we changed was we added 10 thai chilies. Fabulous!
I had cashew chicken once with something that looks like battered chicken. Almost like popcorn chicken. I believe it is not an actual asian dish but if i were to make that, should i still use this sauce or should i use a chinese or other country inspired sauce?
Hi Irma! A battered chicken in a stir fry is more typically Chinese. You could try this one https://www.recipetineats.com/honey-chicken-stay-crispy/ which is delicious! N x