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
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What Dozer ate this Easter – Beetroot Cured Salmon!!! 🙀
Frank says
Easy to make and delicious.
Linda Torson says
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.
Frankie says
We have this at least once a week! It’s so much better than any takeaway we have ever had! So delicious – thank you!
Alexandra says
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!
Damien says
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)
Tina says
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?
Nagi says
I think almonds would work fine here Tina. N x
Rae says
Nagi, do you think adding Thai basil would work in this dish or should I tweak any of the ingredients?
Rae says
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!
Jake says
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 🙁
Nagi says
Hi Jake – the recipe as written is the correct amount of sauce for the portions as stated in the recipe. N x
Kim says
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!
Irma says
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?
Nagi says
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
Jo says
OMG – This was so delicious. My rating is 15/10. I inadvertently made some changes. I added a tablespoon of dark soya sauce because I didn’t read the recipe correctly and I used asparagus instead of spring onions cos that was what was in the fridge. So so delicious. I have made it three nights in a row. Everyone loves it. Thank you. xxx❤️❤️❤️
Nagi says
Thank you Jo! So glad you enjoyed it! N x
Julianne Tselepis says
What be a good substitute for cashews Nagi as we have a child with cashew allergy ?
Nagi says
Just swap in a few more veggies! N x
Kathleen D says
One of my favorite stir fry recipes of yours. I never have fresh chili peppers so I always use sambal olek to spice it up and regular bell peppers to add more veg.
Nagi says
Yum! Sounds good! N x
Maddy says
I just made this for dinner tonight and it was AMAZING! So many great flavours and so quick to make. I did tweak the amount of fish sauce (added half the amount) and substituted it with more soy. Also added some sliced capsicum. So good!!
Jen says
First time I cooked this it didn’t taste quite right (hard to juggle pans on a small stove for our big household of 11). Cooked it tonight in smaller batches with 2 pans…so, so yummy. There was a moment when it was dead quiet as everyone was eating and enjoying which means a win in our family!!
Amanda Ellis says
So easy and so yum, I added an extra 100g of chicken and a whole onion, the rest as is 👍
Ch says
Followed the recipe to a T, including the part about tenderizing when using chicken breast, and it was delicious. Served with a little rice and stir fry veggies. It fed two people with a little leftover.
Larissa Thomson says
This was great! I added pineapple tidbits, red peppers, and snap peas because I needed some veg for my meal, and I appreciated that the sauce didn’t overpower the stirfry. (Based on other reviews, I cut the water to 1/3) We didn’t have the red chilis so we added a bit of Sriracha and it was perfect! We’ll definitely make this one again. Thank you!
Liv says
Super delicious, I would say the serves are very small though.
Mike says
Hi Nagi, would it work if I added Thai basil into this or would the sauce overpower it?
Nagi says
Hi Mike, you can if you like – or maybe this is the recipe you’re looking for: https://www.recipetineats.com/thai-basil-chicken-stir-fry/ N x