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!!! 🙀
Shelby Tonkin says
A classic stir fry. Tasted great, quick to make and I had all the ingredients already in the house. Real crowd pleaser.
Nagi says
Awesome Shelby!! N x
K K says
This was so delicious! Still thinking about it the next day. Thank you.
EMMA says
Oh my goodness, this was absolutely delicious! seriously would be happy if i paid for this at a thai restaturant!
I added snow peas and capsicum and also did a cornflour bath which made the sauce glaze the food more i think. Definitely cooked longer than started, but i also did 1 kg of chicken, so to be expected! Honestly, Nagi you are the best food blogger going, you never fail! thank you
Yumi Endo says
So easy and tasty!
The whole family Loved it!!
Debra McCallum says
Just cooked this! Sooooo easy – I had just about everything in my pantry! I did sub fresh chilli for chilli paste and tasted great! Also sub’ed shallots for asparagus and added red capsicum. LOVED this! Thanks again for a great recipe Nagi!! You’re the best!!!
Nagi says
You’re so welcome Debra! N x
Narelle Aikman says
Thank you so much Nagi for such a beautiful recipe. My family devoured it and have ordered it again tonight. Problem is, I already have prepared another recipe of yours for tonight.
Rob says
When I lived in Thailand this was my favourite dish (along with khao soi gai). I had a particularly disappointing one recently from a restaurant near me in the UK so decided to look for a recipe online. This one looks great! Definitely going to try it, thanks!
Nagi says
Keep me updated when you try it Rob, I’d love to know what you think! N x
Cecilia says
Just did it for tonight’s dinner, it was much appreciated. Thanks Nagy, tasty and easy to make recipe.
Rosalin says
My family order Thai from the wok at our local, it contains snow peas,cashews, capsicums onion,shallots, chicken, also green herbs, would like to know the name of the two green herbs,delicious
Nagi says
Hi Rosalin, without seeing it I could only guess what they may be unfortunately! I imagine one may be Thai basil though. N x
Rosalin. says
Thank you Nagi, will give it a try, will sneak out the herbs and take them to local Harris Farm, will also try Thai Basil. Have faith that this will be one or ought to be one.
David says
Wonderful flavours in Thai Cashew stir fry with this recipe but for me the only let down was the sauce. I could not thicken it. Maybe more oyster sauce? 3 TBs of water seemed to drown the other sauce ingredients and would not thicken wondr what I did wrong otherwise delicious
Nagi says
HI David – high heat and only 3 tbsp water should cook down very quickly. The sauce itself doesn’t thicken as such, not like Chinese stir fries where you have a ton of glossy thickened sauce. Thai stir fries have less sauce but are stronger in flavour, and the sauce reduces down to a concentrated flavour that coats the ingredients. 🙂 N x
Suzin says
Delicious 😋
Nagi says
Thanks so much Suzin!! N x
Sana says
amazing results, thank you for your hard work!
Vanessa says
It is quite the compliment when my hard to please daughter says “this is better than takeaway!” Fantastic recipe, easy and delicious! Thank you, Nagi!
Sue Gavin says
I’m a useless cook – still am after tonight!! Cashews were burnt not dark golden!! Just had no taste. Wondering if it’s because I reduced the servings to 2 people?? Love the recipes when I see them but I always fail to recreate the same flavoursome dish
Nagi says
Oh no Sue!!! I’m not sure why yours had no flavour – this one definitely has a bold flavour to it!! N x
Sue Gavin says
Nagi, I’m wondering if it was because I reduced the quantity to 2 people and I’ve somehow miscalculated! Fairly certain that my ‘black’ cashews played a huge part in the taste!!!
Amber Addison says
I don’t know what to say but OMG..l loved this and so did my family.Than you.😋🤩
Anna Palfreeman says
Do you have any suggestions for how to make this with tofu instead of chicken?
Angela says
Replace the chicken with tofu.
RICK REZAC says
I lived in Thai 13 yrs and used to rate different food places by the cashew chicken, gai pad ped ma muang,
Amber says
Ok it’s time to bring a book out, you are costing my husband a fortune in printer cartridges..🤣
Andrea says
This recipe is absolutely delicious. The whole family polished it off and went back for seconds. Will definitely be cooking this again.
Whittles says
This is another delicious dish. I cannot fault it. I will, however, offer some helpful suggestions to those in the UK who love Nagi’s recipes as much as I do. I think many forget that Nagi lives in Australia and sometimes when she gives guidance you may further need to tweak some recipes based on where you live. This is due to different farming, water content in foods etc. This is not Nagi’s fault. So, please do not give negative feedback if you do not achieve the same results. Recipes are meant as a starting point where you maybe have to adapt or tweak to where you live. So, for example this recipe in order to get the dark, syrupy results Nagi achieves you may have to reduce the sauce longer.; mine took nearly a half hour and I added a touch more sugar to achieve the dark colour, but again this could be because the produce is different every country. I have also found that even though Nagi offers metric conversions, these are not always spot on, apart from table/teaspoons. I would invest in an American/ Australian cup measure. I always stick to this and never switch back and forth. I have found better results when using the cups verses metric conversion. And remember Nagi offers these recipes for free, so please be kind above all else.
shirin singh says
I couldn’t agree more . She is a fabulous cook . And the fact that she takes the pain of sharing the recipes and uploads the videos, i think she deserves better . Thank You Nagi .so glad i found you . I live in The UK too . and i simply love the fact that u can hover the scale to as many ppl u wish to cook for and it gives you the exact amount . HUgs and Kisses Nagi .