Like Friday night takeout but better, and possibly even faster. This Easy Skillet Cashew Chicken takes all of about 20 minutes from start to finish, and it is delish!
My husband loves to order Cashew Chicken with Yellow Bean Sauce when we go out for Chinese. Bites of chicken in a sweet and savoury sauce with crunchy celery and lots of cashews. It’s really very good.
This is my version, and because I don’t have any yellow bean sauce kicking around – with the effort I put in at the Asian grocery store I’m actually surprised I don’t – I used hoisin. And it works. The result is a rich, tasty brown sauce that is absolutely delish.
The celery is what makes this dish taste authentic, and I added water chestnuts because who doesn’t love those guys??
Cook up a little rice, roast a little broccoli and dinner is ready in half an hour. Super easy. So good.
I have to say… I think I like this version even better.
Recipe-ish:
Anything Special You Need to Know?
*Need an equally simple rice to go with this? Definitely try my Instant Pot Jasmine Rice. It’s foolproof.
*I use chicken thighs in this recipe because I think they work best. They don’t get dried out as easily and have a great texture. You can use chicken breast though and it will still be delicious.
*I used roasted cashew nuts in this recipe, but raw cashews work just fine too.
*I wanted this to taste like the restaurant style dish we love, but if you want it spicy go ahead and throw some Sriracha in there!
Easy Skillet Cashew Chicken with Celery & Water Chestnuts
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
For the sauce:
- 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine or regular wine
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
For the dish:
- 1 can sliced water chestnuts
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup roasted cashews
Instructions
- Chop about a pound of boneless skinless chicken thighs into bite sized pieces.
- To make the sauce whisk together the hoisin, soy, vinegar, wine, sugar, garlic, ginger and cornstarch.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and mix well.
- Heat a cast iron skillet and when it’s hot remove the chicken from the sauce, letting the excess drip off, and add it to the pan in a single layer. Let cook for a few minutes, until it gets nice and caramelized. Then flip and do the same to the other side.
- Add the rest of the sauce to the pan along with the water chestnuts, celery and cashews.
- Cook until the sauce thickens, about 3 minutes.
- Top with sliced green onions.
Let me know what you think!
If you like this Easy Skillet Cashew Chicken Recipe then you will love my Dragon Chicken Recipe. Another takeout fakeout that is easy and delicious.
I just made this and my husband said it’s in the top 5 of new recipes I’ve tried recently!! I LOVE all the crunch. I did add sriracha since we like spice. I made sautéed broccoli and shiitake mushrooms and brown jasmine rice. I’ll definitely be making this again soon!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this Jen… thank you so much for letting me know!!
Salted or unsalted cashews? Also, what could I substitute for the white wine/Chinese cooking wine?
Hi Tina, I usually use unsalted cashews, but in a pinch I’ve used the salted ones… but it obviously will make your dish more salty, so if you’re sensitive to that you may want to make sure you use unsalted or you could try to offset this by using low sodium soy sauce. If you don’t want to use wine in the dish you can just leave it out. Hope that helps!
Very good recipe! I added shitake mushrooms that were cooked separately in a little butter and Mirin add at the end. I also added a radial sliced yellow onion with the celery and cashews. Lots of crunch! A little sprinkle of red chile flakes and steamed broccoli on the side . Great meal! It’s a “do again”! Thank you !
Thanks Carin! So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe. I’m a little obsessed with your mushroom add-in. Sounds amazing!! 🙂