An Easy Homemade Cashew Chicken Recipe (with asparagus!)

What a classic. What a stunner! I love this homemade cashew chicken recipe so much, as does my entire household. Setting this big beautiful skillet of dinner down on the table, flanked by bottles of soy sauce, chili crisp, and a heap of steaming white rice always brings smiles to faces, let me just tell you. Read on for a few little tidbits about the recipe, or just jump ahead to the main event. Suit yourself!

If this homemade cashew chicken recipe looks super good to you, please please tell me you’ll check out my other tried and true stir frys, because they’re all really fantastic. Crowd pleasers, all of ’em are. This Crispy Szechuan Beef stir fry is an all-star, as is this Ground Beef Korean style Bibimbap. For another take on a chicken stir fry, I’ve got this sesame gingery chicken number that’s really tasty as well.

Homemade cashew Chicken Recipe: The Need-to-knows

This recipe is pretty classic, save for my additions of fresh asparagus (which I tend to cook with all the time) and some sliced onion as well. It’s BEYOND delicious, thanks to the flavorful sauce that coats each and every little bite. Let’s dig into that sauce for just a sec, shall we? Get to know it a little better …

Oyster Sauce

This viscous dark brown condiment made from oyster extracts, sugar, salt, water and thickened with cornstarch. High quality oyster sauce is naturally dark in color. It has a very complex, savory flavor with just a little bit of sweetness. It it gently salty, briny and sports a velvety smooth texture.

Cornstarch

Cornstarch is a hero ingredient that will help to thicken our sauce and also coat the pieces of chicken beautifully here. It is naturally gluten free.

Soy Sauce

If you’re prefer a gluten-free alternative, tamari works great in this easy homemade cashew chicken recipe.

Garlic Powder

This is one of my little add-ins that isn’t traditional. I think garlic powder has its place in all sorts of things, and it just adds a toasty, galicky note to things that makes it all the more delicious.

Rice Vinegar

This provides a much needed acidic balance to the dish, but if you’d like to use a different vinegar (white wine, white distilled, red wine, sherry vinegar, or even apple cider vinegar) that would be fine in a pinch.

Sugar

Sugar is used widely in Chinese cooking, as it amplifies the flavors of everything, balancing the salt of the soy and oyster sauces as well as the acidic punch of the rice vinegar.

Sesame Oil

Clutch! This toasty, hard-to-replicate flavor rounds everything out beautifully for us. A little goes a long way, so just be sure to stick to the measurements.

How to whip up this easy Homemade Cashew Chicken Recipe

1. To make the sauce, combine the vinegar, oyster sauce, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, the sugar, garlic powder, and 2 teaspoons of the cornstarch in a bowl. Stir until the cornstarch is dissolved and set aside for now. 
2. In another bowl, toss the sliced chicken with the remaining 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. 
3. In a large skillet over medium heat, add a couple tablespoons of cooking oil and, when it’s hot, quickly toast the cashews, asparagus, and sliced onion in the oil until the nuts are golden brown and fragrant; takes about 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer everything to a plate for now.
4. Add a little more oil to the pan if needed (the remaining oil will look golden now, which is fine). Cook the chicken until just golden brown (don’t mess with it); takes a couple of minutes. Add the scallion whites and the sliced garlic and stir fry until the chicken is totally cooked through; about 2 to 3 minutes more. 
5. Give your sauce a stir in the bowl and add it to the pan. Cook for a minute or two until the sauce is glossy, thickened a bit and nicely coats everything. Add the toasted cashews and asparagus back into the pan, toss to coat and combine and serve piled over cooked white rice. 

What to Serve with this homemade cashew chicken recipe

Okay, so the thing about stir frys that makes them such killer options for weeknight dinners, is that they’re basically everything you need, all in one plate. You’ve got the veggies, protein, and starch already – so there’s not much else we really need here to round things out, you know? That said, I’ve got a couple of fun suggestions for you, if you’re looking for a sweet way to balance all of this savory umami-ness via a great dessert.

My salted butter chocolate chip cookies are always a hit, and for this meal – try adding two teaspoons of toasted sesame oil to the batter. This will totally round out the Chinese flavors going on, and can I just say that sesame oil should be used in way more desserts. It’s SO GOOD.

I also have a salad or two that would be great with this homemade cashew chicken recipe. This cucumber salad is good with everything, everywhere, all at once. And so is this iceberg salad (I know, I know … trust me).

Print