Thai Cashew Chicken Stir Fry (2024)

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!!

1. Sauce – Mix the sauce in a small dish;

2. 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);

3. Remove cashews from the wok / skillet. Reserve the oil – we will use that to cook the stir fry;

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

Thai Stir Fry and Noodle Favourites

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