Easy, Healthy Cashew Chicken

What is better than juicy chicken thighs in a rich, umami, slightly sweet and very aromatic sauce with crisp cashews? Not much comes to mind! This is one of our favorite dinners! I make this a few times a month and it’s such a satisfying, belly warming meal!

What makes it even better is how quick it is to throw together! I just brown everything in a big pan, whisk together the sauce and give it a toss! It’s on the table in less than 45 minutes and we always have leftovers for lunch the next day!

Here’s what you need for the cashew chicken:

• You could make this with chicken breasts if thighs are not your thing, but be careful. One thing I love about thighs is that they are so forgiving. You can overcook the heck out of them and they will still be juicy and tender. So not the case with chicken breasts which will dry out if you barely overcook them! So keep a close eye on them.
• The cashews I used here were already roasted and lightly salted. I just gave them a rough chop and they were ready to go. You could use raw cashews, but toast them for about 8 minutes in a 300 degree oven first.

Here’s what you need to make the sauce:

• The amount of salt you use may vary depending on the sodium content of your soy sauce and broth. As you can see, I’ve got low sodium soy pictured. The broth I used was not low sodium because that’s just what I had on hand. If you have a low sodium broth, you may want to up your salt in the recipe, or if you don’t use low sodium ingredients, you may want to lower the amount of salt in the recipe. Use your best judgement. I recommend starting small with the salt and adding as needed.
• For the cooking wine: I used a clear “michiu” wine that bought at my local Asian market. You could find it easily online as well if you don’t have access to an Asian market. It is a rice cooking wine that gives the dish depth of flavor. You could also use a “Shaoxing” wine, which is another type of cooking wine with an amber color and a richer flavor. If you are in a pinch, you could also use mirin, if that is all that you have, but keep in mind that it is sweeter than the 2 previous cooking wines, so in this case I would dial back on the honey in the recipe.

For the best results, grate your garlic and ginger on a microplane. It creates a smoother sauce and keeps out big chunks. Plus it’s much easier and less time consuming than mincing, which is a big plus for me.

Keep the sauce refrigerated until needed.

I make this dish enough, that I find it makes things so much easier if I just make a big double or triple batch of the sauce. This way I don’t have to measure out all the ingredients every time.

Brown the chicken thighs.

The four very important steps to take to make sure the chicken gets nice and brown are:

1. Drying the chicken before adding it to the pan.
2. Ensuring the pan is hot before adding the chicken.
3. Making sure each piece has a little space to itself in the pan. (Cook it in batches if necessary.)
4. Resisting the urge to continuously stir.

Remove the chicken, then add the broccoli to the pan.

Cut the florets into equal-sized pieces, so they cook at the same rate. Spread them out so they have room to brown evenly. Don’t touch them for a few minutes. Give them a chance to get a bit of caramelization on one side before tossing. They will only take a few minutes to cook through. When ready, they will be tender but still crisp and bright green.

Add the chicken, sauce and cashews to the pan.

Give it a toss. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits that have been stuck to the bottom of the pan. Once everything is well coated. Turn off the burner. The sauce will continue to cook down and thicken in the residual heat of the pan.

Serve immediately.

Pile the saucy chicken with broccoli and cashews over brown rice, cauliflower rice or noodles! If you are planning on refrigerating any leftovers, I would strongly advise you to remove the broccoli. Everything else keeps beautifully, but the broccoli does not, unfortunately. So I would cut my losses as far as that goes in order to save the rest of the dish.

If you are planning on making this for the sake of meal prep, (which I highly recommend, this is a great make-ahead dish,) cook the broccoli or whatever veggies you are planning separately, and keep them separate. This cashew chicken is delicious with most vegetables! I usually serve it with broccoli, but I love it with green beans, bell peppers, sautéed carrots or mushrooms!

Other recipes to try:

• Bang Bang Chicken Salad
• Orange and Garlic Shrimp and Veggies