20 Minute Cashew Chicken | Cooking Up A Storm with Jacob

Jacob Dickey
·3 min read

Here’s a super fast and simple recipe for Cashew Chicken that can take as little as 20 minutes at home to make! This will serve 3-4 people at the table. You can easily double it in size to make for the whole family!

INGREDIENTS:
Main Dish:
~1 lb breaded chicken bites
1/2 cup unsalted cashews
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
~ 1 C diced carrots
~ 1 T garlic, minced
1 small bunch scallions, green parts quartered

Sauce Ingredients:
3 T cold water
2 T soy sauce
2 t corn starch
1 t fish sauce
1 T oyster sauce
2 T oil (sesame)
1 T brown sugar
1 T tamari sauce

Rice Ingredients
1 c Rice
2 c Water
1 T chicken base

DIRECTIONS:

  1. In a sauce pan, add 1 cup washed rice with 2 cups of cool/cold water. Add 1 T of chicken base for some extra flavor. Bring to a boil, then stir, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until the rice is cooked.

  2. Meanwhile, while your rice is cooking, prepare your frozen chicken bites according to the directions on the bag. In our house, we enjoy the “Just Bare” frozen chicken bites, but you can use whatever you want or have available.

  3. Once your chicken is prepared, in a medium/large saute pan, add some oil and heat. Then, add some chopped cashews and stir until they are just browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

  4. In the same pan, add another Tablespoon of oil and add your minced garlic to the pan. Heat until fragrant. Then, add carrots to the pan. Let cook for about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.

  5. In a small bowl, add cold water, soy sauce and corn starch. Stir together until mixed. Then, add the rest of the sauce ingredients, whisk together with a fork and set to the side.

  6. Once the carrots have gotten a head start, add your broccoli to the saute pan and stir. Cover to help “steam” the broccoli.

  7. Once your veggies are cooked, you can then add your sauce and stir in with the veggies. Allow the sauce to thicken slightly as it’s boiling on the bottom of the pan.

  8. Once your sauce has thickened, add your chicken to the pan and stir to coat.

  9. Prior to serving, top with your cashews and green onions. Serve over a bed of rice and top with toasted sesame seeds.

TIPS/HINTS:

  1. If you prefer to use a rice cooker, feel free but you don’t need one. These silicone spill stoppers are great for helping to vent some of the steam and you can place it over your rice and walk away while it’s simmering.

  2. If you’d rather use raw chicken, you’ll want to add it to the pan prior to the carrots, but after you remove the cashews. Make sure your chicken is chunked into bite size pieces before you cook it in the pan. Once the chicken is at least half way cooked, add the carrots and continue on with the recipe.

  3. You can also toast white sesame seeds at home, but you don’t have too. Pre-toasted sesame seeds are just fine.

  4. Feel free to add additional vegetables. You can use button mushrooms and diced/sliced onion. Those should be added with the broccoli to cook.

  5. You don’t even need to use the sauce with this recipe. That sauce recipe goes great with lots of stir fry recipes and more. Make extra this round so you can have the sauce ready to go the next time. It’s a favorite of ours to do in the house!

Find all of my recipes on WCIA.com/cookingupastorm.

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