Cashew Chicken Recipe (2024)

I love NY Time Cooking recipes.Having said that, the time estimates are often ludicrously too short.I may be a slow chef, but there's NO way you do all the prep required for even the "for the dish" ingredients in 30 minutes.Please, more realistic estimates on how long it takes!

I use Trader Joe’s chili lime cashews for a little heat- yummy!

Lovely recipe, and thanks for the shout-out to Springfield-style Cashew Chicken courtesy of David Leong. I’ve been eating it for 50 years.

Yummy, BUT: definitely takes about an hour. I used chicken breast which turned out a bit too dry (fried for 7-8 minutes which was probably too long). A bit too sweet for my taste, sweet-tooth hubby loved it. Less sugar, more chile sauce next time. Also you need a lot less of the breading stuff, i threw away most of it which annoyed me. But a yummy dish overall which i will make again.

It’s impossible to find shaozing wine in this country that isn’t full of salt . Use a good Manzanilla sherry instead.

Very good recipe, but a little too sweet. Worth cutting the sugar in half!

I'd like to echo Kathy's thanks for mentioning the late Mr. Leong and his iconic Springfield-style cashew chicken. It's not high cuisine, but it is comfort food for my far-flung family whenever they return home.

Good recipe, but it takes WAY longer than 30 minutes, even with help. Very long ingredients list.

This is an amazing tasting dish. Not too sweet to us. Added two dried Szechuan peppers for a bit of kick. But I agree with other comments. This takes at least an hour. Just getting and prepping the ingredients will take 15 minutes. And most likely you need to do the chicken in 2-3 batches. I used 3/4 lbs and will use 1 lbs next time. I used a deep fryer instead not too waste oil. Also increased veggies and used whole can of oyster mushrooms. Highly recommend this and will make this again soon.

I cook a lot of Asian food but I didn’t get on well with this recipe. The dough and breading was too thick and end result not tasty. Also too many cashews in ratio to vegetables. I might try to recreate it with no dough or breading, more vegetables and less cashews. I used honey instead of sugar.

We loved this! I didn’t have the Chinese wine so I used dry white wine. Also added some garden sugar peas and red pepper. Cooked the chicken in my deep fryer outdoors, then followed everything else with my wok in the kitchen. I will definitely make it again. Thank you!

I wasn't sure about the batter. I had to add another 1/4 cup of water to make it batter like. I ended up with the consistency of pancake batter. The recipe worked well after that.We also thought it was too sweet. Next time we'll use less sugar.

This was amazing! The prep is more than expected, but now that I've done it, I'll know what to expect.

Add a bell pepper and pineapple and jalapeño . Next time I would do two jalapeños

I lived up the road from Leong's for many years. While this recipe is probably good, the author notes it is similar to the original. It is not. Authentic Springfield Cashew Chicken is white rice topped with chicken fried in seasoned flour, a thin brown gravy, toasted cashews, and green onion. That is it, nothing more.

I've made this a few times exactly as written. Found the wine and MSG at an Asian market. It's just a little too sweet for my taste, so I'm going to back down to 3/4 cup of sugar next time. I also used about 3/4 pound of chicken. And yes, it takes much longer to cook than stated, but it is definitely worth it.

This is excessively sweet. Need to cut the sugar in half (at least) if not eliminate it altogether. Chicken never got “deep golden” from frying but it was fine nonetheless.

Takes a while and it’s a mess to make but it’s absolutely delicious.

So excited to see the shout out to David Leong and the famous Springfield cashew chicken. I often use the recipe that was published in the paper local to Springfield. I’m looking forward to trying this one.

Followed the recipe w/o substitutions… it turned out certainly good but on the sweet side - i’d suggest 1/4 cup if not a tablespoon of sugar ( and possibly none at all). Obviously not too sweet because those who said ‘sort of sweet’ also ate seconds and thirds …

Great recipe! The only thing I would change is to reduce the amount of sugar to 1/3 cup. 1/2 c. Of sugar was way too sweet.

Cut sugar into 3/4ths and add red pepper and a wee bit of salt

Best Cashew Chicken recipe I have ever tried. This has become a family favorite.

Any alternatives to deep frying the chicken?

Absolutely delicious. I've cooked this a couple of times now and have discovered that in step 1, it works better to coat the chicken with the dry ingredients before incorporating the Shaoxing wine. Also the caramelizing step with the sugar is very important to building the flavor, don't rush it.

I'm a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself. I just made this recipe. It is delicious. BUT there is no way this can be prepared in the 30 min that is stated on the top of the recipe without a kitchen staff. Please be realistic for the subscribers of NYT cooking.

What happens if you use peanuts instead of cashews?