Chinese-Style Chicken with Cashews and Bell Pepper Recipe
A homemade version of a popular Chinese restaurant dish: tender pieces of chicken stir-fried with crunchy bell pepper and cashew nuts in a lightly sweet and salty sauce. In China, quick wok dishes like this are perfect for a post-work dinner – they come together in no time, and the whole meal is really just one big, colorful meat-and-vegetable stir-fry. It goes perfectly with a bowl of rice and doesn’t require any complicated techniques.
This is a variation on a Cantonese-style chicken and cashew stir-fry, simplified for a European home kitchen: no wok required, cooked in neutral oil and using easily available bell peppers instead of seasonal Chinese vegetables.
A quick, colorful stir-fry that brings classic Chinese restaurant flavors to your home kitchen with simple ingredients and no special equipment beyond a regular frying pan.
Why this version works
- A marinade of light soy sauce and starch acts like a delicate “coat of armor” that traps the juices inside the meat.
- Toasting the cashews at the start lets them cool and set their crunch before they’re added to the sauce.
- Mixing the sauce with water and starch before cooking makes it thicken evenly, without lumps forming in the pan.
- Cooking the meat and vegetables separately helps maintain high heat and keeps the ingredients from stewing in their own juices.
Chef's tips
Cut the chicken into evenly sized pieces so it cooks at the same speed and stays juicy. Keep the heat high while stir-frying and avoid overcrowding the pan – this helps the meat brown instead of steaming. Have all your ingredients prepped before you start cooking, because the dish comes together very quickly once the pan is hot.
How to serve
Serve in deep bowls over a bed of hot jasmine or basmati rice. Add a side of lightly pickled cucumbers or a simple Asian-style salad with cabbage and carrot for freshness. For a more filling meal, pair it with a simple egg-drop soup or miso soup.
Watch out for
- Don’t add the chicken to cold oil – it will start to boil in its own juices, release a lot of liquid and lose its chance to brown lightly.
- Always stir the starch in the sauce right before pouring it in; if it settles on the bottom, it forms lumps that are hard to break up.
- Don’t cook the peppers for too long – when the edges start to soften but the centers are still firm, that’s the moment to add the chicken and sauce.
Substitutions
- You can replace cashews with unsalted peanuts, also lightly toasted.
- Swap chicken breast for boneless thigh meat, frying it 1–2 minutes longer until the fibers are fully cooked through.
- Rice vinegar can be substituted with mild apple cider vinegar, reducing the amount to 1 tablespoon.
- You can replace chili flakes with a hot chili paste or sambal, adding it to the sauce gradually to reach your preferred heat level.
Ingredients
- chicken breast skinless, boneless - 400 g
- bell pepper - 1 piece
- bell pepper any color - 1 piece
- unsalted cashew nuts - 70 g
- garlic - 3 cloves
- fresh ginger piece about 3 cm - 15 g
- light soy sauce - 3 tablespoons
- dark soy sauce can be omitted, but adds color - 1 tablespoon
- rice vinegar can be replaced with apple cider vinegar - 1.5 tablespoons
- sugar or honey - 1.5 teaspoons
- potato starch or corn starch - 2 teaspoons
- water for the sauce - 60 ml
- oil e.g. rapeseed oil - 3 tablespoons
- chili flakes or hot chili paste to taste, can be omitted - 0.5 teaspoons
- chives chopped, for sprinkling - 2 tablespoons
Preparation
- Cut the chicken into thin strips or small cubes. Transfer to a bowl, add 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of starch. Mix with your hand until the meat is evenly coated. Set aside for 10 minutes.
- Wash the bell peppers, remove the cores and seeds, and cut into strips about 1 cm wide. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Peel the ginger with a teaspoon and cut into very thin matchsticks or finely chop.
- In a small bowl, mix the remaining 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce, the dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, chili flakes, water and 1 teaspoon of starch. Stir until the starch dissolves – you’ll get a light sauce.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan or wok over high heat for about 1 minute. Add the cashew nuts and fry for 2–3 minutes, stirring often, until lightly golden and fragrant. Transfer them to a small plate.
- Pour another 2 tablespoons of oil into the same pan. When it is well heated (it should shimmer slightly), add the chicken. Fry for 4–5 minutes over high heat, stirring frequently, until the pieces are white inside and lightly browned on the outside. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
- Add the garlic and ginger to the pan. Fry for about 30 seconds, stirring, until they become very fragrant but do not brown. Add the bell peppers and fry for 3–4 minutes over fairly high heat, stirring, until they soften but are still slightly crunchy.
- Return the chicken to the pan along with any juices from the plate. Stir to combine. Stir the sauce in the bowl again (starch tends to sink to the bottom) and pour it into the pan.
- Cook everything together for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until the sauce thickens and becomes slightly glossy, and all the ingredients are evenly coated. If the sauce is too thick, add 1–2 tablespoons of water.
- Finally, add the toasted cashew nuts, stir and taste. If needed, season with a little more soy sauce or a pinch of sugar. Sprinkle with chopped chives and serve immediately, preferably with hot rice.
Storage
No storage information available for this dish.
This is one of those weeknight dishes I come back to again and again: it’s fast, flexible, and works with whatever vegetables I have on hand. The combination of tender chicken, crunchy peppers and nuts, and a glossy, savory-sweet sauce makes it feel like takeout, but you stay in control of the ingredients and seasoning.
