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This Crockpot Cashew Chicken is better than most Chinese takeout cashew chicken. Throw it all in the slow cooker and have a delicious, no fuss dinner!
In addition to being delicious, this Crockpot Cashew Chicken is super easy to make! You can have this ready and in the crock pot faster than you can get your kids in the car and drive to the nearest Chinese place for take-out. My family absolutely LOVED this recipe! We served it with some steamed veggies and it was the perfect pairing. You can throw veggies in the crockpot with this dish or you can serve them on the side — whatever is easiest for you!
Ingredients in Crockpot Cashew Chicken
- Chicken Breasts
- Flour
- Black Pepper
- Canola Oil
- Low Sodium Soy Sauce
- Rice Vinegar
- Ketchup
- Brown Sugar
- Garlic Cloves
- Fresh Ginger
- Red Pepper Flakes
- Cashews
History of Cashew Chicken
When you bite into the sweet and savory flavor of cashew chicken, you might imagine a heritage-rich, ancient backstory for this food. In reality, cashew chicken heralds from Springfield, Missouri in 1963. A chef from China, David Leong, created the dish as he was trying to incorporate the flavors of his homeland with the tastes of the local residents. It quickly became popular as the recipe was widely circulated with other restaurant owners. Now, more than 50 years later, this delectable entree of bite-sized pieces of fried chicken coated in rich brown sauce with crunchy cashews is on the menu of almost every Chinese restaurant in the United States!
Cashew Chicken Freezer Meal
This cashew chicken recipe can easily be adapted to be a freezer meal. Make double the amount and freeze half for later! When making this a freezer meal, skip dredging the chicken in flour. That will just make a mess after freezing. Simply add the chicken pieces (un-dredged) to a gallon-sized plastic zip-top freezer bag, combine the sauce ingredients, and add the sauce to the bag. Squeeze the air out and seal tightly. That’s it! To enjoy later, thaw your bag in the refrigerator then add it to the Crock Pot just as you would in this recipe. Add cashews after cooking.
Instant Pot Cashew Chicken
If you’re in a hurry to make dinner and would rather make this cashew chicken in an Instant Pot, it’s easy to do! You can even brown the chicken right there in the Instant Pot before cooking so you don’t have to dirty a skillet. You will just have to do it in batches.
- After browning the chicken, remove the chicken and add the sauce to the bottom of the Instant Pot.
- To avoid getting the “burn notice” on your Instant Pot, you will want to add ½ cup of chicken broth over the sauce.
- Add the chicken over the top of the sauce, seal the Instant Pot, and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes.
- Do a quick release and stir to cover the chicken in sauce.
Stove-Top Cashew Chicken
If you don’t have a Crock Pot or an Instant Pot and just want to make this on the stove top, it’s a breeze! Just be sure to use a skillet large enough to hold everything.
- After cooking the chicken in the skillet, there is no need to remove it. Just pour the sauce right over the chicken.
- Cover and simmer on low heat until the chicken is cooked through (165-degrees F), stirring occasionally. This should only take about 30-40 minutes.
- If the sauce seems to be getting too thick, just add some chicken broth to thin out.
A Big Thank You!
This recipe for this version of Crockpot Cashew Chicken was adapted from Karen at 365daysofcrockpot.com. She is the best and her Crockpot recipes are all outstanding. I have had the pleasure of meeting her several times and she has some awesome recipes. She gave this one a 5-star rating and I couldn’t agree more. It is delicious! Check out her blog for even more amazing crockpot recipes!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can put raw chicken in the slow cooker. However, because this chicken has an extremely light flour breading, you’ll want to brown it first in a skillet before adding it to the slow cooker.
For this recipe, I recommend using at least a three quart crockpot.
Sometimes I like to add stir-fry veggies (just use the frozen kind from Costco) and they work great in the recipe.
Read Next: Easy Crockpot Chicken Recipes
More Crockpot Recipes to Try
- Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice Soup: Chicken and Rice Soup warms you up on cold fall and winter days. It is also ideal for busy days. The ingredients go into the Slow Cooker in the morning and a nice, hot meal awaits in the evening.
- Slow Cooker Lasagna: This Slow Cooker Lasagna recipe is not only delicious, it is definitely the easiest way to make lasagna. You don’t have to boil the lasagna noodles ahead of time and deal with wet, sticky noodles.
- Slow Cooker Cheese Tortellini Soup: This Cheese Tortellini Soup is a flavorful, easy slow cooker meal. Tortellini, sausage, and spinach in a creamy tomato soup and slow cooked to perfection.
- Slow Cooker Kalua Pork: Kalua Pork with Cabbage is a Hawaiian dish often served at Luaus. This version is made in the slow cooker and tastes just like authentic shredded Kalua Pig.
- Slow Cooker Pasta E Fagioli Soup: Our version of the Olive Garden Pasta E Fagioli Soup tastes just like the original.
- Slow Cooker Zuppa Toscana Soup: Many agree that this Zuppa Toscana Soup Olive Garden Copycat is actually better than the original! It has a creamy both base and is loaded with sausage and potatoes.
- Slow Cooker Molten Chocolate and Caramel Cake: I am in love with this Slow Cooker Molten Chocolate and Caramel Cake. Besides this being rich, chocolatey, and delicious, it is so easy to make and the clean up is a breeze!
- Easy Crock Pot Pork Chops: With four ingredients and a sauce you’re going to love, you won’t want to miss this comfort food!
How to Make Crockpot Cashew Chicken
Crockpot Cashew Chicken
Video
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken breasts boneless skinless , about 4 chicken breasts, cut into smaller pieces
- 1/4 cup flour all purpose
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon canola oil
- 1 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 4 Tablespoon brown sugar
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup cashews UNSALTED, or to taste
Instructions
- Combine flour and pepper in resealable food storage bag. Add chicken. Shake to coat with flour mixture.
- Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Brown chicken about 2 minutes on each side. Place chicken in slow cooker.
- Combine soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes in small bowl; pour over chicken.
- Cook on LOW for 2 to 3 hours. Stir in cashews and serve.
Notes
- After cooking the chicken in the skillet, there is no need to remove it. Just pour the sauce right over the chicken.
- Cover and simmer on low heat until the chicken is cooked through (165-degrees F), stirring occasionally. This should only take about 30-40 minutes.
- If the sauce seems to be getting too thick, just add some chicken broth to thin out.
Just made this for dinner tonight. I made some fried rice to go with it. I can’t believe how good it was!! Definitely a repeater.
This was EXCELLENT. I used alot more chicken since my family is large used more brown sugar and 1/2 of the soy sauce, and more vinegar…not salty at all and one of the best things I have ever made.
This is probably a silly question – bit is the sauce supposed to cover all of the chicken pieces…I don’t know
This was a delicious, better than any Chinese restaurant I have been to. Can you give me the calorie information? I count my calories so I need to know the nutrient value. Thanks!!
This was excellent. Easy to make and a nice mix up from the old standards. I wouldn’t use salted cashews and I did use low sodium soy sauce and it was a good balance of salt. Thanks!
I think this would also be good with pineapple. When would you add it?
I would love to try this. We love cashew
chicken, but we do not love alot of salt. I am thinking of cutting the amount of soy sauce and adding chicken broth, do you think this would work?
Make sure to get low-sodium soy sauce, unsalted cashews, and feel free to ALSO do as you suggested.. cutting the soy sauce and using low-sodium broth. That should help a lot!
Thank you Erica for your response. I made this tonight and it was a huge hit. I doubled the amount of sauce . I also used 1/4 c low sodium soy sauce,1/2 c chicken broth and lightly salted cashews along with the rest of ingredients in the recipe and my family really liked it. Thank you again for this recipe, it will get a lot of use. Blessings to you, Carla
I am making this now and even with using lower sodium soy sauce and unsalted cashews it is really really salty. Not sure this is going to work out well. Any suggestions to cut the salt taste?
Can I make this the night before? Or will the soy sauce cause the chicken to get wonky from marinating too long? Thanks!
hmmm…. haven’t tried that before. I don’t know how if would affect the chicken. If you try it, let us know how it turns out!
I cooked the chicken and made the sauce the night before but didn’t put the together until I wanted to cook it. It turned out great. I cooked it for an hour longer since everything was cold going into the crock pot
can you use chicken thighs?
We have never tried it with chicken thighs, Im sure it would be fine. If you try it, let us know how it turns out!
I made this tonight and it was so good. I did not make it in a slow cooker since I don’t get home in time from work and even on “warm” my food overcooks. I did it on the stovetop, adding the sauce after I browned the chicken. I let it cook about 25-30 minutes. I did add some water to the sauce while cooking to compensate for the moisture that would accumulate from being in a slow cooker. I also doubled the sauce. The whole family ate it, even my extremely picky 5 year old daughter!!
Delish! I added a bunch of green onions after cooking. Super good! Next time might add some water chestnuts as well. Yuuuuum! Thx!
oooh I like the idea of water chestnuts! Good thinking! Glad you liked it! 🙂
When should I add the cashews? Same time I put In the sauce or cook for a couple hours then add? Thanks! Making it tonight for dinner!
I usually just add them with the sauce!
I just put this In the crockpot, but I just noticed that you said you add the cashews with the sauce. I thought the instructions said to pour the sauce, cook for 4-4 hours and then add cashews and stir. That leads me to believe that they got added after cooking, not with the sauce. I am confused. Please help
You can do it either way– it doesn’t make a big difference. If you add them later on they will be slightly more crunchy
I’m so excited I found this! I’m going to try it tonight. I want to add chopped celery, carrot and mushrooms to make it more like the one my husband and I eat when we’re out. I’m afraid if I add the veges too early, they’ll just go to mush. When would you suggest I add them to the slow cooker, and do you think they’ll have the same cooking time? Thanks so much!
You can add them at the beginning. They shouldn’t get too mushy. I haven’t tried it before but you should be fine!
Great dish! You need to add the sliced green onion to the ingredient list though. : )
Cooked today & was very happy. I made a little more sauce than the recipe calls for & cooked for about 3 hours. The chicken was super tender. Served with some fried rice. Will definitely do this one again.
This looks soooo good! Pinned!! Deb
Just finished this and holy crap it was awesome!!!
I used chicken tenderloins from Publix and cut them in half, which gave me roughly 10 large-bite-sized pieces of chicken. It was perfect for just me and my husband.
Definitely the easiest cashew chicken recipe I’ve seen and I can now confirm it’s one of the most delicious!!
Yay! So glad you like it! That makes me the HAPPIEST girl ever! 😉
I only tried the sauce so far and it was very salty not using low sodium soy saice. So i think you should put low sodium soy sauce and lightly salted cashews.
I used low sodium soy sauce and unsalted cashews and it was way too salty!! I even tried to add a little extra sugar to cut the salt and it was terrible!! I am disappointed because I wasted all the money to buy the ingredients and nobody liked it. I am on a tight budget ugh!
I don’t know what you did differently… It has never been too salty when I have made it– even with regular soy sauce. I always use unsalted cashews though. I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out well for you. 🙁
If you used the frozen chicken breasts that come in a bag that could have been the problem. They are injected with a salty brine.
If you check the packages of the unfrozen chicken breasts sold in the meat department, you will find that they are also injected with the brine. The only way to get around this is to buy ‘fresh’ breasts. They do this with turkey too. You can order fresh turkey (without brine) at Thanksgiving time, so you may also have to order the chicken breasts too. This might be marketed as ‘organic’??
has anyone made this but left it warming in the crockpot for longer than the 3-4 hours called for? I’d love to be able to make in the morning and eat for dinner. thanks!
My chicken kept sticking in the crock pot. I had to add water. I wouldn’t recommend leaving it all day. I have to keep going to stir mine. I even doubled the recipe for the sauce but the chicken still keeps sticking.