Szechuan Chicken with Cashew Nuts
Szechuan chicken, a super quick and spicy stir fry that fizzes with Szechuan pepper and dried chilli flakes in a gloriously tasty sauce.
Taking under 15 minutes to cook, this recipe is the perfect Chinese fakeaway to cook at home and save you a few pennies.
Sichuan Chicken Stir Fry with Cashew Nuts
I have something of a reputation for producing the occasional Chinese or Indian takeaway or fakeaway recipe.
This gloriously tasty dish joins dishes like my ginger pork stir fry, chicken with black bean sauce, kung po prawns and Dan Dan noodles, a dish so good they named it twice!
This Szechuan chicken stir fry recipe is very much influenced by the classic kung pao chicken. My version is defined by the combination of dried chilli flakes and Szechuan pepper, which isn't actually pepper at all.
If you have never tried Szechuan pepper, you are in for a treat. It has the most wonderful fizz. I think of it as grown-up popping candy.
Be careful though, use too much and you will get a number tongue!
I love the stuff and use it all the time, this iteration joins other Szechuan recipes like Szechuan beef, Szechuan tofu and Szechuan prawns.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are lots of unfamiliar ingredients. Are there any substitutes?
Yes, there are a couple of ingredients that may not be in everyday use if you do not cook Chinese food often.
Here are some subs that can be made:
Shaoxing Wine: Gin, Dry Sherry.
Chinkiang Vinegar: 50/50 mix of balsamic & red wine vinegar, but use half as much as this recipe calls for.
Can I use chicken thighs?
Yes, it takes a little longer to prepare the chicken into long, evenly sized strips, but they work wonderfully well
I find Szechuan pepper gritty. How can I solve that?
Only the husk of Szechuan pepper is used. The black seed is not, but it can sometimes find its way into the packet. Although most of the time, it is just the nature of the spice.
The best way to treat it is to toast it first; this makes the husk more brittle and easier to crush. If you want to go even further, you can sieve the resulting pepper to get an even finer powder.
Serving Suggestions
More often than not, I serve this recipe with plain old boiled rice; egg fried rice works well too.
But this recipe is very much a "vegetable-free" zone. You can change that up really easily with a host of stir-fried vegetable recipes.
I have a a stir fried broccoli and a stir fried asparagus recipe that would be perfect with this Szechuan chicken.
You could, of course, run with mixed vegetable stir fry too!
Equipment Used
I only mention brands of equipment if I think that they make a material difference to a recipe. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section below the recipe.
- Hob/stovetop.
- Wok.
- Stirring and serving spoons.
- Chopping board.
- Kitchen knife.
- Pestle and mortar or spice grinder.
- Mixing and prep bowls.
- A combination of weighing scales and or measuring cups and spoons.
Szechuan Chicken Stir Fry Recipe
Ingredients
- 350 g Chicken Breast 12oz
- 75 g Cashew Nuts ½ Cup
- 4 Cloves Garlic
- 35 g Ginger 1 Thumb Sized Piece
- 1 tablespoon Dried Chilli Flakes
- ½ tablespoon Szechuan Peppercorns
- 3 Spring Onions
- 2 tablespoon Cooking Oil
For the Marinade
- 1 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
- ½ tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- 1½ teaspoon Cornflour
- 1 tablespoon Cold Water
For the Sauce
- 2 tablespoon Light Brown Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Cornflour
- 1 teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chiangking Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Water
- 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
Instructions
- Slice the chicken breast in half lengthways and then into 5-6mm (¼") thick strips diagonally across the breast.
- Mix together the ingredients for the marinade and add the chicken, then allow this to sit whilst the remaining ingredients are prepared
- Finely slice the garlic as finely as you can.
- Peel and cut the ginger into batons as thinly as you can manage.
- Finely slice one of the spring onions into 2-3mm (⅛") thick rings, shred the other two as thinly as you can and place the shredded spring onion in a bowl of cold water.
- Toast the Szechuan peppercorns in a hot wok for 1-2 minutes and crush them in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder. If you want to refine the texture more, then pass it through a fine mesh sieve.
- Toast the cashew nuts in a hot wok and set aside.
- Mix together the ingredients for the sauce and set aside.
- Get the wok almost smoking on a high heat and add the oil. Immediately add the garlic and ginger and stir fry for 30 seconds.
- Add the chicken and marinade followed by the chilli flakes and Szechuan pepper and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.
- Pour in the sauce, followed by the sliced spring onions and cashew nuts. Stir fry for a final 2-3 minutes.
- Drain the shredded spring onions and serve on top of the stir fry.
I love making take out at home because it ends up being so much healthier! This recipe looks great!
I haven't heard of shaoxing wine before! I love when I find a new ingredient! This looks amazing and the colors are incredible. <3
This is such a delicious recipe, and the perfect meal for a Saturday night at home. Loving the vegetables, and the flavours to compliment. Ideal that the dish doesn't take long to make.
I adore Kung Pao Chicken and yours looks incredible. I love that it only takes 30 minutes to make too!
I love making take out at home because it ends up being so much healthier! This recipe looks great!
I love it because I am greedy and my nearest takeaway is like 150km away 😮
I haven't heard of shaoxing wine before! I love when I find a new ingredient! This looks amazing and the colors are incredible. <3
Really, it is a very well know Chinese cooking ingredient, have fun it is a great addition to a Chinese pantry!
Chinese food is my favorite and Kung Pao Chicken is one diagnosed i adore , yours looks so delicious
Thanks Swati.
This is such a delicious recipe, and the perfect meal for a Saturday night at home. Loving the vegetables, and the flavours to compliment. Ideal that the dish doesn't take long to make.
Thanks Helen.
I adore Kung Pao Chicken and yours looks incredible. I love that it only takes 30 minutes to make too!
Me too, for a while it was my most cooked dinner, it has been replaced now but it is still a firm favourite!
You know, I now keep dark soy sauce in the house in addition to regular because of you (and use it quite a bit when making fakeaway). Can you recommend a good substitute for Shaoxing wine? How often do you use it? We've liked the other takeaway recipes of yours we've tried, and so this one will likely happen at some point.
I love to hear stuff like this, I use Shaoxing wine in quite a lot of recipes and it has a decent shelf life although you can substitute for other rice wines the most commonly recommended substitute is dry sherry, although I personally think that the flavour of gin is much and prefer to use that as a substitute when required.
I'll be wishing the garden was a great deal smaller in a few weeks time but for now I can't wait to get back at it. Chinese food is really simple to cook and the trick is have EVERYTHING prepared before you even heat up the wok, once you get going things happen very quickly and if you 'mither' it can often screw up the dish, so prepare everything in bowls and place them in the order you throw them in the wok and off you go. Once you get it right once there will be no looking back.
As a new yorker, i cannot imagine being that far away from chinese or pizza!! King pao chicken is a STAPLE in our house but we almost never make it ourselves. Bookmarking this one, for sure.
Pizza is a lot closer but the nearest Chinese is a long way away and the nearest good Chinese is probably a 320km round trip from home 😮
I need to find that Shaoxing wine, I see you use it a lot! This looks so delicious, I hardly cook Chinese, but have been craving it and want to try some simple, yummy recipes. This looks perfect!
Thanks Whitney, Shaoxing wine is a type of rice wine and it should be readily available in good oriental markets, however there are substitutes you can use, the most common recommended one is dry sherry although I find the taste very different and if I am out would usually use gin which I think has a much closer flavour profile to rice wine than sherry does.
Thanks Monique
Thanks Shelby... It is definitely time for some fresh green crunchy stuff!
Now this is my kind of cooking. Perfect to whip up on a week night and packed with flavour.
Isn't it just 😀
Yummmm!! Hands down my FAVE Chinese take out dish!
I am definitely with you on that!
Perfect for a weeknight dinner. You are right, Chinese food tends to be very quick and easy.
I think that is why I love it so much, bags of fairly complex flavour but so simple and quick to cook.