Baked Cashew Chicken

Better than takeout and so simple, this Baked Cashew Chicken is the perfect weeknight dinner. A favorite chicken stir fry recipe made in one pan with fresh veggies and a delicious sauce. Dinner the family will love!

Why bake your stir fries?

Stir Fry recipes can be challenging with a two year old in the house. I like to take some of my favorites and turn them into baked versions to make life a bit more simple.

• Instead of standing in front of the stove for twenty minutes, I can pop dinner in the oven and then walk away. That way I can cook dinner and chase a little on all at the same time.
• The other bonus of baked stir fry recipes is prepping it all early and then heading straight to cook when I am ready.

Need more convincing that a baked cashew chicken recipe is a great dinner option? I doubt it.

Originally this baked cashew chicken was going to be a cashew chicken sheet pan dinner since I love a good sheet pan dinner. But since I like this to be a bit more saucy, I opted for tossing it all in a pan. No doubt you could still opt for a sheet pan, but things may get a touch messy.

What you will need to make this recipe:

• bell pepper: I use red bell pepper in this baked cashew chicken recipe. I like the sweetness and the extra pop of color. You could really opt for any bell pepper of choice.
• cashews: I go back and forth on the cashews. I have used raw cashews and toasted cashews, both unsalted. I am leaning toward the toasted cashews because they have a richer flavor. For some reason the raw cashews don't get roasted enough. Use whichever you prefer. You can also lightly toast your cashews stove top before tossing them in with everything else.

For the sauce:

• soy sauce: only just now realizing it's not pictured in this image. But also wanted to mention that if you need gluten free, opt for tamari instead. Coconut aminos work as well if you cannot have soy.
• broth: you could also use stock if desired.
• sugar: I sometimes switch it up and use honey or brown sugar to add a different flavor to the sauce.

How to make this recipe:

1. Whisk together the sauce ingredients. Pretty easy start, right?
2. Combine veggies, chicken and cashews in a bowl. Pour sauce over ingredients. (step 1 and 2)
3. Toss well to allow sauce to coat chicken and veggies. (step 3)
4. Pour ingredients into lightly greased 9x13 baking dish. Pop the cashew chicken in the oven and bake! (step 4)

I KNOW you can handle that! Doesn't get much easier!

Some tips for making this easy baked cashew chicken:

• This does have a sauce, but it's not a lot of sauce once it is cooked. If you want more sauce for when serving, double the sauce recipe and add it before cooking. This will give you plenty to spoon over in the end.
• Feel free to prep this in the morning of or even the night before you plan on cooking. It will allow the chicken to marinate and absorb all the more flavor and allow you to take care of business when it works best for you!
• If you prefer a pretty thick sauce, add another teaspoon of corn starch to allow it to thicken even more.
• My husband prefers his cashew chicken with pineapple. I was going to add it in to the recipe, but then decided not to. If this sounds good to you, you can add a few teaspoons of pineapple juice to the sauce, or add some fresh pineapple chunks before baking.

Possible Substitutions:

• Are you allergic to cashews? Don't like them? Feel free to switch up the nut then. Lightly toasted almonds would be a delicious option to add in instead of the cashews.
• The recipe for the sauce calls for sugar--a tasty way to switch up the flavor is to sub something like brown sugar or honey.
• If you want to adjust the veggies, feel free to do so. Some zucchini, pea pods, maybe even some mukimame. The more the merrier!
• Arrowroot powder is a simple substitution for corn starch. I have used it several times in other recipes and works great to thicken sauces!

Is this Cashew Chicken Gluten free?

Most cashew chicken recipes have soy sauce which contains wheat, so it's not always easy to have it at a restaurant as gluten free. Some restaurants are more accommodating than others.

If you make it at home, you can use Tamari instead of soy sauce and then your baked cashew chicken will be gluten free!

I know living with allergies can be difficult for so many, --hope this helps!

Other simple baked dinner recipes you may like:

• PARMESAN CRUSTED CHICKEN SHEET PAN DINNER
• MOZZARELLA STUFFED CHICKEN WITH TOMATO AND BASIL
• BAKED ORANGE CHICKEN SHEET PAN DINNER
• EASY CHICKEN STUFFED POBLANO PEPPERS
• CHICKEN WITH MANGO SALSA
• HONEY LIME BAKED CHICKEN FAJITAS
• PEANUT MANGO CHICKEN STIR FRY