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Sweet and spicy flavors unite when you make slow cooker cashew chicken with snap peas. Although a lot of Chinese chicken recipes involve stir frying, this one uses a crockpot or slow cooker and that also helps intensify the wonderful flavors. You will love this slow cooker chicken recipe with cashews.
Have you ever made cashew chicken? The chicken comes out juicy and delicious while the sweet, spiced sauce coats the chicken, sugar snaps and cashews beautifully.
Also try crockpot sausage and peppers, chicken fettuccine alfredo or what about this delicious lasagna soup?
Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe Ingredients
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sugar snap peas and unsalted cashews are the main ingredients in this dish. The sauce includes soy sauce, vinegar, hot sauce, ketchup, hoisin, ginger, garlic, honey, and orange. And then you’ll need some green onion for garnish.
I do not recommend using salted cashews or the dish to be too salty. In a pinch, if that is all you have, you can rinse them off and then sauté them dry before adding them to the slow cooker.
I also recommend using lite or low-sodium soy sauce or tamari sauce.
How to Make Chinese Chicken
This Asian recipe with cashews is largely crockpot-based although you will be searing the chicken first. The first step in slow cooker cashew chicken is to toss the chicken in cornstarch and then sauté it in a pan.
Next, cook the tender chicken in the slow cooker then add the sugar snaps plus about half of the nuts. The sauce is really simple to prepare. You just have to whisk the ingredients together then add it to the crockpot.
Now just let the slow cooker cashew chicken cook for about 6 hours. Add the remaining nuts and serve garnished with green onions. Yum! You will be adding this to the slow cooker recipes that you make on repeat.
Why Chinese Chicken is Coated in Cornstarch First
You might be wondering what the cornstarch in this recipe with cashews is for. Tossing the chicken in cornstarch before cooking it is a great idea for stir fried chicken recipes and similar. The reason for this is it helps to seal the chicken pieces. This helps it stay juicy inside and crisp up to a delicious golden brown on the outside.
Not doing this won’t affect the end flavour of the easy slow cooker chicken recipe too much but I really recommend you do it. The chicken is the star of the dish after all and it’s amazing what a little cornstarch can do!
How to Store and Reheat It
Leftover Crockpot cashew chicken will be good for about 4 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Make sure you let it cool completely before storing else the cashews might get soggy. They will get a bit softer anyway if you refrigerate the dish and then reheat it. To add a bit more crunch you could throw in a few more cashews before reheating it. You can reheat this in the microwave or in a pan on the stove, as you prefer.
You can also freeze this Chinese cashew chicken by storing in a freezer safe airtight container for up to 3 months.
Serving Suggestions
This Crockpot Chinese chicken recipe with cashews is good paired with rice. Boiled rice works well or you could make fried rice if you prefer, adding in an egg, some peas and soy sauce. Either brown or white rice would work. Another option is cauliflower rice (which is also lower in carbs of course). The whole family will love cashew chicken served with rice!
Since sugar snaps are the only vegetable in this slow cooker recipe, you might like to serve a vegetable on the side either with the rice or in place of it. Broccoli would be good or you could have mushrooms or green beans. Maybe you’d prefer a vegetable medley, in which case you can chop various vegetables into more or less equal size pieces. Then simply stir-fry them in a little oil. I like using a range of colours, so perhaps something like broccoli, red bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, and maybe some yellow bell pepper too.
Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe FAQs
You can make this recipe with cashews or peanuts if you prefer those. Peanuts are technically a legume but they suit a lot of Asian dishes.
This ingredient adds incredible flavor to this easy slow cooker chicken recipe. Gochujang is a type of red chilli paste with savory, sweet and spicy elements. It’s used lots in Korean cooking. You can sub sriracha instead or, for less of a spicy flavor, just omit it from this crockpot chicken with cashew nuts.
This cashew chicken recipe is not gluten free because of the hoisin sauce and gochujang. To make gluten free cashew chicken, replace the hoisin for additional tamari sauce and use sriracha in place of the gochujang.
Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken Recipe
Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 Pounds chicken breast, cut into 1” pieces
- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 2 Cups snap peas
- 1 Cup cashews, divided, unsalted
Cashew Chicken Sauce
- 3/4 Cup Tamari sauce , or soy sauce, lite or low sodium recommended
- 1/4 Cup rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 Cup sweet chili sauce
- 1 Tablespoon gochujang, or sriracha
- 2 Tablespoons ketchup
- 1 Tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 1 Tablespoon ginger, grated
- 4 Cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 orange, juiced about ¼ cup
- 1 green onion , diced
Instructions
- Heat a frying pan or skillet on the stove over medium high heat.
- Add diced chicken to a bowl with cornstarch, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat
- Add olive oil to the hot pan and swirl to coat. Add chicken and brown for 4 minutes, tossing frequently as it cooks.
- Remove chicken from heat and add to the slow cooker. Chicken should not be fully cooked. Cover and cook on low for 1 hour.
- Add sugar snap peas and half of the cashews to the slow cooker.
- At the one hour mark, prepare the sauce. In a large mixing bowl, combine ingredients for and whisk well.
- Pour cashew sauce into the slow cooker over the chicken, sugar snap peas, and cashews. Toss lightly.
- Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Add remaining cashews when 30 minutes are remaining.
Notes
Nutrition
Better than any takeout chicken I’ve ever tried, crock pot cashew chicken is a real winner. Everything from the moist, golden brown chicken to the crunchy cashews, fresh vegetables and delicious sauce is perfect! This will become one of your favorite Asian chicken crock pot recipes!
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Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
After this is cooked, does it freeze well and then just reheated in the microwave?
I’ve frozen it and it does freeze and reheat well (microwave or stovetop). The cashews will thaw out a little softer so I like to throw in another handful when reheating so the recipe still has crunch.
Crock pot cashew chicken is a total winner! Moist chicken, crunchy cashews, and all!
This is my new go-to slow cooker chicken recipe. 😋
This recipe is one of my go-to choices when I am craving Oriental food! Never fails!
It doesn’t get any better than this! My favorite recipe of yours 🙂
This recipe was a winner! It left me craving more.
My electric wok used to be my go-to gadget in the kitchen, typically for Chinese dishes. It stopped working suddenly last week so I decided to try something new and made this in my crockpot. The slow cooking worked really well here and I loved the texture and flavors. I might just stick to using the crockpot in future!
My sister had a stroke and I try to give her meals for the freezer that she just has to “dump” in the slow cooker with minimal additional effort. How might I do this with the Cashew Chicken with Snap Peas?
Hi, this recipe isn’t a good one to freeze ahead of time. I have done that with this recipe and it worked well. https://xoxobella.com/slow-cooker-chunky-ham-potato-cheese-and-broccoli-soup/
this looks so tasty. I am going to make this on the weekend!