Cheesecake Factory’s Spicy Cashew Chicken is spicy, sweet, crispy & crunchy, this dish is everything you could hope for and more in a copycat Chinese food recipe!
Cheesecake Factory’s Spicy Cashew Chicken is straight from the restaurant’s menu, this is a really spicy Mandarin-Style chicken dish with scallions and roasted cashews. It is crispy while being coated in this amazing sauce thanks to the light texture of the tempura style batter and the rice flour.One of the most popular items on their menu, this recipe is authentically from the Cheesecake Factory, shared with a local news channel.
Ok, I know what you are thinking…wow this recipe is full of a ton of ingredients and looks like it takes forever. It is true, there are more steps than normal, definitely more ingredients than I normally use and the set-up does require a number of bowls.
Yes, this dish is officially high maintenance. But then you see this… at the end of all that work and you forget about all the steps and all the ingredients and all the dirty dished.
OR, you’ve actually been to the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed this dish, so you know that while it may take a while to make, you would make it even if it took twice as long. It is just. THAT. GOOD.
The chicken in this Cheesecake Factory’s Spicy Cashew Chicken recipe has a few steps but it reads harder than it actually is to cook it!
Want more Chinese Food Recipes?
- Honey Orange Firecracker Shrimp
- Panda Express Orange Chicken (Copycat)
- PF Chang’s Orange Peel Chicken
- California Pizza Kitchen’s Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Easy Mongolian Beef
- Panda Express Recipes… every single one in fact: Panda Express Recipes Index
- Many more Chinese food options…
Tools Used in the making of this Cheesecake Factory’s Spicy Cashew Chicken recipe:
Rice Flour: To make this dish authentically I use rice flour. I have also made it using cornstarch and flour in a 1:1 ratio in the past and the flavor is a bit different but in a pinch go for it!
Hoisin Sauce: This is like Asian BBQ Sauce, a ton of flavor and easy to use.
Sherry Wine: A sweet wine, if you can’t source this or don’t have time to order online you can swap white wine since the sauce already has sugar in it.
Low Sodium Soy Sauce – I find regular soy sauce much too salty, remember you can always add salt but you can’t subtract it. Starting with low sodium allows you to alter to your tastes if necessary.
Cheesecake Factory's Spicy Cashew Chicken
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 pounds chicken breast , cut into bite size chunks
- Seasoned Rice Flour (ingredients below)
- Rice Flour Batter (ingredients below)
- Spicy Soy-Sherry Sauce (ingredients below)
- 8 ounces Cashews
- 6 green onions , cut into 1/4" pieces
SEASONED RICE FLOUR
- 3/4 cup Rice Flour
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon Paprika
- 1/8 teaspoon Baking Powder
RICE FLOUR BATTER
- 1 1/2 cups Rice Flour
- 1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
- 1 1/2 cups Ice Water
SPICY SOY-SHERRY SAUCE
- 1 cup Hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup Sherry Wine
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 ounces fresh garlic , minced
- 1/4 teaspoon Crushed Red Chili Flakes
Instructions
TO MAKE SEASONED RICE FLOUR:
Mix the ingredients into a bowl together.
TO MAKE THE BATTER:
- Combine all the ingredients together, in a bowl over ice. Keep COLD.
TO MAKE THE SAUCE:
- Combine the sauce ingredients together and mix well.
TO COOK THE DISH:
- Toss the chicken with the seasoned flour.
- Put the batter into a large bowl with the chicken.
- Carefully combine the two until well coated.
- Heat the canola oil in a large pan or wok on medium high.
Add the chicken pieces to the pan, and cook 3 minutes on each side until browned and crispy.
- Break apart any pieces that stay stuck together.
Add the sauce and cashews into the pan. Add in the green onions.
- Toss all the ingredients together until well coated.
Let cook for 30 seconds to a minute for the sauce to thicken.
- Garnish with sesame seeds, parsley and crushed cashews.
Recipe Notes
Recipe adapted from ABC News courtesy of the Cheesecake Factory.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The Cheesecake Factory has a large and diverse menu. Every time I go, I tell myself that I will order something other than the Spicy Cashew Chicken. 8-10 visits later, I haven’t been able to follow through.
I just found your recipe this morning. I’m making it for the family tonight.
It’s so hard to deviate from your favorites, I totally get that!
Really good! Omitted salt from flour due to using salted cashews
This is so salty, I think my BP rose. There’s tons of salt in the hoisin sauce, the soy sauce (even though I used reduced sodium), then you add kosher salt, then cashews. Holy smokes! There’s too much sauce. That could be cut by a third. There’s way too much garlic, and I happen to like garlic. I would suggest cashews without salt and don’t put extra salt in the seasoned rice flour nor in the batter mix. You also need more oil for frying than 1/3 cup.
This recipe is awesome, but the batter sucks. It’s really thick but it didn’t stick to the chicken. I definitely plan to make this again but I’m going to skip the batter and just coat the chicken with the seasoned rice flour mix.
Followed exactly. Really good.
Wow, this was delicious! A little time consuming but not difficult. My batter was very thick and sticky, did not look like it does in the picture here, but it still came out very crispy and delicious. I made mine gluten free by using gluten free all purpose flour and gluten free soy sauce and hoisin and it turned out great. I will definitely make this again, one of my favorite meals!
So glad you enjoyed it! Yes, this recipe has…a lot of steps, hahaha. It is my favorite dish on their menu though so it was always a project I enjoyed taking on when I made it.
Can you make this recipe in the crockpot?
I’ve not tested it that way but if you decide to try, I’d love to know what worked out. Thanks.
Wonderful recipe – Thank you.
Super crispy coating that actually sticks to the meat. I used pork loin as that is what was thawed. I used about 1 cup of oil in a wok and loved the results. Deep fried chunks without hauling out the deep fryer. I had no problem with pieces sticking together since I was using so much oil. Meat was not greasy. Emptied out the oil and made the very flavorful sauce in the same wok.
Misread the recipe and decided I didn’t have sherry vinegar so I added 2 TBSP of raspberry vinegar in addition to the red wine vinegar. Probably made the sauce a little tangier but it sure didn’t ruin the recipe. I will try with sherry next time.
Don’t be put off by the length of the recipe. It goes together very quickly and easily. Will definitely use this recipe for other types of meat/seafood.
I have tried many of your recipes and loved them all. This one as the others is amazing. The rice flour is where it’s at! I didn’t have low sodium soy sauce so mine was just a tiny bit salty but still remarkably delicious.
Thanks for your kind words, Robin.
The ice water part is confusing me. Do I leave the ice in the water and combine everything else with it? Then take the ice pieces out when I mix the chicken in it?
Sorry for any confusion. I recommend putting the water and ice in a container and letting it get cold. Then once you’re ready to use it, pour the water (without the cubes) into the bowl to make the batter. You just need the water to be ice cold. I hope that makes sense.
This is a good recipe. I found it too salty, but it could be because I used salted cashews. I would use unsalted in the future. It’s an odd recipe in that you need to keep the batter cold. Working with rice flour is definitely different than regular flour. You need to figure out what utensils to use, as the chicken pieces stick together quickly when you put them in the hot pan. I used a wooden spatula to try and cut them apart and then used a small tong to turn them. There is absolutely too much garlic. Two ounces of garlic is A LOT! I was wondering if it meant two cloves. I minced an ounce, but didn’t even use that much of it. Two ounces is more than a whole bulb! Is that a typo? My husband and son really liked this, so I’ll make it again.
When testing, I found I needed a lot of garlic to get the exact taste, but I definitely recommend cutting back if that much is not for you 🙂 Happy to hear you and your family enjoyed it overall!
Do you use white or brown rice flour?
I used white in this recipe but feel free to sub in brown.
Hi! Do you leave in the 1/3 cup of oil in the pan after cooking the chicken? It seems it would make the sauce oily??
You’ll want to drain out any excess oil. Enjoy!
Make sure to use a non-stick pan to cook the chicken or it will stick! The sauce is wonderful!
Just found your site and loving everything about it! Made this and literally will never ever go to a Chinese restaurant every again- drop dead, eyes rolled in the back of my head delicious. Insanely amazing to think that this is achievable at home and with no special cooking equipment. You’re amazing! A total keeper!!! Xoxo
Wow!! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know!
OMG,delicious.all my family loved it.
Thanks.
If I don’t want to use any kind of wine, what can I substitute it with?
You can substitute the sherry wine for apple cider.
I am going to grocery store now to get two 5 pound chicken packages to make 3 of your Cheesecake Factiry recipes for my 30 year old twins and husbands birthdays coming up this week. Can’t wait to make them, just have to decide which birthday gets which fabulous recipe. Thank you a million
How awesome! You’re welcome!
I made this last night and it is so DELICIOUS!!!! Yes, it takes a lot of time, however, most Asian recipes that I’ve made have more prep time than actual cooking time. It is absolutely worth the time and effort! One thing that I did was make the sauce first, put in a quart Mason jar, and set aside. That way I just had to shake it again to remix and pour it in. I also didn’t use as many cashews but it didn’t affect the flavor! So good! The recipe is a keeper, I’ll be making it again!
Thanks for dropping by to let me know! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!