Cheesecake Factory’s Spicy Cashew Chicken (Copycat)

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.

MY OTHER RECIPES

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.

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Yield: 6 servings

Cheesecake Factory's Spicy Cashew Chicken

Prep: 30 minutes

Cook: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Cheesecake Factory’s Spicy Cashew Chicken is spicy, sweet, crispy & crunchy, this dish is everything you could hope for and more in a chicken dish. Plus this recipe is straight from the Cheesecake Factory!

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

 

Directions:

To Make Seasoned Rice Flour

1.  Mix the ingredients into a bowl together

To Make the Batter

1. Combine all the ingredients together, in a bowl over ice. Keep COLD.

To Make the Sauce

1. Combine the sauce ingredients together and mix well.

To Cook the dish

1. Toss the chicken with the seasoned flour.
2. Put the batter into a large bowl with the chicken.
3. Carefully combine the two until well coated.
4. Heat the canola oil in a large pan or wok on medium high.
5. Add the chicken pieces to the pan, and cook 3 minutes on each side until browned and crispy.
6. Break apart any pieces that stay stuck together.
7. Add the sauce and cashews into the pan. Add in the chicken and green onions.
8. Toss all the ingredients together until well coated.
9. Let cook for 30 seconds to a minute for the sauce to thicken.
10. Garnish with sesame seeds, parsley and crushed cashews.

Recipe adapted from ABC News courtesy of the Cheesecake Factory.

All images and text © for Dinner, then Dessert, Inc.

Most of the ingredients in this recipe are easy enough to find. If you have trouble finding rice flour, use cake or pastry flour. In a pinch you can even substitute half all purpose flour and half cornstarch.

Here are the recipes from when this was originally posted on June 17, 2015

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