Cashew Chicken Curry

A chicken curry reminiscent of London’s curbside curry take-away, one of my very favorite things to go-crazy for in London. (It's been too-too long!) Cashew Chicken Curry is surprisingly healthy and oh-so satisfying. Best of all? This one-pot meal is made with pantry ingredients! Check, you just might have everything you need on hand this very minute!

Real Food, Fresh & Flexible. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. High Protein. Great for Meal Prep.
Cashew Chicken Curry, another one-pot supper ♥ KitchenParade.com. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Weight Watchers Friendly. Gluten Free. High Protein. Great for Meal Prep.

Every Job Has Its Hazards.

Teachers risk burn-out. Sales folks brave cold calls. Lawyers swallow scorn. Moms and Dads suffer car-pool cut-offs. Even coal-mine canaries have been pink-slipped by technology.

Food writing has its own kitchen quicksand.

You fear that beady eyes and coarse whiskers will appear on the family, friends and neighbors so frequently enlisted as guinea pigs.

You slavishly follow the camera-before-consumption rule, so only leftovers are eaten while actually hot.

You become obsessive-compulsive about roasting chickens with unexpected ingredients (I dunno, how ‘bout Jim Beam?) and vegetables from okra to cabbage and spices from oregano to curry.

Curry? Yes, curried chicken was last year’s food obsession, thanks to an inspirational starter recipe. This Cashew Chicken Curry is the dozenth version and darned close to the curbside take-aways that make London the curry capital of the world.

As for next year, anyone for lamb? You know, lamb curry?

True Story.

Once upon a time, Kitchen Parade was published in small-town weekly newspapers, including my hometown paper, the Webster-Kirkwood Times.

One day my neighbor reported that when he and his wife were at the grocery getting ingredients for Cashew Chicken Curry, someone else was also pulling cashews from the shelf. In a flash, the two sets of shoppers realized they were planning the same supper – because both were holding the same recipe, both clipped from the same local newspaper!

Happy Dance!

COMPLIMENTS!
  • "... So good!" ~ Meryl
  • "It is SOO GOOD!!" ~ Rass
  • "... so yummy...one of the best curries I have ever had!!" ~ Pixie
  • "The flavors perfectly complemented each other with no one taste overpowering the other. " ~ Lynessa
  • "[my dad] ... really liked it!" ~ Anonymous
  • "... fantastic!" ~ Carolyn
BEST RECIPES!
  • Cashew Chicken Curry Made the List!
  • Best Recipes of 2006
  • Ready to start cooking? Here's your recipe!



Just updated! First published way back in 2006.

CASHEW CHICKEN CURRY

Hands-on time: 35 minutes
Time-to-table: 90 minutes
Makes 11 cups
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
  • 1 – 3 tablespoons curry powder (see ALANNA’s TIPS)
  • 1/2 - 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 pound chicken thighs or breasts, cut in bite-size pieces (see TIPS)
  • 29 ounces canned diced tomato
  • 1 pound carrots, diced
  • 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
    JUST BEFORE SERVING
  • 1/4 cup ground cashews
  • 1 cup nonfat yogurt
  • 1/2 cup light coconut milk
  • 8 ounces frozen peas
  • Additional fresh cilantro, for garnish

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven on medium high. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook until soft. Stir in the spices and cook briefly. Add the meat in batches, cooking each one through. Add the tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and cilantro and bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat to maintain a slow simmer and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Stop here if you’re cooking ahead.)

JUST BEFORE SERVING Stir in the remaining ingredients and heat through but do not boil, about 5 minutes.

To serve, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve over rice.

ALANNA's TIPS Number one tip! Don't limit this recipe to chicken. It's great with beef, too! If your family is new to curry or you cook for someone who finds "spicy" foods sweat-invoking, start off with the smaller amounts of curry powder, cumin and cayenne. That said, don’t be too fearful of the larger amounts for the heat is moderated when the curry is served atop bland rice. Chicken thighs are more flavorful than breasts but only 10% higher in fat. They're my choice, almost every time! A big container of cashews is pricey, especially if you're really only interested in using the 1/4 cup needed for Chicken Curry. Two ideas. First, scoop out only the cashews you need in the bulk aisle. Second, look for small snack packs of cashews near the grocery store checkout, even in the nut section at c-stores. In a pinch, peanut butter can be substituted for ground cashews. Non-fat yogurt and light coconut milk reduce the calories in this dish, so much flavor for so few calories! But the full-fat versions work too, the dish just becomes slightly richer. Either way, so good! Curries improve overnight so don’t hesitate to make ahead or plan for leftovers. I usually serve Cashew Chicken Curry with Oven-Baked Brown Rice. The timing works out perfectly: put the rice in the oven, when it's done, the curry will be too!
NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Cup: 158 Calories; 5g Tot Fat; 2g Sat Fat; 36mg Cholesterol; 15g Carb; 4g Fiber; 271mg Sodium; 7g Sugar; 14g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS (Freestyle & myWW assume chicken breasts) Old Points 3 & PointsPlus 4 & SmartPoints 5 & Freestyle 2 & myWW green 3 & blue 2 & purple 2 This recipe has been "Alanna-sized" with reductions in fat and portion size and additions of fiber-rich vegetables.
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, people really love this recipe! Sniff, we miss Gourmet!

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

© Copyright Kitchen Parade
2006, 2007, 2015 (republish), 2016 & 2020

Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. Anonymous7/21/2007

    And I was just thinking I needed to find a new curry recipe to try! I love cashews, this sounds wonderful!

    1/28/2006

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7/21/2007

    Rass made the chicken Cashew Curry the first day it came through on the internet. Half the recipe which we cleaned up in two meals. Then he made it again using beef instead of chicken and we didn't have enough left for a second dinner. He'll be doing it again soon to use up the coconut milk. So good!

    2/10/2006

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous7/21/2007

    A further note on the Chicken Curry. Rass was telling some friends about the dish and took a copy of the recipe to Happy Hour where it went around their table and he had to come home and run another copy.

    2/11/2006

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7/21/2007

    I hate to bother you but I have lost my receipe for Cashew Curry Chicken. We are having two other couples in next Tues for dinner and it is my job to cook. It is SOO GOOD!!

    3/03/2006

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7/21/2007

    This sounds good. I think it would pair well with Riesling.

    7/11/2006

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7/01/2008

    This is so yummy...one of the best curries I have ever had!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous8/14/2008

    I have a question about the ground cashews -- can I use cashew butter or should the food processor be stopped before it gets creamy? Should I just chop them up really fine?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cashew butter would be just perfect -- when I grind the cashews, I take them almost to that smooth stage. I hope you love this curry, Jasmine!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Alanna, Thank you sooo much for this recipe! The flavors perfectly complemented each other with no one taste overpowering the other. I was worried it was just going to taste like vegetable soup when I looked in the pot but after the yogurt and coconut milk, I was pleasantly suprised! All the veggies added wonderful texture. We used TJ natural PB instead of the cashews. Thanks for making WW easier for us!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lynnessa ~ You are so welcome! I'm so glad that you found the balance perfect, me too! Thank you for taking the time to write.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm only just starting to appreciate nuts in dishes. in the Caribbean we hardly ever use nuts in cooking so it's taken me a while to test new waters.

    This dish looks lovely (I'm a huge fan of curry).

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Alanna!

    This looks delicious, especially for this time of year in the midwest! Any way to omit the dairy from this recipe? I'm guessing I can sub an oil for the butter, but what about the yogurt? Could I use 1 or 1.5 cups (instead of .5 cups) of coconut milk, or maybe use the full-fat coconut milk instead of the lite version? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  13. M ~ Hmm, let me think a minute. Yes, oil for butter, no problem. As for the yogurt, it helps 'tamp down' the heat of the curry in a way I don't think coconut milk would without overpowering with coconut flavor. I'd be inclined to omit the yogurt, but dial back the ginger and curry.

    PS This is such a great recipe, M, if it appeals to you, it really is working on a dairy-free version that works for you. I'm hungry for it NOW!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks for your quick reply! So what amounts of ginger and curry would you suggest?

    ReplyDelete
  15. M ~ I'd start with half the ginger and then use 1 tablespoon curry powder.

    But for more ideas, I'm going to check with Facebook folks. If there's a good answer, I'll chime back in.

    ReplyDelete
  16. M ~ Good news! Andrea Myers from Andrea's Recipes recommends soy yogurt. Brands include Turtle Mountain, Nu Lait, WholeSoy, Nogurt, and Trader Joe's. Another reader suggested silken tofu. Both are worth trying, I have a good feeling about both!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Just found your website and ending week 1 in 2 days.
    I love to make all kinds of stews and I know your recipes will be thoroughly enjoyed.

    My plan is to cook a few recipes and freeze for work and enjoy them as I need them. I'm a 12 hour worker as a RN in ICU so this will make life much easier!

    Thanks!!!!

    Stacy

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous8/25/2011

    I made this tonight. I halved the curry, cumin and cayenne. My dad is diabetic, so I eliminated the peas and added a can of diced rutabaga. I served his over riced cauliflower, and he really liked it!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Would I be able to make this in the crock pot? I am trying to find recipes that a) don't involve pre-cooking certain ingredients and b) aren't chilis that I can put in the crock pot to have a meal to come home to after 12 hours. I've tried adapting other recipes to the crock pot with varied success, so I thought I'd ask before potentially ruining a dinner. I'm just beginning to learn about the required adaptations for making a traditionally-cooked-on-the-stove meal in a crock pot.

    ReplyDelete
  20. This sounds so delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Carolyn from Dallas1/23/2015

    I fixed it tonight and it was fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Pat on Pinterest3/10/2021

    So good!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. But I also love hearing your reactions, your curiosity, even your concerns! When you've made a recipe, I especially love to know how it turned out, what variations you made, what you'll do differently the next time. ~ Alanna