Keto Cashew Chicken (or NOT Keto depending on who you're feeding)

The best thing about this Keto cashew chicken recipe…

One of the most challenging aspects of eating a Keto diet is that as a Mom, we also need to feed our hungry families, and filling them up with just meat and veggies isn't always an option when you're only buying the higher quality and usually more expensive pastured meats. I love recipes like this Keto cashew chicken because to adapt it to a more filling and budget-friendly meal for the whole family, you just serve it over rice!

What's a Keto diet again?

In case you're wondering, “eating keto” is basically just a very low-carbohydrate diet, low enough so you stay “in ketosis” which means your body is using up your fat for fuel instead of using the carbs you're eating as it normally would. This has been proven to bring about fast weight loss AND help with so many health conditions like diabetes, epilepsy, cancer, Alzheimers, and more…

By the way, if you want to know more about the keto diet, get 150 yummy keto recipes in a FREE cookbook, Bacon & Butter when you click here to sign up for my newsletter. (Just pay shipping.)

Personally I've been sort of on-again-off-again with Keto/low-carb/intermittent fasting — sometimes I'll fast until dinner and eat lower carb meals, other times definitely NOT. Anyway, I'll explain more about all of that in an upcoming post. 🙂 One thing I have stuck with consistently though is my lovely Keto wine! (Get a bottle of keto/no sugar wine for a penny here or read more and watch a wine tasting video here: no more wine headaches!)

Keto Cashew Chicken

Author Kelly the Kitchen Kop

Yield 6+ servings

I only dirty one big pan (my favorite pan) to make this recipe, but I do it in a few different steps.

Note that more oil instead of butter can be substituted below, or using avocado oil, a little olive oil, or this (unflavored) coconut oil can be substituted for sesame oil too, I just like sesame for Asian dishes.

Ingredients

Part 1 (for the crunch):

2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
2 cups roughly-chopped cashews, soaked/dried nuts are best-see this crispy nuts recipe
1/2 cup sesame seeds

Part 2: Any of the following veggies you have on-hand, as much or as little as you feel like!

3 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
About 1 onion, chopped
About 1-2 shallots, chopped
4-5 green onions, chopped
1 Tablespoon or so of fresh ginger, or 2 more teaspoons of ground ginger
A few garlic cloves, about 5-6, minced
About 2 bell peppers, whatever color you have, chopped into bite-sized pieces

For the chicken:

About 4# boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces (don't have a good local source for healthy pastured chicken, beef, pork, etc.? Click here for a safe online source.)
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
2 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

For the sauce:

Another 2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar or any Asian flavored balsamic vinegar you may have
1/4 cup Tamari or soy sauce or coconut aminos
2 Tablespoons chili-garlic sauce if you have one with a clean ingredient label and low-carbs, it's also good without if you can't find it
Sea salt and pepper to your taste

Rice (if desired):

I like this rice, cook according to the package directions -- use broth for part of the liquid for more nutrition and flavor. (Here's how to make bone broth which is so good for your digestion and your immune system! Or click here to get some shelf-stable broth to keep on hand just in case.)

Instructions

First melt butter in a big pan (again, I use my favorite pan for this!), add the oil and cashews and start to stir around until they just start to get a little golden, then add the sesame seeds. Keep stirring and keep heat low-medium so they don't burn. Once it's all toasted nicely, remove from the pan into a glass/ceramic bowl.

Next cook onions, shallots, and/or garlic, ginger, etc. until golden in the butter and sesame oil. You may want to start the regular onion or shallots before the other stuff, as they take longer to lightly brown. When they're almost done, toss in the bell peppers 'til they just start to get soft. Remove everything from the pan into a separate glass/ceramic bowl.

Next cook chicken with oil, butter, ginger, and salt until chicken is no longer pink, about 4 minutes or so on each side. Remove from pan into the glass dish with the veggies.

Start adding the sauce ingredients to the same pan and stir around. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add back in the rest of the ingredients except the cashews and sesame seeds. Taste-test and add more of sauce ingredients if you think it needs it, maybe add a little more salt and pepper.

Serve with cashews and sesame seeds on top. I also served it over rice for the family but I ate just the meat and veggies to make it a Keto meal. 🙂

Enjoy!

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