Ready to meet the newest addition to your line-up of easy weeknight dinners? It’s this 20-minute Chicken and Cabbage Stir-fry. The tender chunks of chicken are paired with stir-fried cabbage, crunchy cashews, green onion, and a deliciously spicy and lightly sweet Honey Sriracha sauce.

chicken stir-fry in a white bowl with chopsticks

Table of contents

Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

I am so glad you’ve discovered this chicken and cabbage stir-fry because it is greater than the sum of its parts. There is something magical about the sweet floral honey, spicy sriracha and tender cabbage all stir-fried together with chunks of chicken! We adore this recipe and I am so excited for you to try it too! 

It is a healthy veggie-heavy and protein-packed dinner to make in 20 minutes. Pair this Cabbage and Chicken Stir-fry with rice, or noodles or served over Cauliflower rice for a lower-carb and gluten-free alternative.

Ingredients For This Chicken and Cabbage Stir-fry Recipe

For the Sauce

  • Honey: To balance the spicy Sriracha, I used honey in the stir fry sauce. I love the aromatic flavor it adds beyond just sweetness. 
  • Dry Sherry: The base of the sauce is dry sherry. If you have a good Asian market in your area you can look for Shaoxing wine and use that instead. Make sure not to use the cooking wine from the vinegar section of the supermarket because that has added salt and your sauce will be too salty.
  • White Vinegar: We added a little vinegar because the sour taste balances the salty and sweet flavors.
  • Sririracha: You can adjust this to your taste.
  • Salt
  • Chicken Broth: For the base of the sauce
  • Cornstarch: To thicken the sauce

For the Stir-fry

  • Oil: I used Avocado oil, but any high heat oil would work fine such as peanut oil, canola oil or grapeseed oil
  • Chicken Breast: You’ll need one pound of boneless skinless chicken breast. Cut it into bite-sized cubes
  • Garlic and Ginger Root: You can mince them or grate them with a microplane rasp style grater. 
  • Cabbage: You can use either green cabbage or red cabbage or a combo of both. We also think savoy cabbage would be good. If using as softer cabbage like Napa note that it will cook more quickly and wilt down more. Remove the core and cut the cabbage into small bite-sized chunks.
  • Green Onions: At the end of cooking add in scallions to layer in flavor. You’ll want three sliced scallions. Or you could use 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves instead for something a little different.
  • Cashews: Look for roasted unsalted cashews. They will have the best crunchy texture and won’t get soggy like raw cashews would.

How To Make This Recipe

As with all stir-fries, it is important to get all your ingredients together before you turn on the stove. Cooking is so fast that you won’t have time to be measuring and chopping once you start cooking. 

Choose your skillet. You’ll want to choose your widest skillet because the more surface area the better. If you have a wok, that is even better! 

Make the Honey Sriracha Sauce

the sriracha honey sauce
Step 1. Stir together the sauce ingredients before you start cooking.

Stir together the honey, Sriracha, sherry (or wine) and salt in a small dish and have that ready before you start cooking. 

Cook the Chicken

chicken cooking in a skillet viewed from overhead perspective
Step 2. Cook the chicken first with some of the oil.

The key to getting great flavor from the ingredients is to cook them in stages. Moisture from the veggies would prevent the chicken from browning. That’s why we cook the chicken first!

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to the skillet and lay the chicken out in a single layer.
  2. Let it cook until the bottom is browned. This will take anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes, depending on the size of your skillet and how hot you let it get when you preheated it. 
  3. Turn the chicken over, and let it sear on another side for a minute. 
  4. Repeat again so that the chicken is no longer pink on the outside.
  5. Remove the chicken to a plate and keep it warm.

Note that it will continue cooking in a later step. 

Cook The Cabbage

adding the sauce to the cabbage in a skillet
Step 3. Cook the cabbage with the aromatics. Add the sauce and steam with the lid on to wilt the cabbage.
  1. Add more oil to the skillet or wok and then add in the aromatics (the ginger and garlic) and stir fry them for a second before adding in the cabbage.
  2. Once you add the cabbage, stir it together with the garlic and ginger. This will cool down the skillet and prevent the garlic from burning. 
  3. Add the honey sriracha and sherry sauce while stirring. 
  4. Cover the skillet or wok to trap the steam from the sauce. It will help soften the cabbage. 
  5. Cook it until the cabbage is wilted. This only takes 2 or 3 minutes.

Add the Chicken and Cornstarch and broth slurry To Finish The Stir-fry

the chicken is back in the skillet
Step 4. Add the chicken and any accumulated juices from the plate to the skillet along with the cornstarch slurry. Continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through and the cabbage is tender.
  1. Now that the cabbage is slightly softened and wilted, you can add the browned chicken back to the stir-fry. There will probably be juices on the plate with the chicken. Add them too!
  2. Stir in the cornstarch slurry. (Note: if the cornstarch has settled to the bottom of the dish, restir it right before adding it to the skillet.)
  3. Stir and cook the stir-fry until the chicken is cooked through, the cabbage is tender and the sauce is thick. 

To Finish the Stir-fry

stirring in the cilantro and cashews at the end
Step 6. Stir in the cilantro or scallions and cashews once the stir-fry is removed from the heat.
  • Add the scallions and cashews once you take it off the heat. 
  • Serve with more Sriracha to taste.
  • I suggest serving this with brown rice or cauliflower rice.
close up of the stir-fry with green cabbage and scallions mixed

Expert Tips and FAQs

Can this be prepped ahead?

Yes! This is a great meal-prep dish. Cut the chicken and keep it in a resealable container in the refrigerator up to three days. Cu the cabbage (and green onions) and keep them separate in ziplock bags or storage containers. The sauce ingredients can also be measured out as well. Prepping the meal in this way will be that it will come together in only about 10 minutes.

How to reheat leftovers?

Place a serving in a small non-stick skillet. Add a splash of chicken broth and cover with a lid. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the stir-fry is steaming hot. Alternatively servings can be reheated in the microwave for about 2 minutes per serving on high.

Serving suggestions

This saucy Cabbage Chicken stir-fry goes well with simple starches such as brown rice, white rice, couscous, quinoa or noodles. You can also pair it with a lower-carb option such as zoodles or spiralized veggies. It has lots of flavor on its own so there is no need to pair it with any strongly flavored side dishes.

Variations To Try

  • Use another protein such as ground pork, ground turkey or ground chicken. You can also sub in turkey tenderloins or pork tenderloin cut into chunks.
  • Add in a few dashes of soy sauce, coconut aminos, fish sauce or tamari sauce for a little salty umami taste.
  • Instead of honey and sriracha you can mix up the seasonings in the sauce! We love curry roasted cabbage so we bet that adding curry powder would be a fun way to vary the seasonings in this dish.
honey sririacha stir fry with chicken and cabbage in a white bowl with chopsticks

More Healthy Stir-Fry Recipes:

Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!

Happy Cooking! ~Katie

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
a white bowl with chicken stir-fry with chopsticks

Chicken and Cabbage Stir-fry

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews
Print Recipe

Description

This Chicken and Cabbage stir-fry has a sweet and hot Honey Sriracha sauce and cashews in it. It is my new favorite weeknight diner because it’s ready in 20 minutes.

Ingredients

Scale
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons dry sherry or Shaoxing wine
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sriracha, or to taste
  • 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons avocado oil or organic canola oil, divided
  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized cubes
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
  • 1 teaspoon grated ginger root
  • 6 cups chopped green cabbage* see notes
  • ¼ cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
  • 2 teaspoons corn starch
  • 3 scallions, sliced or 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
  • ½ cup chopped cashews, preferably roasted unsalted

Instructions

  1. Stir honey, sherry, vinegar, sriracha and salt in a small bowl.
  2. Heat 1 tablespoons oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until shimmering but not smoking. Swirl around the bottom of the wok. Add the chicken in a single layer, and let cook, undisturbed until browned on the bottom, 2 to 4 minutes. Turn over and continue cooking stirring once or twice, until no longer pink on the outside, 2 to 3 minutes longer.
  3. Remove the chicken from the skillet or wok with a spatula and set aside on a plate. NOTE: The chicken will continue cooking in a later step.
  4. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons oil to the skillet or wok and return to high heat. Add garlic and ginger, and stir fry until fragrant but not browned about 30 seconds. Add cabbage, and stir to coat with the garlic and ginger.
  5. Stir in the sauce. Cover cook until the cabbage is wilted, 2 to 3 minutes.
  6. Stir broth and cornstarch together in a small dish and stir into the cabbage mixture. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.
  7. Add the chicken and any accumulated juice from the plate and bring to a simmer, stirring often. Cook until the chicken is cooked through and the cabbage is tender, 2 to 3 minutes.
  8. Remove from the heat and stir in scallions or cilantro and cashews.

Notes

Feel free to use a blend of red and green cabbage to make this more colorful.

For more variety, you can sub 1 cup of the cabbage for 1 cup of any of the following veggies: sliced shiitake mushroom caps, thinly sliced carrots, red bell pepper strips, small broccoli florets

  • Prep Time: 12 minutes
  • Cook Time: 8 minutes
  • Category: Main Course
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Asian

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups
  • Calories: 310
  • Sugar: 16 g
  • Sodium: 340 mg
  • Fat: 13 g
  • Saturated Fat: 2 g
  • Carbohydrates: 23 g
  • Fiber: 3 g
  • Protein: 26 g

Keywords: chicken cabbage stirfry,healthy chicken and cashew stirfry,honey sriracha chicken cabbage and cashew stirfry

Did you make this recipe?

Make sure you come back to the recipe post to leave a star rating and review.