Cashew Chicken Dip | Springfield Style Cashew Chicken Dip

This Cashew Chicken Dip is salty, crunchy, filling, and absolutely addictive. It’s the perfect appetizer for any party, holiday gathering, tailgating, or lazy movie night at home.

Ingredients

Cream Cheese– This is the creamy body of the dip

Chicken Breast– Makes this a hearty dip that will keep everyone focused on the big game or party instead of on their hunger

Cornstarch– Adds a light coating to the chicken breast without being too heavy for dipping

Wonton Wrappers– Make the perfect vessel for this dip recipe

Soy Sauce– Just a little bit goes a long way, but adds to that traditional Springfield-style cashew chicken flavor.

Sesame Oil– Adds a hint of nutty flavor to this recipe

Vegetable Oil– For frying the wonton wrapper “chips”

Hoison Sauce– a salty and sweet flavor that cuts through the

Garlic Powder– Because it goes in almost everything I cook and I couldn’t be bothered to dice up fresh garlic before noon.

Granulated Sugar– Just a little to cut through some of the salt in this recipe

Black Pepper– Adds just a hint of spice for balance

How To Make Cashew Chicken Dip

I’ll be the first to admit this recipe is a little more complicated than most of my appetizers or dip recipes. However, sometimes when a craving strikes, you’ll do just about anything you need to do to satisfy it.

Step 1: Place softened cream cheese into a mixing bowl. It should be soft enough to easily stir with a spoon.

Step 2: Mix the dip. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, Hoison sauce, garlic powder, granulated sugar, and black pepper to the cream cheese and stir.

Step 3: Bake the dip. Place the cream cheese mixture in an oven-safe dish and bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

Step 4: Cook the wonton chips. Slice wonton wrappers in half diagonally. This will make them the proper dipping size. In a saucepan, add 1/2″ vegetable or peanut oil to the bottom of a skillet to coat it. Toss in the pieces of the wonton wrapper. Try not to overlap because they will stick together. WATCH THEM CLOSELY. They cook extremely fast. Once bubbles start to form in the wrappers, give them a flip and cook the opposite side. Once they are golden brown, remove them from the oil immediately.

Step 5: Toss the chicken. While the dip is baking, dice chicken into small pieces and toss it in cornstarch. We’re not trying to deep fry the chicken for this recipe. It would be too heavy to add to the dip. You just want a thin layer to give the illusion of fried chicken to mimic traditional Springfield-style Cashew Chicken.

Step 6: Cook the chicken. Use the skillet with a small layer of vegetable oil (the same skillet and oil you used to cook the wonton chips) to cook the chicken. Once the oil heats up pour in the small cornstarch-covered pieces of chicken. Pan-sear until they reach an internal temperature of 165F.

Step 7: Assemble the dip. Pull the bubbly cream cheese mixture out of the oven and add the cooked chicken as a thin layer to the top.

Step 8: Serve and enjoy. Place a few wonton chips into the top of the dip and serve even more chips on the side.

Cashew Chicken Dip Tips, Tricks, and Variations

• Use rotisserie chicken. I know I give this tip a lot–but the bulk of the time spent preparing this recipe is the time cooking the chicken. And you can grab prepped rotisserie chicken so affordably, it’s a great time and money saver.
• Use Hopsing Cashew Chicken Powder. If you’ve snagged up a jar of this magic powder I suggested in my Springfield Style Cashew Chicken post, you can use this to season your cream cheese. Just add a little to the mixture instead of the Hoison and soy sauce.
• Switch up the chips. Don’t have any wonton wrappers handy? No problem. Grab some pita chips, bagel chips, or even tortilla chips. This dip is so yummy you won’t really care how you get it in your mouth.
• Add rice. Ok, this might sound weird. You can easily turn this dip into a deconstructed cashew chicken and “crab rangoon” casserole with the addition of a little rice. Prep some white rice and mix into the cooked cream cheese mixture then top with chicken and scoop it all up with the wonton chips.
• Add crab, cashews, and green onions. If you are more of a traditionalist, you can add diced crab meat, cashews, and green onions to the mix. This will give a more authentic tasting crab rangoon dip flavor.

Make Ahead and Storage

If you spend your Sunday mornings at church and don’t have time to make an appetizer from scratch before kickoff, you can absolutely make this ahead of time. Here’s how:

Make the body of the dip and mix it together (minus the chicken, you’ll want to keep that in a separate container). Keep the cream cheese, prepared chicken, and deep-fried wonton wrappers separate until time to serve.

Here’s how to reheat leftovers or to warm any dip you may have prepared ahead of time:

1. Preheat your oven to 325F
2. Place the cream cheese mixture in an oven safe dish and place in the oven.
3. Place the cooked chicken on a baking sheet. Put the dish with the cream cheese mixture and the prepared chicken pan into the oven. Cook for 20 minutes.
4. Once the 20 minutes are up, add the prepared wonton wrappers to the same baking sheet as the chicken and allow to cook for 2-3 more minutes. This will warm the wrappers and add back a little crunch.
5. Remove everything from the oven. Stir the cream cheese mixture, and add chicken to the top.
6. Serve the Cashew Chicken Dip with the crispy wonton chips and enjoy!

Leftovers will keep for up to 3 days, but the sooner you eat this, the better it tastes. I would not recommend attempting to freeze it to reheat later.

More Delicious Appetizers

• Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Cream Cheese Wontons
• Pizza Bombs
• Spinach Dip with Garlic Bites
• Cheesy BBQ Chicken Rollups

If you love this Cashew Chicken Dip as much as we do, make sure you share the recipe with your family and friends so they can try it too. Don’t forget to pin it so you can make it again soon!