What we used to stain our kitchen cabinets.

We had oak cabinets to start with.
We unscrewed all handles and knobs from the doors and cabinets.
Laid them on plastic painters sheets and then started staining them.
Also in the kitchen we used painters tape around all the edges that we don't want to get stain on like the floor and tile, etc.
Now for the cabinets attached to the actual wall (top cabinets), we also laid the same kind of plastic sheet under those cabinets, in the sink area, over the stove, etc. lined the walls and fixtures with tape as well.
We did not sand them nor put any kind of gloss other than the type of stain we choose.

The stain we choose was from Lowes $7.63 and all we needed was one can.

Rust-Oleum Ultimate Wood Stain Ebony Oil-Based 32 fl oz Interior Stain

We took a whole weekend to do this.
Also the bottom cabinets attached to the wall in the kitchen took like 3 days to dry completely. This may be different depending on how your air circulates and the climate of where you live.
 We have swamp cooler and it was also very humid at the time, which may have taken this longer to dry.
The top cabinets took only a few hours.
All kitchen cabinets took only 1 coat of stain.
We painted the inside of the doors with the stain as well.
So all the doors took 2 days and drawers only 1 day to dry.

::QUICK TIP:::

If you get stain on your hands, soap and water will not work it will actually make your hands real sticky and not remove any stain.
Use Pure Acetone (from Sally's beauty supply) to remove the stain.
Works like a charm and your hands will thank you!!!
Also invest in the Grime Boss Hand wipes for any stain that gets on the tile, windows or any kind of surface. We initially bought these for the painting of our walls in our house and they work amazing!!!
These are magic!!!! We bought these at Home depot.