I’ve realized after blogging my cooking for a while that I tend to gravitate towards Asian food after holidays or special occasions with a lot of heavy, rich food. I think that is because a lot of Asian food is lighter but so full of flavor so it doesn’t feel like you are eating some boring healthy meal. 🙂
This Thai basil chicken is another favorite of ours from Thai restaurants, although this recipe is a bit of an adaptation. The dish is usually served with ground or minced chicken, but I chose to use thinly sliced chicken breasts here instead. It is good either way. Ideally you’d have Thai basil for this, as they do taste different. I did not have any since the regular grocery stores don’t carry it and the herbs I had growing outside are done for the year. You can use regular basil here though and it still tastes amazing.
The sauce for this chicken is simple, but you do need all the ingredients. The combination of sauce ingredients is what gives the delicious flavor to the dish. A lot of the sauce ingredients are listed on my favorite links page. You can also add a fried egg to the top of this dish if you like for some extra tastiness.
Pad Krapow Gai (Thai Spicy Basil Chicken)
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp sugar
For the stir fry:
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts thinly sliced
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 red pepper sliced
- 4 Thai red chilies sliced or sub a jalapeno
- 5 garlic cloves sliced
- 1 cup basil leaves sliced
- hot white rice
Instructions
For the sauce:
- Combine all the ingredients well and set aside.
For the stir fry:
- Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok or a skillet until super hot. Add the onion, peppers, garlic and hot pepper and stir fry briefly, keeping them crisp but getting some blacked spots on the veggies. Set aside.
- Add another tbsp of oil to the pan and add the chicken. Season with a little salt. Stry fry until browned and cooked through. Reduce the heat to medium and add the sauce and the veggies. Toss, cooking briefly until hot and the sauce coats everything. Turn off the heat and add the basil and stir. Serve over rice.