Thai basil chicken - pad kra pao

Bowl of Thai basil chicken on a bed of rice.

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4.78 from 9 votes

Thai basil chicken - pad kra pao

Thai basil chicken is street food at home. Seriously tasty street food at home.

Prep Time20

Cook Time15

Course: Main

Cuisine: Thai

Keyword: pad kra pao, thai basil chicken

Servings:

Calories: 434.75kcal

Author: romain | glebekitchen

Ingredients

12 oz chicken thighs boneless, skinless and chopped into small pieces
1 cup shallots thinly sliced
1 tbsp garlic minced (chopped, not crushed)
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp dark soy - thai black soy is better here if you can get it.
2 thai red chilies thinly sliced
2 red finger hot chilies thinly sliced (or use more thai red chilies if you like really spicy)
1 tsp sugar
2 cups holy basil - you can use regular thai basil but it is not the same
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 eggs

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Do your prep

This is street food cooking. It goes fast. Really fast. Make the nam pla prik (see note) if you are serving it. Chop your chicken. Slice your shallots. Mince your garlic. Slice your chilies.
Combine the fish sauce, sugar and dark soy. Set aside. If you are making more than 2 servings do all your prep. But don't cook more than two servings (the whole recipe) at once. It won't cook right if you try to double this recipe.

Fry your eggs Thai style

Heat the 3 tbsp of oil in a wok over medium high heat.
When the oil starts to shimmer add one egg. It should sputter and maybe puff up. Let it cook for until the whites are about half done. Now spoon a bit of the hot oil onto the egg white. It should puff up at this point. As soon as the white is set remove the egg from the wok.
Repeat with the second egg. Set aside. You are going for eggs with a bit of crispy on the edges. Check out the pictures to get a feel.

Make your Thai basil chicken

Turn your heat to medium. Add the garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, until the garlic just starts to colour up. If you burn the garlic start again.
Add the chicken, chilies and shallots. Stir fry until the chicken is done. This takes around 4-5 minutes. But that depends on how big the chicken pieces are. And how powerful your stove is. Cook the chicken until it's done.
Add the soy fish sauce sugar mixture. Stir to combine. Add the basil and stir it into the chicken. As soon as the basil wilts it's ready to serve.
Thai basil chicken is great with rice and a bit of nam pla prik (see notes).

Notes

Nam pla prik is just garlic, chilies, fish sauce and lime. It takes about 1 minute to make. I like even amounts of fish sauce and fresh lime juice. From there add as much garlic and chili as you like. A pinch of sugar and stir. Just as easy as that.

I usually do enough for 2. Juice of a lime. Around the same amount of fish sauce (around 1-2 tbsp). Maybe 1/3 clove of garlic finely minced and one or two thai red chilies. Around 1/2 tsp of sugar and stir. Make it your own. Adjust the garlic, chilies and sugar. Make it your own...

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