Thai Basil Chicken (Pad Krapow Gai)
To make the dish gluten-free, use tamari to replace soy sauce. Use a gluten-free oyster sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 lbground chicken ((other ground meat works, too))
- 4Thai bird’s eye chilis (, chopped (depending on spice level desired) (Footnote 1))
- 6 clovegarlic (, smashed)
- 1 tbspoyster sauce
- 2 tspsoy sauce
- 2 tspdark soy sauce
- 0.5 tspfish sauce ((Optional) (Footnote 2))
- 1 tspsugar
- 1 tbspvegetable oil
- 0.5yellow onion (, diced)
- 4 ozgreen beans (about 1/2 cup) (blanched & cut into 1” (2.5 cm) pieces)
- 1 bunchbasil (, stems removed (Footnote 3))
- Fried eggs ((Optional))
- Lime wedges ((Optional) (Footnote 4))
Instructions
- 1
Turn off the heat and add the basil leaves. Toss until the leaves are wilted.
- 2
Serve hot over rice with a crispy fried egg and a squeeze of lime juice.
- 3
Mince the chilis and garlic together until a rough paste forms (see the blog post above for step-by-step pictures). You can also blend both together in a small food processor or use a mortar & pestle.
- 4
Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
- 5
Add the oil and garlic-chili paste to a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Cook until the aromatics are fragrant and the garlic is just barely starting to brown.
- 6
Add the ground chicken. Move the aromatics onto the chicken using your spatula to prevent the aromatics from burning. Spread out the chicken and let it cook without disturbing for 1 minute, to let the bottom brown. Break apart the chicken, let cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is almost cooked through and the chicken juices have cooked off, 2 minutes or so. I prefer to keep some larger chunks of chicken without breaking them into a million pieces.
- 7
Pour in the sauce and stir to mix well.
- 8
Add the onion and green beans. Cook for another minute or two, until the sauce is distributed and slightly reduced.