Spicy Basil Chicken

Spicy Basil Chicken stir fry with tender chicken pieces, basil leaves, and homemade sauce. Spicy, sweet, and savoury flavour packed together in one dish. Perfect weeknight dinner ready in 20 minutes!

Spicy Basil Chicken a.k.a Pad Kra Pao Gai

One of the most famous and authentic Thai stir fry chicken recipes. When we search ''Thai famous food'' on google, Spicy Basil Chicken is one of the first pop up items on the list.

It's commonly found in street stalls and famous restaurants in and out of Thailand! Plus, It's also been a widely eaten and famous Asian dish not only in whole Asia but also in the UK, Europe, the United States and all over the world.

It's also known as ''Pad kra pao gai'' in Thai. This traditional Thai cuisine is a perfect combination of finely diced chicken stir-fried with a generous amount of aromatic basil leaf and cooked in oyster and soy-based sauce.

Normally, when we dine at a Thai restaurant, I have no idea which dish I should order sometimes. So then, here comes Spicy Basil chicken! It is always been a dish that comes to the rescue! It's become my most frequently eaten dish, eventually.

In this post, I'll share our family's favourite quick and easy Thai-Style Chicken & Basil Stir Fry recipe. I cook at home quite often for my family, because we all love it and never get tired of it.

This delicious dish can be served in a short time with less effort if you have prepared all the necessary ingredients in hand. You can simply try it at home!

Ingredients you will need

Protein

We usually make minced chicken thigh/breast meats. But you can try it with minced beef, pork, duck, shrimps, or mixed seafood. If you are a vegetarian, try with small diced tofu or egg tofu.

Basil Leaves

Basil Leaves are the main core ingredient for this particular dish. It has an exotic taste and aromatic fragrance and abundant in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals contents. These greens bring benefits for health that even some people add in their detox waters. If you cannot get Thai basil easily, you can use holy, sweet, or Italian basil. The flavour won't be exactly same as Thai basil but they can bring the nearest basil aroma to the dish.

Stir Fry Sauce

To achieve the perfect sweet, salty, savoury sauce, you will need to mix light soy, oyster sauce, fish sauce, dark soy sauce, and brown sugar.

These sauces are essential for most Asian stir fry dishes. So, it's worth keeping them in stock inside your kitchen cupboard so that you can make other kinds of Asian dishes as well.
If you are not a fish sauce fan, you can just use soy sauce or salt to taste.

How to serve this dish

You can simply enjoy this dish with hot steamed white rice. Jasmine rice is suitable to use here because its taste and fragrance can give you a better Thai restaurant vibe. Or you can eat together with Pad Thai or Tom Yum Soup & Noodles, accompanied by side dishes and starters like Satay Skewers, fried wontons, Morning Glory Stir Fry or Thai Wings. Now, You can enjoy the perfect Thai banquet!
Soft drinks and fresh fruit juices can be a good idea for beverage choices! Pure coconut water is my favourite!

How to make it

Here is our simple step by step photo instructions :

Firstly, finely chop the garlic cloves and bird eye chillies.

Add all the sauce ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix well and set aside.

Heat the pan to medium heat, drizzle oil and add the chopped garlic and stir for few seconds then add the chopped chillies and stir for few seconds until the nice fragrant come out.

Add the minced chicken and stir fry with medium-high heat till the chicken colour changed, then add the stir fry sauce mix. Continue stir fry with medium-high heat for 1-2 min till the chicken is starting to be glossy.

Add the basil leaves and black pepper and stir for 1 min. Remove from heat.

To make Thai-style crispy fried egg with runny yolk, you need to add more oil then regular fried egg. ( about half cup of oil ). Fry with high heat to medium-high heat till the edges are crispy golden brown.

Served over a bed of steamed jasmine rice and topped with Crispy fried egg . Delicious Spicy Basil Chicken is ready! Enjoy!

Watch Spicy Basil Chicken Recipe Video

📖 Recipe

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