A spicy, salty and subtly sweet chicken stir fry with garlic, chilies, shallot, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, palm sugar, Thai holy basil and a little lime juice.
Cook’s notes
What is pad kaphrao? It’s a stir fried Thai dish. The meat can be pork, beef or chicken. Or dispense with the meat and use shrimps instead. We’re using chicken (“gai” in Thai) in this recipe, so it’s pad kaphrao gai.
What cannot be excluded are the Thai holy basil and chilies. Without these two, the stir fry is not pad kaphrao.
The sweet-salty-spicy balance of the sauce here is per our preference. Adjust the amount of soy sauce, sugar and fish sauce to create a flavor balance that pleases your palate better.
The amount of chilies is adjustable depending on yout tolerance for heat.
Thai basil chicken (pad kaphrao gai)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 to 4 bird’s eye chilies finely sliced
- 2 shallots or one small red onion, chopped
- 2 chicken breast fillets minced
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar
- 1 large handful Thai holy basil leaves
- juice of one lime optional
- 3 fried eggs to serve
- rice to serve
Instructions
- Heat the cooking oil in a wok or frying pan. Saute the garlic, chilies and shallots or onion.
- Add the minced chicken. Stir fry until the meat changes color.
- Stir together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and fish sauce, and pour over the chicken.
- Stir fry the chicken for three to four minutes.
- Add the basil, stir and leave to allow the leaves to wilt in the residual heat.
- Optionally, squeeze lime juice over the pad kaphrao gai and toss a few times.
- Taste the chicken pad kaphrao gai. Adjust the seasonings, as needed, before serving with fried egg and rice.
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