Thai Chicken with Holy Basil (Gai Pad Graprow)

Chicken with holy basil is on of my favorite dishes. It is easy to prepare and only requires a wok. The addition of fresh chilies makes the dish spicy, but you may adjust the recipe to taste by adding fewer chilies.

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
• 2-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped (more garlic is always better)
• 2-3 shallots thinly sliced (or substitute with 1/2 cup sliced onion)
• 4-5 Mushrooms Sliced or quarterred
• 1 – 2 Thai chillies (prik kee noo), sliced big enough to remove if you want
• 1 – 2 cups of fresh Thai holy basil (bai gka-prow) (Don’t use regular Basil)
• 1-2 tbsp Thai fish sauce (nam bplah)
• 1- 2 shakes from the bottle of Oyster Sauce
• 1 tbsp of sugar use palm sugar if you have it
• 2-3 tbsp peanut oil for stir-frying

Method

Gather your ingredients
Remove the Leaves from the Holly basil
Chop the Garlic, Mushrooms and slice the chilies
Chop chicken into bite size pieces
Gather everything next to your wok
Heat a wok until the surface is smoking hot. Swirl in the oil to coat the wok surface. Fry garlic, followed a few seconds later add shallots and chilies
Add chicken and stir until cooked. towards the end of cooking add fish sauce, oyster sauce and sugar and stir well
Reduce heat and add the holly Basil and toss until wilted
Server immediately
Here is Basil chicken served with jasmine rice, Crab Rangoon and Spring roll
I always make extra serving so that I can freeze them. Looks pretty professional!

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Notes and Pointers
This is a good and easy stir-fried dish and one of the favorites among Thai people. It is served over rice as a one-dish meal, for breakfast or for lunch, often topped with a crispy fried egg.

The smaller the chicken is cut, the greater the surface area to coat with the flavors of the aromatic herbs and sauces, and the more flavorful the stir-fry will be. In Thailand, this dish is often made with chopped pork, or bird meat, especially in fast-food, curry-rice shops (rahn kao gkaeng)

Try the above recipe also with fresh seafood - shrimps, scallops, mussels, clams, crab and firm-flesh fish, such as fresh halibut and salmon.