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Thai Basil Chicken

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Thai Basil Chicken

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  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 2 to 4 servings 1x

Description

A healthy meal that is quick and easy to prepare. You’ll love this classic Thai Basil Chicken recipe!


Ingredients

Scale

Stir-Fry Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 to 4 Thai bird chiles, chopped (and seeded, if you prefer less heat)
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 1 pound ground chicken
  • 1 cup packed Thai basil leaves

Sauce Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
  • 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons white granulated sugar

Instructions

  1. Make the stir-fry sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the stir-fry sauce ingredients until combined.
  2. Sauté. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, Thai bird chiles, shallot. Sauté for 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken and cook, stirring and breaking up the chicken with a wooden spoon occasionally, until it is cooked through and browned. Add the sauce and toss until evenly combined.
  3. Add the Thai basil. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the basil and toss until it begins to wild.
  4. Serve. Serve immediately over rice or noodles and enjoy!

Notes

This recipe was updated slightly in 2023.

 

Ali’s tip:

Feel free to serve this with jasmine rice, noodles, or in iceberg lettuce leaves (for lettuce wraps).

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24 comments on “Thai Basil Chicken”

  1. Oh – this looks great. I have thai basil in my garden – I’m going with make this dish with it! thanks!

  2. Would this still taste good with regular basil?

  3. Hey Becki!

    Sure – I think the dish would still be good, but it will be different. Thai basil is usually a little more sweet, and has a slight anise kick in it. But with the other seasonings in the dish, I’m sure it’ll still taste very similar. :)

    Enjoy!!
    ~A

  4. I have a ton of basil in my yard, more than I can keep up with, so this recipe would be perfect! Thanks.

  5. This sounds so tasty and easy, perfect recipe to break in my wok. Looks like you used chunks of chicken instead of ground.. I think I’ll have tomtrynit that way, looks great that way!

  6. That doesn’t look like ground chicken in the picture? Was there a typo?

  7. Oops! Thanks Heather & Nicole — forgot to mention that I did end up using chunks of chicken instead of ground. (The selection of ground at the store that week didn’t look so good!) Although, and you can’t totally tell by the picture, they’re actually cut up super small.

    Feel free to use whatever chicken you’d like!

  8. This looks absolutely AMAZING. yum!

    I’ve bookmarked it, maybe I’ll treat the bf to this delicious dish sometime soon. :)

  9. mm. this is my kind of dish. i’m going to try it this week with the purple basil i got at the market today–not sure how that compares to thai basil but let’s go with it. Also can I substitute oyster or hoisin sauce for fish sauce?

  10. Basil is one of my favorite herbs. I am sure I’d love this chicken… In fact, I’m craving it right now!

  11. Made it tonight. So good. I’m trying to use whatever’s in my house and avoid the store so I ended up using oyster sauce instead of fish sauce, italian basil instead of thai, and black pepper instead of white. So probably didn’t taste as good as yours but it was still fantastic, and I will make it again for sure! Also, Toby referred to it as a “real man food”, which is a really good sign. ;) thanks!

  12. oh forgot one..used anaheim peppers instead of birds eye–couldn’t find birds eye even at the “fancy” grocery store–where do you get them?

  13. i almost threw up when i heard there was fish sauce in there because i hate fish, pretty much anything that lives under the water, but i still eat it because it’s absolutely delicious.
    (:

  14. Thank you for your content. and i like thai chili

  15. Just made this. Turned out beautifully, tasted great. Used regular basil and instead of ground or chunked chicken, used very thinly sliced beef.

  16. I love to make this dish with bamboo shoots, carrots, and sweet onions.

  17. This is what I ate nearly every day for lunch while in Thailand…love it

  18. Sounded fabulous until I read “add fish sauce”. Is there anyway around adding the fish sauce. Unfortunately I have such a mental block that I could never try it knowing that. What can I substitute it with … if anything?

    • I know it sounds gross but it tastes like a really light soy sauce and not fishy at all. I don’t think the dish would tase the same without it.

  19. I tried this last night with tiger prawns and added green bell pepper and it was deeeeeeelicious!! I like some sauce with my food so I didn’t let it dry out. Thank you so much for sharing.

  20. This was really good and easy! Made this using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, crushed red pepper flakes instead of chilis and regular basil instead of thai basil.

  21. Hey Ali,

    That’s Gai Pad Horapa (Thai Basil) Gai Pad Krapow uses Krapow (Thai Holy Basil)

    They taste different from each other but both yum.

  22. I’ve cooked this several times. I leave out the Thai bird chiles (because a little goes a long way with their heat. Even with seeds and membrane removed). Instead, I serve Chili Garlic Sauce table side to allow as much heat as you want.
    Excellent dish enjoyed by all ages of my family!