Thai Chicken Basil - My absolute favorite

ihpguy · October 17, 2011

Chicken Basil, or Gai Pad Gapow, is one of the classics of Thai food and is surprisingly easy to make. It is popular among the Thais and known as a no-brainer dish. In Thailand, when you are in a strange town and a strange restaurant, you know that you can always order Gai Pad Gapow and it will probably be decent. It's a simple dish that any restaurants know how to make it right.

You know you've made Chicken Basil right when the heat from the chili peppers plays just under the flavor of the gapow and the fish sauce. Don't be afraid to use what seems like an excessive amount of gapow leaves - they make the dish.

2 Servings, Prep Time: 20 minutes, Total Time:20 minutes

3 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 lb ground chicken

1-2 packages holy basil

4-7 minced Thai chili pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Tips and Techniques

You can substitute ground turkey for ground chicken. Some people like the meat cut up in bite size pieces rather than ground. I find that ground breast meat is dry and not as flavorful as dark meats. But then there is less fat. I also add dried kaffir lime leaves as the fresh are not available here. I also add into the sauce rice vinegar and low-salt soy. I like my food like my man - juicy, I suppose. If you like, ground pork or ground beef is a good substitution as well.

In Thai restaurants in the US, unfortunately, sweet basil or Thai basil is usually used for this dish. It is not quite the same.

Many farmers markets now have holy basil.

It doesn’t stay fresh (or green) long in the refrigerator. So use the basil as soon as you can. However, if it starts to get freezer burn, it can still be used.

Mince garlic and chili pepper together. Clean and pick gra- pow leaves from their stem. It may appear like a lot of leaves, but the leaves will shrink when cooked and this dish's flavor comes from the leaves.

Fry the garlic and chili pepper in oil over high heat. When garlic starts to turn brown, drop the ground chicken in. Stir constantly. The juice will start to come out. Keep stirring until all the juice is gone. It might take a couple of minutes. Add fish sauce. Then add Thai basil. Quickly turn it over a few times to mix the leaves with the meat and then remove from the fire and put the gai pad gra pow in the serving plate or dishes. Serve hot with rice.

In Thailand, gai pad gapow is served with a small bowl of chili pepper in fish sauce (recipe below), sliced cucumber and a wedge of lime.

flguy · October 18, 2011

Does anyone know what you can do with the actual fruit from the Kaffir Lime tree? For some reason mine is loaded this year. My lemon grass also did well and i had the best Thai Basil in years grown in pots this year. Fall is coming quickly and will have to get the trees into the winter green house so would love to know if you can use the fruits for some recipe. thanks