Thai Chicken with Fresh Basil

Recently I had, shall we say, limited success with a Thai recipe (the pad see ew), but last night I redeemed myself. This chicken with basil dish was a big hit chez CT, and the verdict was that next-day leftovers were just as good.

I was on the hunt for a dish in which I could use a large quantity of Thai basil. I bought a small plant at the farmers' market a few weeks ago, and it must absolutely love its position on the patio, because it's totally out of control! It's growing like crazy and is just beautiful (and I wish I could say the same of my Italian basil, which is barely surviving this year, for some reason—have never had trouble growing it before).Now: I had planned to use the recipe that follows, from my new book Quick and Easy Thai. However, as I am wont to do, I poked around online to compare the recipe in the book with others, and I ended up following this recipe on the Temple of Thai site, mostly because I had shallots from farmers' market and the thick, sweet soy sauce I'd gotten for the pad see ew, and I wanted an excuse to use both. I am not positive that the thick soy I have is the exact type of soy sauce called for in the recipe ("the semi-sweet kind, siew dohm"), but I figured that if not, it was very similar.

As you can see in the online recipe, an herb known as holy basil is called for. I don't think fresh holy basil is available in C-U (set me straight if I'm wrong), and besides, I had the aforementioned large Thai sweet basil plant out back, so that's what I used. The recipe author noted that she's included a combination of Thai sweet basil and fresh mint with good results, so I used both myself (about a cup of basil and a half-cup of mint leaves).

Oh, and I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts from Triple S Farm instead of chicken thighs, because that's what I had in the freezer. The chopped chicken breasts worked great, but sometime I'll try this dish with thighs, which I'm quite partial to.

Having given you the link to the online recipe I ended up following, I'm going to copy out here the recipe from Quick and Easy Thai, because I think it's a bit simpler and the author of that book tries to include only ingredients that you either have lying around or that you can pick up without necessarily going to a specialty grocery. So here's that recipe, in case you want to try it or just compare it with the Temple of Thai one.

Chicken with Fresh Basil
From Quick and Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes, by Nancie McDermott

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic
1/2 cup coarsely chopped onion
3/4 pound boneless chicken, coarsely ground or cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce or soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh hot green chilies, such as Thai chilies, serranos, or jalapeños
1 cup fresh holy basil (bai graprao), Asian basil, or Italian basil leaves or fresh mint leaves

Heat the oil in a large deep skillet over medium-high heat and then add the garlic and onion. Toss well, and when they begin to release their aroma, add the chicken in generous pinches. Toss well, using a spatula or slotted spoon, to help meat brown evenly and to break up big chunks to achieve a crumbly texture.

Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, water, and sugar and cook 2 to 3 minutes, tossing now and then, just until the meat is cooked and the seasonings form a thin, smooth sauce. Add the chilies and basil and toss well. Transfer to a serving plate and serve hot or warm.

Serves 4.
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A really yummy dish. I used jalapeno peppers because I had those on hand, and they weren't particularly hot specimens. If you like more heat, use serranos or Thai "bird" chilies if you can find them. I also added half a sweet red and half a green bell pepper, partly because I wanted more veggie matter in there, and partly in a clean-out-the-veg-drawer move.

I think that chopping the chicken into very small pieces, till it's almost like ground chicken (which you could easily use instead, or ground turkey), is key, because the flavors of the sauce really permeate the meat that way. As for the herbs, note that you don't have to chop or tear the basil and/or mint leaves at all; just chuck them into the pan or wok whole.

I served the chicken with steamed Jasmine rice. A squeeze of fresh lime juice and a sprinkling of sriracha hot sauce added quite a nice freshness and zing!

P.S. I'm on a bit of a Thai food kick, perusing my new book for recipes. Later this week I'll try Crying Tiger Steak with Roasted Tomato-Chili Sauce.