Basil Chicken (Gai Pad Krapow)

John is obsessed with this basil chicken he gets at Thai Kitchen on Thompson Lane, so when I saw the recipe for it on TasteSpotting, I printed it out for us to try.

Kim's Notes:
I didn't catch the "ground" in the description of what kind of meat to buy. I just bought 1/2 lb of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Whoops. Two of the ingredients were hard to find: thai bird chilies & thai basil. I found the chilies at Whole Foods, but we never found the basil. We finally just bought what K&S had, which wasn't labeled, so who knows what it was.

When John was cooking this, it smelled really bad. Like dirty lady parts bad. But it tasted so good! The egg really makes this dish. John says Thai Kitchen breads their chicken, so he wants to try that next time. He also wants to add green bell pepper. I'll report back. Highly, highly recommend this recipe.

Basil Chicken (Gai Pad Krapow)

Adapted from No Recipes

Serves 2 hungry Baldwins

1 tbsp vegetable oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1-5 thai "bird" chilies, minced with seeds

1/2 small onion, sliced

1/2 lb ground chicken thigh meat

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 tsp brown sugar

Pinch of white pepper

3 sprigs of Thai Holy Basil, stems removed

2 eggs

Jasmine rice

Heat a small frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add a splash of oil and crack two eggs into the pan and fry until the white part is set, but the yolk is still soft. Transfer the eggs to a plate to keep them from overcooking.

Heat a wok or a cast iron skillet over medium high heat until very hot. Add the oil, garlic and chilies and stir fry until until the garlic is very fragrant. Add the onions and continue stir frying until the onions have wilted. Add the ground chicken and fry until the chicken is cooked.

Season with the fish sauce, sugar and white pepper. If your pan was hot enough you should not have any liquid at the bottom of the pan, but if you do, continue cooking until the liquid is gone. Add the basil and toss a couple of time until the leaves are wilted and bright green.

Serve the basil chicken with jasmine rice and an egg on top of each plate.