As I said in a previous post, we are picking new recipes so I have something new to prepare for dinner.
This is the second new dish of 2025. And it is one that will definitely stay in rotation due to its ease and taste.
We have been growing Thai basil, and honestly, it doesn't fit into non-Thai dishes. So I tried some Thai-lite cooking.
It actually might not be 'lite' as maybe this is why everything you get at a restaurant comes out quickly. Maybe this is just the way it is.
Prep is not bad - and cooking takes even less time. It's all about prep and timing for it to come together. Luckily, I thought it through before starting.
Ingredients
3 to 4 tablespoons oil (I forgot it in the above picture)
3 Thai bird chilies or holland chilies (de-seeded if desired and thinly sliced)
3 shallots (thinly sliced)
5 cloves garlic (sliced)
1 pound ground chicken
2 teaspoons sugar (or honey)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1/3 cup low sodium chicken broth (or water) . (I used vegetable broth because it's all we had)
1 bunch holy or Thai basil leaves
Slice, Dice, Chop your shallots, peppers and garlic. Make the sauce (sugar, soy/oyster/fish sauce). Make your rice - or at least start it - before you ever put oil into your pan / wok. Once that wok is hot, honestly, things comes together in about 5-6 minutes. .....and you gots ta be ready.
Instructions
In a wok over high heat, add the oil, chilies, shallots and garlic, and fry for 1-2 minutes.
Add the ground chicken and stir-fry for 2 minutes, breaking up the chicken into small bits.
Add the sugar, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Stir-fry for another minute and deglaze the pan with the broth. Because your pan is over high heat, the liquid should cook off very quickly.
Add the basil, and stir-fry until wilted.
Serve over rice.
This did not come out as expected, so I have some takeaways. But it DID come out great.
1. I used Thai / Finger peppers which are supposed to be hotter than jalapeños. Since they were to be so much hotter, I used two instead of three and deseeded and deribbed them both. Mistake. There was zero heat in the dish. Next time, I'd use three and maybe only deseed/rib one of the three chilis, hopefully to control the heat.
2. A 'bunch' of Thai basil is not a measurement. You can see what I pulled to use. I'd triple it next time. Easily.
3. Don't let the liquid completely evaporate, no matter what the recipe said. It makes a good sauce, albeit thin. It could have used something to sink into the rice a bit.
The only true problem was, for two hearty appetites, this served two. Decent sized portions, but not enough to have true leftovers, so we finished off what was in the pan too.
It's good and fast enough to tweak to your level of heat, but it is super simple. Getting the skin off the garlic and shallots was the majority of the work.
Enjoy.
2 comments:
Looks Delish! Word press is acting up , Spos father died, which you probably already know.
Looks like fun.
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