If you love aromatic herbs, ocean flavours, and spicy, tender meat, you’ll love Thai basil chicken. When cooking this dish at home, there are a few tricks to getting the flavours perfect. First, it’s important that you use holy basil if you can find it. Regular Thai basil still works, but it won’t have the same peppery hit that holy basil does. The other tip is to grind your spices in a mortar or press rather than mince them. This releases more oils, creating a more intensely seasoned flavour. Without further ado, here’s our favourite recipe for a perfectly flavoured Thai basil chicken dish.
What you need (serves 2)
- 450g of boneless chicken thighs (skinned and chopped)
- 100ml of chicken broth
- 30 holy basil leaves
- 5 to 10 fresh chilis (ground or minced)
- 4 cloves of garlic (ground or minced)
- 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
- 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
How to cook it
1. In a bowl, combine the brown sugar, soy sauce, and oyster sauce with the chicken broth. Whisk until the sauce is well blended.
2. With your stove on a high setting, heat a large shallow pan and add your cooking oil. Add your garlic and chilis, stir frying for 10 to 20 seconds to release the aromas.
3. Add the chicken pieces and continue stir frying until it’s almost cooked through. You’ll know the chicken is ready when you’ve been cooking it for around 2 to 3 minutes and the colouring no longer looks raw.
4. Add a few tablespoons of your sauce to the pan and cook for about 1 minute. This will caramelise the mixture, adding even more flavour.
5. Pour in the rest of the sauce and continue cooking for 1 to 2 minutes, making sure the pan is deglazed to retain as much taste as possible.
6. Finally, stir in your basil leaves and remove the pan from the heat. Give the basil around 20 seconds to wilt.
7. Serve immediately with a side of rice.
Alternatively, get it delivered
Of course, you don’t have to cook Thai basil chicken yourself to enjoy it. You can get an authentic and delicious version delivered to your door from a restaurant like Thai Dynasty, MaMa Thai Kitchen, or Sukho Thai.
