Pad Gaprao Gai (Chicken and Thai basil stir fry)

I’ve just finished eating this so wanted to share this one quickly while the memories of how delicious this dish is are fresh. It’s hot, salty and packed with flavour. It’s also quick to make, a little greasy and is the perfect chaser for a night out drinking. It’s a quintessential Thai street food dish.

This is a one person recipe:

• ½ cup white rice


• 1 egg


• 1 small chicken breast/ 2 chicken thighs, chopped in small chunks (substitute pork if you like)


• 3 small red chillies (more or less, if you like), chopped into a few pieces


• 3 cloves of garlic


• a glug of oyster sauce (supermarkets sell it in bottles)


• a big splash of soy sauce


• a pinch of sugar


• a handful of Thai basil leaves* ( the herb tarragon makes a decent substitute as it has a similar aniseedy flavour- steer clear of Mediterranean basil which is nothing like Thai basil).


• vegetable/ sunflower oil for frying

Start by getting a pan of water on to boil and put in the rice when the waters bubbling rapidly. With the rice starting to cook, in a pestle & mortar (or crushed with the back of a blade on a chopping board) crush the chillies and garlic, just roughly and leave for a moment. In a wok or frying pan, heat a fair amount of oil. When it’s hot, carefully break in your egg, splash the hot oil all over it and let the bottom get crispy and brown. When your happy that your egg’s done, lift it out, put in on kitchen paper and leave it somewhere warm to sit whilst you do everything else. Still in the same hot oil,start frying the garlic/chilli for a few seconds before adding in the chopped chicken. After 3 minutes or so, the chicken should be mostly cooked; add in the sugar, oyster and soy sauces and stir, before letting the liquid reduce down. Turn the heat off and stir the basil leaves through the chicken for a few seconds. Now it’s time to drain the rice, plate everything up. Put your fried egg on top and sink in.


* the name of this dish - Ka Prao means holy basil, officially since I’ve used Thai sweet basil I should be calling it Pad Bai Horapha Gai. However, I have tried cooking this with holy basil and it just tastes unpleasant. I don’t think holy basil leaves ship well- by all means give it a go with the holy basil if you can get hold of it but be prepared for it to taste like soggy tea leaves!