Pad Kra Pao Thai Minced Chicken with Holy Basil Stir Fry
Some people will say that Pad Kra Pao is Thailand’s national dish. It is quite ubiquitous as you will find this dish from street food stalls on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok to the finer restaurants. Of course, every Thai home cook will have their own version too.
I love how this simple chicken stir fry has so much flavour from just a few ingredients. Using just chicken, onions, garlic, chilli and holy basil, the resulting dish packs a punch, both in flavours and the chilli kick. (Some places will use minced pork instead of chicken)
What makes this dish is the particular flavour of Holy Basil. If you are not near an Asian supermarket, it is not easy to find Holy Basil. I have the next best thing, dry holy basil in my store cupboard (as seen in pic below). The flavour of the dried herb is not as strong as the fresh one so add a little more. You can buy this and other spice gift boxes online so that you have a selection of herbs and spices handy for recipes like this.
How to cook Pad Kra Pao at home
This dish is usually made with finely chopped chicken but you can use minced chicken from the supermarket too. I used boneless chicken thighs and roughly chopped the chicken into smaller pieces as I wanted a bit more a bite. Not quite mince but slightly bigger pieces with a more satisfying texture.
Thai chefs will usually start by roughly crushing garlic and bird’s eye chilli in a mortar and pestle. I didn’t have a mortar and pestle to hand so I chopped up the garlic and snipped some bird’s eye chilli as the alternative. Note that bird’s eye chillis are very hot and I used 2 chillis per portion for this amount of chicken. I’d say it is about a 3/5 spice level so adjust to your own taste.
The cooking process is very quick once all your ingredients have been prepped. Stir fry the chilli and garlic until golden. Then add the chopped onions and fry off to take the edge of the onions.
Then add the minced chicken. Stir fry on medium heat until cooked. Add the stir fry sauce and mix thoroughly. Taste to adjust seasoning. Serve over rice. The spring onion garnish is optional, do add some if you have some in your fridge.
Other Thai recipes to try
Thai crispy fried egg
Thai style crispy egg is usually fried until the edges are crispy. This needs quite high heat and a lot of oil. It takes mere minutes to fry the egg. Add this on top of the Pad Kra Pao and serve.
Cooking tips
Thai seasoning sauce or green top sauce is a staple in most Thai home kitchens. This is a type of soy sauce with added sugar. You can use this as a substitute for the dark soy sauce and sugar in Thai recipes.
If you try this recipe, do let me know and tag me on Instagram/ Threads/ Bluesky @eatcookexplore.
Pad kra pao Thai chicken holy basil stir fry
Ingredients
- 5-10 Thai bird's eye chillies to taste
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 long red chilies chopped
- ½ small onion diced
- 300 g chicken coarsely minced by hand or ready minced chicken
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1½ tsp black soy sauce not requitred if you use the Thai seasong sauce
- 1 tsp sugar not required if you use the Thai seasoning sauce
- 2 tbsp Thai seasoning sauce (green top)
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1 handful holy basil leaves loosely packed or 2 tbsp dry holy basil
- 3 tbsp dry holy basil alternative to fresh
- Cooking oil as required
- 2 eggs 1 per person
- Jasmine rice for serving
Instructions
- Pound Thai chilies into a fine paste.
- Add garlic and chillies and pound into a rough paste. If you dont’t have a mortar and pestle, just chop this finely instead.
- Prepare the stir fry sauces: soy sauce, fish sauce, black soy sauce, water and sugar. If you use the Thai soy sauce, you can omit the sugar and dark soy sauce.
- In a wok or a large saute pan, saute the garlic-chili paste in a little oil over medium high heat until the garlic starts to turn golden.
- If you are using the alternative dry holy basil, add this now to rehydrate and release flavour as it cooks.
- Add chicken and stir fry until the meat changes colour and is cooked. Add the stir fry sauce and continue stir frying for at least 2 mins.
- Remove from heat and stir in the fresh holy basil. Taste to adjust seasoning.
- Spoon over steamed rice.
- Crispy fried egg
- Heat a generous amount of oil in the wok over medium high heat. To get the crispy edges, you need to submerge the egg in oil to shallow fry.
- Once the oil is hot, crack the egg directly into the pan. Fry until the edges are crispy and frilly.
- Serve the Pad Kra Pao with rice and top it with the fried egg.
