I wanted to show you a recipe that consists of common pantry staples in case you wanted to skip going to the grocery store due to the coronavirus (don’t get me started), but this is not that recipe. Unless you happen to have oyster and fish sauces hiding about, you will need to pick up a few items, but it’s worth it. If you want to practice social distancing and hide out, I recommend making a huge vat of spaghetti sauce and call it good.
This recipe is super easy. Chop up a red bell pepper into large pieces, and then thinly slice shallots and garlic. Heat up some oil and cook it up over high heat for a couple of minutes.
Add ground chicken and cook that through. The original recipe from Delish claims it’ll take you 3 minutes, but that’s a lie. Cook it until the chicken is no longer raw, which is way more than 3 minutes.
Now the recipe takes a turn. It calls for another common pantry item (note sarcasm), Thai bird’s eye chilis. These spicy chilis make the recipe more authentic, but I couldn’t find them at my upscale grocery store so I’m guessing you have to hit the Asian markets. I decided to substitute them with the less spicy jalapeno, which somehow made it into my cart, but never home. They went MIA. Argh! So when you make this and you want a little spice, you can use your favorite chili or nothing at all, in my case.
Pour in your broth, oyster and fish sauces, and sugar, and stir until thickened. At the last minute, add basil and mix it up until the basil is wilted. I couldn’t find Thai basil (I need to reconsider this upscale grocery store), so I used regular basil, which turned out great.
That’s it. Serve it over rice or if you are low carbing it, make it a lettuce cup. It doesn’t get much easier than that. Except for locating the ingredients, with a few substitutes, you’ll end up with a tasty dish everyone will enjoy.
Even your picky eater who won’t eat anything green (except for the single obliging piece of basil) or touching will love it.
Thai Basil Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 red bell pepper chopped into large chunks
- 3 shallots thinly sliced
- 5 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 2 pounds ground chicken
- 1 Thai bird's eye chilis or other favorite chili thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons granulated white sugar
- 2 cups Thai basil leaves or regular basil leaves stems picked off, packed
Instructions
- Prep your ingredients. Stem, seed and chop red bell pepper into large pieces. Thinly slice shallots, garlic, and chili. Remove the stems from the basil leaves.
- In a wok or large cast iron skillet over high heat, heat oil. Add bell pepper, shallots, and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until golden, about 2 minutes.
- Add chicken and cook, breaking up the chicken into small bits, until cooked through. Add chilis and toss to combine.
- Pour chicken broth, oyster sauce, fish sauce, and sugar into the wok. Cook, stirring, until thickened. Add basil and toss until wilted.
- Serve over rice or in a lettuce cup.