Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

One of my favorite Thai dishes is Gai Pad Krapow or Thai Basil Chicken. It's a great mix of spicy savory chicken with sweet thai basil. I can gobble it up in a second. And it's on lunch special at one of my favorite Thai places in town. I thought I would attempt to make this scrumptious dish.

I searched for recipes online and realized that it actually is pretty simple and doesn't call for any extremely exotic ingredients. It's basically chicken, garlic, chilies, shallots, fish sauce, soy sauce, and thai basil. That's it! Seriously! When you mix these seemingly mundane ingredients, you get something incredibly fantastic.

I was lucky enough to have some bird's eye chilies in my freezer from my grandmother's plant. If you manage to get your hands on these things, scoop them up, throw them in a ziploc, and toss them in the freezer. They'll last near to forever. They look very cute and innocent, but trust me, these little guys pack a huge punch. They're like scorpions, the little ones are the most poisonous. I'm not kidding. I put in just four chopped chilies and I was sweating eating this dish. And whatever you do, don't touch any sort of mucus membrane after you cut them with your bare hands. I recommend wearing gloves if you can. I made the grave mistake of cutting these guys and then blowing my nose. My left nostril feels like someone has stuck a match in it. Ouch. Don't do it. And whatever you do, do not touch your eyes. You might actually die. I'm not even exaggerating. If you can't find these, you can substitute jalapenos or even just sriracha sauce, but it obviously won't be as good. So just find these, suck it up and cut them, and throw them in the wok! (That's a birthday candle in the photo with the chilies to show just how tiny they are)

I also had trouble getting my hands on Thai basil. It is very different than regular sweet basil. It has a deep purple stem and tastes very different. Theoretically, you could substitute sweet basil in this dish, but it would create a very different flavor. Generally, you should be able to find it at any sort of Asian market or specialty grocery store like Sunflower Market or Whole Foods. I went to four different stores and no one is carrying it right now. Maybe it is out of season, I don't know. Next option, Vietnamese pho dinner. If you ever go out for pho, those green leaves they give you on the condiments plate along with the limes, jalapenos, and bean sprouts, that's Thai basil. Last night, we went out to dinner and I asked for extra extra basil, and voila, I had my last ingredient for my dish.

Gai Pad Krapow (Thai Basil Chicken)
adapted from gimme some oven!

• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 “bird’s eye” chilies, minced with seeds (use more/less to taste)
• 2 shallots (or 1 small onion), diced
• 1 1/2 lbs chicken (thigh or breast meat), ground or finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1 big bunch Thai basil leaves, stems removed
• Pepper

Heat a wok or a heavy skillet over medium high heat until very hot. Add the oil, garlic and chilies and stir fry until until the garlic is very fragrant. Add the shallots (or onions) and continue stir frying until the onions have wilted. Add the ground chicken and fry until the chicken is cooked.

Stir in the fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and pepper. If your pan was hot enough you should not have any liquid at the bottom of the pan, but if you do, continue cooking until the liquid is gone. Add the basil and toss a couple of time until the leaves are wilted and bright green.

Serve immediately with jasmine rice.