This stir-fry of Eggplant with Chicken and Thai Basil involves many of my favorite things to eat, and it’s a quick and easy meal to boot.
The fragrant combination of aromatics, including Thai basil, wakes up your taste buds.
Add a little eggplant and chicken (or omit the meat to make this vegetarian), and you have a satisfying meal after less than 15 minutes at the stove!
Note: This recipe was originally published in August 2016. We’ve since updated it with clearer instructions and metric measurements. Enjoy!
Notes on Ingredients
We call for Japanese or Chinese eggplant in this recipe. They are generally more tender than regular globe eggplants, with fewer seeds.
Japanese eggplant has darker skin (similar in color to a regular globe eggplant), while Chinese eggplant has lighter purple skin. Both are long and thinly shaped.
We have a great crop of eggplant in our garden this year, which is why we’re bringing this recipe back up from the archives!
If using eggplants with thick skin, like the regular large variety you find at your average grocery store, you can peel all or part of the skin off.
Similarly, we call for Thai basil or holy basil, but Italian Basil can also work in a pinch!
Cooking Eggplant with Less Oil
Now that we’ve gotten the finer points about eggplant and basil out of the way, we can talk about cooking eggplant.
Specifically, eggplants are little sponges that seem to absorb just as much oil as you add. For this reason, we refrain from deep frying it when we cook it at home. Instead, we use a dry fry method in the wok.
That said, restaurant-style eggplant dishes almost always rely on a deep or shallow fry. Consequently, Chinese eggplant dishes, while delicious, are often swimming in oil.
To lessen this problem, we use the dry fry method in our Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce here as well in this recipe.
Whether you’re buying Japanese or Chinese eggplants from your local Asian grocery store, picking them from the garden, or using another variety you find locally, take advantage of eggplant season, and enjoy this one!
Eggplant with Thai Basil & Chicken: Recipe Instructions
In a medium bowl, massage the chicken with the water until it is completely absorbed, and add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, 1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon cornstarch until well incorporated. Set aside.
For more information and preparing chicken for stir fries, see Bill’s post on Chicken velveting 101.
Heat your wok over medium-high heat and coat it with 2 tablespoons of oil.
Spread the eggplant out evenly in the wok, and let sear with the cover on the wok for 2 minutes.
Remove the cover, turn the eggplant pieces over, and pour another tablespoon of oil around the perimeter.
Cover the wok, and turn heat to medium-low for another 2 minutes until the eggplant is just tender.
Next, increase the heat to high to cook the eggplant to a golden brown color—another 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
Add 1 tablespoon of oil to your wok and heat until just smoking. Add the marinated chicken, and spread it around the wok.
Let it sear for 30 to 60 seconds (depending upon your burner capacity) on each side. Remove from the wok and set aside.
With the wok over high heat, add another tablespoon of oil, the garlic, the white parts of the scallions, and the Thai basil (or holy basil).
Stir-fry for 30 seconds, and add the chicken and eggplant.
Next, add the Shaoxing wine, and stir everything together.
Add the fish sauce, sugar, Thai thin soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper, and stir until everything is combined—about 1 minute. Next, add the green portion of the scallions.
Pour the hot chicken stock around the perimeter of the wok to deglaze it. Stir-fry until everything is well-combined, and most of the liquid has been absorbed by other ingredients. Serve with steamed jasmine rice!
Enjoy this eggplant with Thai basil and chicken while summer eggplants are abundant!
Japanese Eggplant with Chicken & Thai Basil
Ingredients
- 8 ounces chicken breast (thinly sliced)
- 2 tablespoons water
- 5 tablespoons vegetable oil (plus 1 teaspoon for marinating the chicken)
- 1½ teaspoons light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 2 Chinese or Japanese eggplants (about 12-16 ounces/340-450g; cut on an angle into 1 1/2-inch wedges)
- 3 cloves garlic (sliced thinly)
- 3 scallions (sliced 1½ inches long on an angle, separated into white and green parts)
- 1 bunch Thai basil or holy basil (stems removed, about 1 cup loosely packed)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry cooking wine)
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon Thai thin soy sauce (or light soy sauce)
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ground white pepper
- ¼ cup chicken stock (hot)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, massage the chicken with 2 tablespoons of water until it is completely absorbed, and add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, 1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon cornstarch until well incorporated. Set aside.
- Heat your wok over medium-high heat and coat it with 2 tablespoons of oil. Spread the eggplant out evenly in the wok, and let sear with the cover on the wok for 2 minutes. Remove the cover, turn the eggplant pieces over, and pour another tablespoon of oil around the perimeter. Cover the wok, and turn heat to medium-low for another 2 minutes until the eggplant is just tender. Next, raise the heat to high to cook the eggplant to a golden brown color–another 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
- Add 1 more tablespoon of oil to your wok and heat until just smoking. Add the marinated chicken, and spread it around the wok. Let it sear for 30 to 60 seconds (depending upon your burner capacity) on each side. Remove from the wok and set aside.
- With the wok over high heat, add another tablespoon of oil, the garlic, the white parts of the scallions, and the basil. Stir fry for 30 seconds, and add the eggplant and chicken.
- Next, add the Shaoxing wine, and stir everything together. Add the fish sauce, sugar, soy sauces, sesame oil, and white pepper, and stir until everything is combined–about a minute. Next, add the green portion of the scallions.
- Pour the chicken stock around the perimeter of the wok to deglaze it. Stir fry until everything is well-combined, and most of the liquid has been absorbed by other ingredients. Serve with steamed jasmine rice!
For my palate, this needed a smidge more flavor oomph. I’ll make it again, and will add more fish sauce, more white pepper and possibly a squeeze of lime for brightness. The eggplant needed a bit more cooking time as well, but that’s easy to check next time.
I definitely like this Bill as did the family. I always am scrabbling with wok dishes. Wife wants more meat, we’re doubling the recipe, and worst of all, electric stove!- a lot of improv is happening! All that said, it was delicious, probably not as nice looking as yours but very tasty :) . It really helped that the eggplant was freshly picked as was the thai basil and garlic- gotta love the garden! Keep up the great work, absolutely a fan of WOL.
Hi Todd, there’s nothing like using fresh eggplant from your own garden. Keep up the great cooking!
Delicious! I used a large Bianca eggplant, 3 chicken thighs, and added some carrots too. The flavors in the sauce are really well balanced against the creamy sweetness of eggplant. Even my picky 4-year-old loved it! I will definitely make this recipe again.
Hi Rebecca, excellent to hear your family enjoyed this eggplant dish!
Outstanding flavor-love this recipe!
Yummy. Followed recipe using my garden baby eggplants. Loved every bit of it. Thanks for the great recipe.
You’re welcome grannie – enjoy!
I’ll have to try this recipe! My eggplant stir-fries alway end up with too much oil. Have you ever tried steaming the eggplant first before frying in the wok? I’ve read it helps reduce the amount of oil used by shortening the cooking time of the eggplant.
Hi Davie, steaming the eggplant works and definitely uses much less oil than deep frying. We like to dry-fry eggplant in the wok, adding small amounts of oil as needed. I think scorching the eggplant in the wok gives the dish more flavor than steaming but again, steaming does work!
What would be a good substitute for Thai basil or any kind of basil because it is not so readily available here?
Hi Jill, any basil is better than no basil, so substitute for what you have locally even if it is a common Italian sweet basil. Cinnamon basil and lemon basil or even holy basil will also work although they may be just as tough to find as Thai basil.
This looks fabulous. I have made similar dishes myself in the past, but I have always used Thai bird’s eye chillies, which makes it much hotter. I think I’ll try it like this next time.
Hi Carole, Thai bird chilies can always be added for a spicier eggplant dish ;-)
Made it last night. It was delicious. I used ping tung eggplants from my garden and I will have to plant lots more next year (assuming that water will be available here in the San Francisco Bay Area). Thanks again.
Glad you enjoyed this dish Frank!
I tried growing the Ping Tung eggplant, but I think I started them too late for this cold Northern California climate.
Hopefully, this rain will help us and more will come, so we can keep on growing. How did you like that variety of eggplant?
This recipe is great, but I do kick it up with some Thai Bird Chilis and I also like it with a little Palm sugar and lime juice.
Thank you, Bill. :-)