This Japanese Eggplant with Chicken and Thai basil stir-fry involves so many of my favorite things to eat, and it’s a very 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!
Notes on Ingredients
We call for Japanese eggplant in the recipe. Japanese eggplant is lighter in color, has thinner skin than Chinese eggplant and is, arguably, more tender than other varieties.
For this reason, this recipe calls for it, but don’t hesitate to substitute Chinese eggplant or another variety that you have locally in your market.
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 varieties 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, and instead use the dry fry method in the wok.
That said, restaurant-style eggplant dishes almost always rely on a deep or shallow fry, and 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 and with this recipe.
Whether you’re buying Japanese 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!
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 Japanese 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 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, and transfer back to the marinade bowl.
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 Japanese 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 a 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!
Japanese Eggplant with Chicken & Thai Basil
Ingredients
- 8 oz. chicken breast (225g, sliced about ¼-inch thick)
- 2 tablespoons water
- 5 tablespoons vegetable oil (plus 1 teaspoon for marinating the chicken)
- 1½ teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 2 Japanese eggplants (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
- 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 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.
- 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 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, and transfer back to the marinade bowl.
- 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!
nutrition facts
Delicious! Made without the chicken and used less oil. It came out great. Love your website! I’ve learned so much and now have a seasoned carbon steel wok, stir fry tools and a freezer full of pork wontons and vegetable dumplings.
Hi Joanne, wow, it sounds like you’re really cookin’ now!
This satisfied my craving for an eggplant dish from my favorite Thai restaurant. I scaled up the amounts and cooked the eggplant and chicken in batches before mixing it all together at the end. Drizzling homemade chili oil over the finished dish made amazing. The leftovers tasted better the next day so I will be adding this to my recipe rotation for weekend meal preps.
Hi Angelica, your description sounds divine!
Such a GREAT recipe! Thank you so much for sharing this.
You’re welcome Sara! I really enjoy the Thai basil and eggplant and look forward to having this dish again. It’s been a while since I have had it :)
another amazing recipe!! my parents loved it. thank you :)
You’re welcome clara – glad top hear you are cooking for mom and dad ;-)
Ehhh… It wasn’t bad, but it was kind’ve bland. If nothing else, I’d double the amount of Thai basil. I used a packed cup and it just seemed to get lost, which is odd because no other flavor really stood out either.
Hi Alex, more Thai basil is good. Keep in mind that the longer you cook it, more flavor is lost.
This recipe is sooo good. I don’t even have Thai basil (too expensive in NZ and very difficult to get them). I feel like the amount of oil used isn’t that concerning because egg plant just soak up sooo much oil usually – I remembered the first time I cooked egg plant and I think I used a WHOLE CUP of oil and still not cooked – was a horrible cook back then! I have made this recipe 5 times now. Used mince pork instead of chicken. Thank you Woks of Life for all your amazing recipes. You are my go-to website!
Hi Min Yee, glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the shout out from New Zealand!
You can grow it indoors as well as out as long as it is not too cold.
Hi Gabriel, thanks for that suggestion. We grow it every summer outside, but have not tried it inside yet. Thai Basil thrives in the sun and is hardy in dry soil and climates. We usually have more than we can eat from a couple of plants.
I didn’t have such a great experience with this recipe as other cooks who have commented on this site. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of oil used in this recipe. The ingredients read, “1 teaspoon vegetable oil (plus more for cooking). The “‘plus more for cooking” is 5 tablespoons! That is extreme for home cooking! I was unable to massage the water into the chicken breasts (they were thawed, so were already pretty wet). Never before seen recipe instructions that called for massaging water into chicken. Why not just brine them? Even with the glut of oil and the weird instructions, great flavor would have made all the difference. However, less than 1/2 cup liquid did not provide any sauce, so the dish was rather dry. At any rate, we did not eat very much of it. With all of the wonderful ingredients, this Japanese eggplant dish should have been delicious, but it failed on so many levels. This is just my opinion, while others seemed to enjoy it immensely. Viva la difference!
Hi Violet, I have corrected the recipe ingredients – did not notice that we left out 5 tablespoons of oil in the ingredients list for searing the chicken and cooking the eggplant. You can imagine how much is used by restaurants. You can check out our post on velveting chicken but you are correct that if your chicken is already moist from thawing, you may not need to add extra water. You are right though – not every dish is for everyone :)
This was the bomb! I used leftover pork loin instead of chicken, and fresh Japanese eggplant and (Italian) basil from my garden. Quick, easy, and full of flavor.
Hi Elizabeth, glad to hear you used Italian basil as a substitute, but if you have the opportunity, definitely try some Thai basil ;-)