This pad kra pao (pork & holy basil-stir-fry) features a key ingredient: holy basil! With jasmine rice, it’s perfection. And it only takes minutes to make.
Thai Basil Vs. Holy Basil
Okay, about to get real serious about basil right now.
We’ve published several recipes on this blog that involve Thai basil, like this 10-Minute Chicken & Basil Stir-fry and this Thai Basil Beef. In said recipes, we used what our local Asian grocery store labels as, “Thai Basil,” which is actually a variety of cinnamon basil. This is also the kind of basil most commonly used in Thai restaurants here in the States, I believe.
That said, a few commenters on those recipes felt very passionately about our basil usage, suggesting—demanding—that we use holy basil in our recipes. The translation of “Pad Kra Pao,” is apparently “holy basil stir-fry,” so you can’t (technically) make the dish without this key ingredient.
It’s elusive, though. We scoured the Asian markets in our area for holy basil, but could never find it. Finally, we decided to take our only remaining course of action, just to see what all the fuss was about. We bought a packet of seeds on the Internet, stuck ’em in our backyard garden, and waited.
After a few weeks, the little holy basil plants started popping out of the ground:
As the summer wore on, our holy basil crop grew and grew––and we now have a pretty serious holy basil patch in our yard––enough to make endless plates of pad kra pao (Thai holy basil) stir-fry. The picture below is a bit old––we now probably have quadruple the amount you see there).
When I started cooking with it, I finally knew why people had such strong feelings about using it in this Pork Pad Kra Pao stir fry dish. It has a very particular flavor. It’s almost licorice-like, or perhaps fennel-like.
In any case, I was a fan. That said, if you’re not into the idea of growing this uncommon (here in ‘Murica, anyway) variety of basil in order to get your hands on some, I maintain that using cinnamon basil or even regular sweet basil is better than having no stir-fry at all!
Ok, on to the pad kra pao stir fry recipe. :)
Pad Kra Pao Recipe Instructions
In a wok over medium high heat, add the oil, shallots and garlic, and fry for 3 minutes.
Add the chilies and cook for another minute.
Crank up the heat to high, and add the ground pork, breaking it up into small bits and allowing it to crisp up.
Add the sugar, fish sauce, thin/light soy sauce, ddark soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Stir-fry for another minute and deglaze the pan with the broth or water. Because your pan is over high heat, the liquid should cook off very quickly.
Add the holy basil leaves, and stir-fry until wilted.
Serve this Pork Pad Kra Pao(Holy Basil Stir-fry) over rice!
I think we could have named this Pork & Holy Basil Stir-fry a 10 minute Pork Pad Kra Pao stir fry because it was that quick and easy!
Pork & Holy Basil Stir-fry (Pad Kra Pao)
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 shallots (thinly sliced)
- 7 cloves garlic (sliced)
- 3 Thai bird or holland chilies (de-seeded, if desired, and thinly sliced)
- 1 pound ground pork (450g)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon thin/light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- ⅓ cup low sodium chicken broth or water
- holy basil leaves (about 1 1/2 cups packed)
Instructions
- In a wok over medium high heat, add the oil, shallots and garlic, and fry for 3 minutes. Add the chilies and cook for another minute. Crank up the heat to high, and add the ground pork, breaking it up into small bits and allowing it to crisp up.
- Add the sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Stir-fry for another minute and deglaze the pan with the broth or water. Because your pan is over high heat, the liquid should cook off very quickly. Add the basil, and stir-fry until wilted. Serve over rice.
nutrition facts
Fantastic. Added some green beans & fried egg to this!
Love those additions!
This is really good and surprisingly authentic! I replaced the dark soy sauce with dark sweet soy sauce instead because the dark soy sauce was salty.
Thanks for the review, Leslie!
Great recipe! I used sunflower mince (https://www.sunflowerfamily.us/product/sunflower-hache/) instead of pork , and used Thai basil from my garden. It was delicious! Thanks for another great recipe.
very interesting! Have never tried sunflower mince!
Loved this recipe! Perfect for a quick work from home lunch. I started growing herbs in the window of my apartment, and I was looking for a way to use my thriving Thai basil! Soo tasty.
Love it, Laura! So awesome that you’re growing Thai basil at home. :)
This one is a winner and comes together super fast. I minced a couple of pork chops instead of using ground beef. I added some mushrooms and thinly slice green peppers with the shallots. Subbed honey for sugar. Yum!
Sorry I meant ground pork!
Love that, Cheryl! So glad you enjoyed this dish!
Made this instead of your fantastic Mapo tofu for a new flavour . And unsurprisingly another winner!! Had it with stir fry veggies and noodles. Love the blog, the recipes and all. Thanks.
You’re welcome, Dee! Glad you enjoyed this one too. :)
Really authentic! Very delicious, best recipe for this dish by far
Thank you so much, Lotti!
Made this recipe and it was AMAZING. My family loved it. Served it at a birthday party and got nothing but
Complements. Thank you.
You’re so welcome, Winnie! Happy to help!
Making this now. I’ve done enough similar recipes to know yours is legit! This summer we have sooooo much holy basil (and hot peppers) so I’m super stoked to try this!! My seven year daughter loves this dish too! And yep… she can handle the heat! ha!
Yayyy so awesome that you have holy basil and peppers ready to go in the garden!
delicious and super easy! i used regular sweet basil as thai basil is hard to find, and it came out just fine. it was a bit on the salty side as others noted, but i was eating with butter lettuce cups instead of rice so maybe that’s why.
Thanks for the feedback, Emily! So glad you enjoyed it!