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
Hi. Can I use thai sweet basil instead of Holybasil?
Yes, Bessy!
Love this and have made it many times (whenever I can get the thai basil and bird chilis). But I have never gotten the pork to truly crisp up as pictured. I press the pork along the sides of the wok which does brown it some but what’s the secret to crisping? Thanks for this recipe.
High heat and low moisture are the secrets! You can also add a little more oil!
Tried this recipe and everyone Loved it. Super easy and delicious!
Thank you Dina! Appreciate the review!
Taste so good!
Thank you!
My family loves this and after we grew our own holy basil we make it once every couple of weeks.
Amazing, Kim! So cool that you’re growing your own holy basil, as it’s not widely available, even in Asian markets.
Pretty damn good. Definitely reminds me of Thailand. I just finished eating it and man that was nice. Only thing I would mention is I ended up burning my garlic within seconds of putting it into the wok on medium high heat. I don’t know how you could put sliced or minced garlic in at that temperature and not have it burn quickly. So I ended up re-doing it starting with my wok on medium-low, and then increasing it to medium once they had started to sweat, and then to high once the pork had sweat to get some browning on the meat.
Hi Brett, thanks for the feedback! Could be that your stove is hotter, or that it was simply preheating longer. Good idea to start over though, and glad you enjoyed it!
Here in Northern California foothills, it’s not hard to find holy basil starts. But I’ve never found bird chile plants but once. 🙁
Hi Corinne, I think there are online sources where you can order Thai bird chili plants, or at the very least, seeds!