There are a select few really good meals in this world that take just 10 minutes to prepare from start to finish. This Thai Basil Chicken (Gai Pad Krapow) is one of them.
And it isn’t one of those rush jobs either. This isn’t an episode of 30 Minute Meals, where Rachel Ray comes up with an ambitious 3-part menu and screeches into the finish line at the end, unceremoniously dumping all of her dishes into serving bowls and delivering her end-of-show sign-off with a sense of tired relief.
This is going to be a relaxed 10 minutes of cooking.
To prove it to you, I will proceed to outline how each one of those minutes is going to be spent.
Making Thai Basil Chicken in 10 Minutes
Minute 1: You’re going to walk leisurely over to your fridge and pull out a pack of ground chicken. Then you’re going to chop up 3 chilies. They don’t have to be pretty.
Minute 2: You’re going to peel and slice 3 shallots. My trick? Cutting off both ends, sweeping my knife lengthwise across the shallot, and peeling off the outside in one fell swoop before slicing. Oh, and if you can’t find shallots, a red onion will do just fine.
Minute 3: Following the same pattern from the previous step, you’re going to slice 5 cloves of garlic. Hint: smashing them with the side of your knife makes ’em a lot easier to peel. Yay garlic!
Minute 4: You’re going to heat a wok over high heat (not medium high. HIGH.), and then add a few tablespoons of oil, along with your prepared chilies, shallots, and garlic.
Minute 5: You will allow said oil, chilis, shallots, and garlic to do their work in said wok, stirring occasionally to help them along a bit.
Minute 6: You’ll add the ground chicken and start breaking it up.
Minute 7: You will continue cooking the ground chicken until browned. How is this happening so quickly? Answer: your stove is cranked up as high as it will go.
Minute 8: You’ll throw in some sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce, and stir-fry everything together. You are a kitchen genius.
Minute 9: You’ll deglaze the pan (which is just a fancy way of saying “scrape up all the brown bits”) with broth, and toss in a bunch of holy basil or Thai basil leaves. (YES, we know this dish is traditionally made with holy basil, but it can be difficult to access in the states, so Thai basil is fine to use!)
Minute 10: You’re almost home free. Just continue stir-frying over high heat until most of the liquid is cooked off and the basil is wilted.
And that, my friends, is dinner. 10 ingredients, 10 minutes. All you need is a bowl of rice to serve it with.
Read on for a much shorter version of the Thai Basil Chicken (Gai Pad Krapow) recipe instructions, this time with visual aids!
Thai Basil Chicken: Recipe Instructions
In a wok over high heat, add the oil, chilies, shallots and garlic, and fry for 1-2 minutes, until softened and just starting to brown at the edges.
Add the ground chicken and stir-fry for 2 minutes, breaking up the chicken into small bits.
Add the sugar, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Stir-fry for another minute and deglaze the pan with the broth. Because your pan is over high heat, the liquid should cook off very quickly. Add the basil, and stir-fry until wilted.
Serve your Thai Basil Chicken (Gai Pad Krapow) over white rice (or brown rice).
Thai Basil Chicken (Easy Gai Pad Krapow)
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 tablespoons oil
- 3 Thai bird chilies or holland chilies (de-seeded if desired and thinly sliced)
- 3 shallots (thinly sliced)
- 5 cloves garlic (sliced)
- 1 pound ground chicken (450g)
- 2 teaspoons sugar (or honey)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1/3 cup low sodium chicken broth (or water)
- 1 bunch holy or Thai basil leaves
Instructions
- In a wok over high heat, add the oil, chilies, shallots and garlic, and fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the ground chicken and stir-fry for 2 minutes, breaking up the chicken into small bits.
- Add the sugar, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Stir-fry for another minute and deglaze the pan with the broth. 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
Sue says
Delicious! I doubled the liquids and add some corn starch to make it saucier 😊
Sarah says
Nice, Sue!
JC says
I made it and it tastes yummy. Used red onions, no chillies. BUT – color of the chicken is almost white brown, not the lovely red brown of the pic.
JC says
Sorry – rating and a big thank you!
Sarah says
Thank you JC! If you want a darker color, buy Thai black soy sauce or Chinese dark soy sauce. A small amount of either of those ingredients will make the dish darker!
JC says
Hmmm I used kikkoman purple label – making it again as we speak!
Kris says
I used to make this all the time when I lived in Asia. I’ve forgotten about this recipe. Lookss like this will be lunch today. Had a craving for this today. I sometimes add a fried egg on top of the chicken!
Sarah says
Nice, Kris!
Tessa says
Agreed. Mine did not turn out as pretty, but it sure is delicious!
angelitacarmelita says
Outstanding!! one of my boyfriends favorite thai dishes is Chicken & Basil. We both work late, and are always looking for quick, but delicious dinners during the week. Man oh man, did this deliver and he thinks I’m a rock star! it’s so good, and I loved using the ground chicken for this rather than prepping bigger pieces of chicken for the recipe. You can use the white or dark meat for this, I personally used the darker meat and it was so tender and juicy. Thank you!
Sarah says
You’re so welcome, Angela!!
Debbie Romo says
Very good. Less than 10 minutes to cook. I used one Serrano chili pepper as I couldn’t find the chilies you suggested. It was quite warm. For those with kids I suggest using a small Serrano . Not sure my my ground chicken isn’t as dark as photo from the recipe, but it doesn’t matter as it tastes great. I’m wondering if fresh spinach would add to the meal.
Sarah says
Hey Debbie, you could certainly throw in some baby spinach and stir-fry it in at the end. I would do a big batch on the side, stir-fried with garlic! So glad you enjoyed this recipe. :)
Emma says
Thanks, great recipe and nicely explained!
Sarah says
You’re welcome, Emma!
Sayo says
I needed to use a little more soy sauce than the recipe called. It did not get brown colour like the photos, but tasted yummy.
Sarah says
Hey Sayo, try adding a teaspoon of dark soy sauce to give the dish a darker color if that’s what you’re going for!
Mary says
Going to need to sub for the holy basil. But, when you say “a bunch” about how much is this.
Sarah says
Hi Mary, I would say a cup of packed leaves.
Lan says
Super confused as to why mine doesn’t look like the picture although I followed the recipe and directions by each step. I don’t know what I did wrong but it doesn’t taste that great either
Sarah says
Hey Lan, sorry to hear that! So many readers have made this recipe with great success. Did you follow the recipe exactly, or did you make ingredient substitutions?
Jenny says
This was delicious!!! The only changes I made were to use Serrano peppers instead of Thai peppers, and used bone in chicken thighs, which worked well. Highly recommend!!
Sarah says
Thanks for giving it a try and for coming back to comment, Jenny!
Dennis says
Oh and I left a 5 star rating because it does sound mighty tasty, just if you get the chance to use holy basil, try it with that. The dish you are making should be called pad horapa, as that is stir fried Thai basil.