Pad Krapow Gai

Serves: 2 | Prep Time: 30 mins | Cook Time: 20 mins

1. Whisk all sauce ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Chop chicken into small diced pieces, nearly as small as you can make them.
3. Cook rice, with preferred method.
4. Add vegetable oil to skillet over high heat.
5. Add chicken in as thin a layer as possible and let cook for 3-4 minutes or until cooking side is brown and caramelized. Flip layer and cook other side for 3-4 minutes. Separate pieces of chicken as they finish cooking and toss to finish off last bits of pink uncooked chicken. Turn down heat to medium and remove chicken from skillet with slotted utensil and set aside.
6. If skillet is dry, add another tbsp of vegetable oil. Add shallot, garlic, and peppers to skillet. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally to allow caramelization but preventing burning. Cook for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are soft and paste-like.
7. Add chicken back to skillet and stir to combine.
8. Add 1-2 tablespoons of the sauce and stir once and allow initial caramelization of the sauce, about 1 minute.
9. Pour in the remaining sauce. Scrape up fond in skillet. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until sauce has de-glazed the bottom of the pan and is glazed onto the chicken. Depending on the amount of liquid from the other ingredients that has cooked off to this point, this can take anywhere from 2-8 minutes.
10. Remove from heat. Add basil and stir gently until mixture is even and basil is wilted.
11. Fry each egg separately over easy.
12. Serve chicken over rice, top each serving with fried egg. Garnish with a spare basil leaf if you're feeling fancy.

Notes

• Preferred ingredient brands: chicken broth made from Better than Bouillion (I also like to add a very small amount of the beef flavor of Better than Bouillon for umami, but this is totally optional)
• What Basil to use? Traditionally this is made with Holy Basil, but this is very difficult to source in America unless you have access to an Asian grocery, and even then it might not be available. Italian sweet basil is actually closer in flavor than the more peppery Thai Basil, ironically enough. That all said, any basil will do beautifully, as long as its fresh.
• Why remove the chicken from the skillet? In earlier versions of this recipe, this step was omitted. The result was over-cooked spongy chicken. It's not horrible, but not ideal.
• How do I know the sauce is done glazing onto the chicken? When stirring, it should not leave a sauce trail hardly at all, staying entirely glommed onto the chicken pieces. It's better to go too far and have some oils separate back onto the pan (though this is suboptimal, just less bad) rather than have the sauce be too thin.

Source

Spicy Thai Basil Chicken (Pad Krapow Gai)

Chef John’s version of this classic Thai dish, made with freshly chopped chicken thighs and fresh basil, has a rich sauce that cooks down into a caramelized glaze.

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