Thai Style Chicken With Basil Cooks Illustrated Food

SPICY THAI BASIL CHICKEN (PAD KRAPOW GAI)

Steps:

• Whisk chicken broth, oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, white sugar, and brown sugar together in a bowl until well blended.
• Heat large skillet over high heat. Drizzle in oil. Add chicken and stir fry until it loses its raw color, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in shallots, garlic, and sliced chilies. Continue cooking on high heat until some of the juices start to caramelize in the bottom of the pan, about 2 or 3 more minutes. Add about a tablespoon of the sauce mixture to the skillet; cook and stir until sauce begins to caramelize, about 1 minute.
• Pour in the rest of the sauce. Cook and stir until sauce has deglazed the bottom of the pan. Continue to cook until sauce glazes onto the meat, 1 or 2 more minutes. Remove from heat.
• Stir in basil. Cook and stir until basil is wilted, about 20 seconds. Serve with rice.

PAD KRAPOW GAI (THAI BASIL CHICKEN)

Steps:

• Heat a wok or large nonstick skillet over medium-high, then swirl in the oil. Once the oil is shimmering, add the ground chicken and cook, actively breaking the chicken up into small pieces, until it is mostly cooked, about 6 minutes.
• Stir in the garlic, sugar and chile until evenly distributed and fragrant, about 2 minutes, then add the green beans, oyster sauce, fish sauce and Thai seasoning, and cook, stirring constantly, until the chicken is fully cooked, the green beans are crisp-tender and the krapow is glossy, about 2 minutes.
• Remove from heat, add the basil and a dash of white pepper and toss to combine. If the sauce seems to cling too tightly to the mixture, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water to make it loose and glossy.
• Serve over rice, and top with a crispy fried egg, if desired. Serve with additional Thai seasoning to sprinkle on top, according to taste.

AUTHENTIC THAI BASIL CHICKEN (VERY EASY AND FAST)

Steps:

• Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add chicken; cook and stir until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sugar. Stir in chile peppers. Pour in water. Cook until slightly thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in basil before serving.

THAI CHICKEN WITH BASIL

Steps:

• Combine rice and 1 1/2 cups water in heavy-bottom pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, and cook the rice, covered, for 17 minutes.
• Trim and seed the jalapeño and the red pepper. Put from half the jalapeño to all of it, and as much of the red pepper as you like, into a food processor, and add the garlic, shallots and peppercorns. Process to make a coarse paste.
• Heat a nonstick pan (large enough to hold all the ingredients except the rice) until it is very hot. Reduce heat to medium high, and add the oil. Sauté the garlic mixture for 30 seconds. Set aside.
• Finely chop the chicken breast in the food processor. Return pan to heat, and sauté the chicken, breaking it into tiny pieces while cooking.
• Add the fish sauce and sugar, and stir well. Set aside.
• Wash and dry the basil, reserving a few leaves for garnish. Return pan to heat, and stir the basil into the chicken mixture. Serve over rice, garnished with the remaining basil.

STOVETOP ROAST CHICKEN WITH SPICY THAI SAUCE(COOK'S ILLUSTRATED)

Steps:

• Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tsp oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until shimmering. Add chicken pieces skin side down and cook without moving until golden brown, 5-8 minutes.
• Using tongs, flip chicken pieces skin side up. Reduce heat to medium low, add broth to skillet, cover, and cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°, 10-16 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate.
• Pour off liquid into 2-cup measuring cup and reserve. Wipe skillet with paper towels. Add remaining teaspoon oil and heat over medium high heat until it is shimmering. Return chicken skin side down to skillet and cook undisturbed until skin is deep golden brown and crisp and internal temp is 160°, 4-7 minutes. Transfer to heated plates and tent loosely with foil. Skim fat from reserved cooking liquid and add enough additional broth to yield 3/4 cup.
• To the skillet add 1/2 the lime juice, sugar, garlic, fish sauce and curry paste. Cook over medium high heat, scraping bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon until the spoon leaves a wide trail in the sauce, about 2 minutes.
• Add reserved cooking liquid; return to simmer and cook until reduced to 1/3 cup, 2-3 minutes. Stir in any juices from the resting chicken; return to simmer and cook 30 seconds. Off heat, stir in cilantro and remaining lime juice. Pour sauce around chicken and serve immediately.

THAI-STYLE CHICKEN WITH BASIL (COOK'S ILLUSTRATED)

Steps:

• Process 1 cup basil leaves, garlic and chiles in food processor until finely chopped, 6 to 10 1-second pulses, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed (turn off processor first!).
• Transfer 1 tablespoon basil mixture to small bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon fish sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar and sugar; set aside. Transfer remaining basil mixture to 12-inch heavy-bottomed nonstick skillet. Do not wash food processor bowl.
• Pulse chicken and 1 tablespoon fish sauce in food processor until meat is chopped into approximate 1/4-inch pieces, six to eight 1-second pulses. [ NOTE: I used a blender and it started to make the chicken mushy, which was *not* what you want here. I stopped immediately and ended up hacking away at the remains with a cleaver. :o) ] Transfer to medium bowl and refrigerate 15 minutes.
• Stir shallots and oil into basil mixture in skillet. Heat over medium-low heat (mixture should start to sizzle after about 1 1/2 minutes; if it doesn't, adjust heat accordingly), stirring constantly, until garlic and shallots are golden brown, 5-8 minutes.
• Add chicken, increase heat to medium, and cook, stirring and breaking up chicken with potato masher or rubber spatula, until only traces of pink remain, 2 to 4 minutes. Add reserved basil-fish sauce mixture and continue to cook, stirring constantly until chicken is no longer pink, about 1 minute.
• Stir in remaining cup basil leaves and cook, stirring constantly, until basil is wilted, 30 to 60 seconds. Serve immediately, passing extra fish sauce, sugar, red pepper flakes and vinegar separately.