Spicy Thai Chicken Stir Fry

A super tasty, easy Thai stir fry with a nice kick of heat! The Thai stir fry sauce used in this recipe is like an all purpose Thai sauce. It’s a versatile base and it’s fabulous with chicken, pork and turkey, ground/mince meat or even cut into bite size pieces. It can even be used for noodles. This recipe is a keeper for Thai food lovers!

The Thai stir fry sauce I use in this Spicy Thai Chicken Stir Fry is like the Thai equivalent of Charlie, my All Purpose Chinese Stir Fry Sauce. If you haven’t discovered Charlie yet, pop over because honestly, especially if you are pressed for time, he will be life changing. Yes, I’ve given my Chinese stir fry sauce a name, and yes there is logic – albeit bland / crazy – behind it. You can read about it when you get the recipe for Charlie. 😉

Just like Charlie, the Thai stir fry sauce used in this recipe is similar to many but an exact replica of none. If you scan the Sauce ingredients of Pad See Ew (Thai Stir Fried Noodles), Thai Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao) and Thai Chilli Basil Chicken, you will see similarities to the one I use in this Thai stir fry.

I don’t actually even know if this recipe has a name. It’s probably not something you would find in a Thai restaurant. By this, I mean it’s not a “known” Thai dish, like Pad Thai, Pad See Ew etc.

In many of the Thai cookbooks I have flicked through over the years, I almost always find a generic stir fry that uses a very similar sauce. I even found one in the Spice I Am cookbook (read more about that in the Pad Thai recipe, it’s my current favourite Thai cookbook).

The quantities differ, but generally, the common ground is always garlic (lots), chilli (lots!), soy sauce (varying combinations of light, dark and all purpose), Oyster Sauce (almost always), fish sauce (very common) and sugar (almost always).

Though I use this Thai stir fry sauce to make all sorts of stir fries – even noodles – this recipe I’m sharing today is the one I make most frequently. The main reason being because it’s such an easy Thai stir fry. Because making it with ground chicken means no chopping meat, no marinating. And the flavour of the Thai stir fry sauce really penetrates throughout the whole stir fry.

In Thailand, many dishes are served with a juicy wedges of tomato and cucumber. No dressing, just plain. They are a great pairing with the kapow flavours going on in most Thai dishes. Plus, it rounds out out the meal so we get our veg fix! 🙂

But I also happened to have a big batch of my all time most frequently made Asian-esque salad: a Cabbage salad with crunchy noodles and a sesame dressing. So I stuck it in the photo to give you a little preview because it’s coming soon. I make it so often it borders on the side of obsession. But the sheer convenience, speed and utter tastiness of the salad is what has had me captivated since my early twenties.

It’s coming soon, I promise. Possibly Wednesday, along with another salad. Hmm. Maybe this weeks’ Meat Free Wednesday will be an explosion of my very favourite salads. What do you think? – Nagi x

PS Is it just me, or is there a weird pinkish glow going on in the bottom left corner of the photo below? I must’ve been wearing a hot pink top when I took this shot. Jeez. The perils of fashion and food photography!!! 😉

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Spicy Thai Chicken Stir Fry

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Prep: 7 mins

Cook: 8 mins

Total: 15 mins

Dinner, Stir Fry

Thai

4.6 from 10 votes

Servings3

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The Thai stir fry sauce used in this recipe is a fantastic versatile stir fry sauce! It's similar to many well known Thai stir fries like Pad See Ew, Thai Chilli Basil Chicken and Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao). Make this using ground/mince chicken, pork or turkey. See notes for how to use this sauce for other stir fries. Ensure all ingredients are ready to toss into the wok before you start cooking because once you start, it cooks fast!

Ingredients

Sauce

• 2 tsp light soy sauce (Note 1)
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce (Note 1)
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar

Stir Fry

• 2 tbsp cooking oil (I use peanut or vegetable oil)
• 3 Thai or birds eye chillis or other small hot red chilli , finely chopped (Note 2)
• 4 garlic cloves , finely chopped
• 1 small onion , halved and sliced (brown, white or yellow)
• 500 g / 1 lb ground / mince chicken
• 3 shallot / scallions stems , chopped into slices
• 1 cup coriander/cilantro leaves (loosely packed)

Instructions

• Mix Sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
• Heat oil in a wok or heavy based skillet over high heat. Add garlic and chilli - cook for 15 seconds.
• Add onion and cook for 45 seconds.
• Add chicken and cook, breaking it up as you go. When it changes from pink to white, add Sauce. Cook until the liquid mostly disappears - about 2 minutes.
• Stir through shallots. Then stir through coriander and immediately take off the heat.
• Serve over rice, with slices of cucumber and tomato wedges (very authentic Thai!). Garnish with extra chilli and coriander if desired.

Recipe Notes:

1. Light soy provides salt whereas the dark soy mainly adds colour, plus some flavour. You can use just light soy sauce (but your meat won't be as brown like you see in the photos). You could also use just all purpose soy sauce (i.e. label does not say "light", "dark" or "sweet" soy sauce). Don't use just dark soy sauce - the flavour will be too strong.

2. Use any chillis you want - and adjust amount to your taste. 3 birds eye red chillis which is what I use makes this mildly spicy, use 4 for quite spicy. 3 Thai chillies would be spicier.

If you don't have fresh chilli, you can either use dried red chilli flakes (1 1/2 tsp - add with garlic) or you can add chilli sauce or chilli paste into the sauce (i.e. the paste minced chilli sold in jars). I would use 2 1/2 tsp chilli paste or 1 tbsp Sriracha Sauce.

3. I know it's weird for a recipe to make 3 servings, but mince is sold in 500g/1lb packets here in Australia. So I always make this using that quantity of meat. Leftovers are fabulous!

4. To use this for bite size pieces of meat (500g / 1 lb), increase the Sauce by 50%, or reduce the meat to about 350g / 12 oz. Sauce spreads better throughout minced meat, so you don't need as much. For noodles, this amount of Sauce is enough for 2 servings - use 150g/5oz of dried rice noodles or 200g / 7 oz fresh noodles, plus meat and veg of choice.

5. Nutrition per serving, assuming 3 servings. The sodium can be reduced by using low sodium soy sauce.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 230gCalories: 427kcalCarbohydrates: 6.6g (2%)Protein: 49.6g (99%)Fat: 21.5g (33%)Saturated Fat: 4.8g (24%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 16.7gCholesterol: 148mg (49%)Sodium: 791mg (33%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 3g

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WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT

WARNING: Explicit sightings of Baby Hands may offend some. It was a really hot day when I filmed this, okay?? My hands swell in heat! ???

LIFE OF DOZER

You would think a dog this cute would sleep cute too. Curled up in a tight little ball, head snuggled on his paws.

But no. This is how he usually sleeps. Just layin’ it all out there.? At least he’s using his tail for modesty.

He better not have slobbered on my ugg boot!

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