Thai Basil Chicken

Thai Basil Chicken is arguably the gold standard of Thai Chicken stir fries! An incredibly fast and easy Thai recipe that truly tastes just as good as you’ll get at your favourite restaurant, served over jasmine rice. BONUS: No hunting down unusual ingredients!

If you’re feeling inspired, indulge in a Thai banquet at home with Chicken Satay Skewers, Thai Fish Cakes, Thai Green Curry or Red Curry, and Thai Fried Rice!

Thai Basil Chicken

Wowser. I LOVE Thai Basil Chicken. Just looking at these photos and writing up this post has me peeved that I’ll shortly be reheating leftovers instead of firing up the wok. (That’s a nice insight into the immaturity that is me.)

This is a recipe I got from the mother of a friend way back when I was in uni. Obviously, a Thai friend!

And it’s one of the few recipes that I haven’t tinkered with at all. I usually can’t help it – even recipes from well respected chefs. But this one – it’s perfect as it is. It is truly just like what you get at (good) Thai restaurants and on the streets of Thailand!

What you need for Thai Basil Chicken

Here’s what you need for Thai Basil Chicken. The really nice thing about this Thai recipe is that you can get everything you need from the grocery store – at least, you can here in Australia!

Thai Basil

Thai Basil is a key ingredient in this recipe, being the namesake and all. 😂

Thai Basil tastes like normal basil with a hint of aniseed flavour. Nowadays it’s fairly widely available in Australia in large grocery stores and green grocers (Coles, Woolies, Harris Farms).

In actual fact, the authentic version of Thai Basil Chicken is Thai Holy Basil which is different to Thai Basil. It’s actually quite hard to find even in Thai stores, so much so that most Thai restaurants just use ordinary Thai Basil and it’s the flavour that most people have become accustomed to.

Here’s a photo showing the difference between holy basil and Thai Basil.

In the video and photos, I’ve used Thai Holy Basil. (Sydney-siders, I found it in the dark depths of a Thai grocery store in the city, I had to ask for it and the store owner got it from the back!)

Thai Basil Chicken is often overly saucy when you get it from mid-standard restaurants outside of Thailand.

This recipe sticks more to the traditional way of cooking it with enough sauce to coat the stir fry and to soak the rice a bit (enough!). But not so much sauce that when you dish it up, it’s sitting in a pool of sauce which frankly is too salty and unnecessary because the flavours of this dish are so strong, you don’t need all that sauce.

Serve this over Jasmine rice or any other rice of choice. If you want to add a fresh side, try this Asian Slaw – it’s a great all rounder that goes with all Asian foods. Or for a simpler option, just add a side of plain chunks of tomato and cucumber which is a common side that’s added to plates in Thailand.

As with all stir fries, this Thai recipe moves super fast once you start cooking – about 5 minutes. So if you can get the chopping done in 10 minutes, you’ll have dinner on the table in 15 minutes.

Hey! That’s faster than ordering home delivery! – Nagi xx

Watch how to make it

More Thai takeout favourites

• Pad Thai – truly just like takeout!

• Thai Red Curry and Green Curry

• Massaman Curry

• Starters – Chicken Satay and Thai Fish Cakes

• Thai Fried Rice

• Pad See Ew – Thai stir fried noodles

• Thai Cashew Chicken Stir Fry

• Browse the Thai recipe collection

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Thai Chilli Basil Chicken

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Prep: 10 mins

Cook: 5 mins

Total: 15 mins

Stir Fry

Thai

4.97 from 85 votes

Servings2

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Recipe video above. Right off the streets of Thailand, made in your own home! Spicy, garlicky and savoury with a hint of sweet. Gold standard Thai chicken stir fry, quick to make and no hunting down unusual ingredients.

Ingredients

• ▢ 225g / 7oz chicken thigh fillets , skinless boneless, cut into bite size pieces
• ▢ 1 green onion , cut into 4cm / 2" lengths.
• ▢ 1 cup Thai basil leaves , loosely packed (Holy Basil if you can find it) (Note 1)
• ▢ 2 garlic cloves , large, finely chopped (Note 2)
• ▢ 1 birds eye or Thai chilli , deseeded and finely chopped
• ▢ 1 1/2 tbsp oil (peanut, vegetable or canola)

Sauce

• ▢ 2 tsp oyster sauce
• ▢ 1 tsp light soy sauce (Note 3)
• ▢ 1 tsp dark soy sauce (or all purpose) (Note 3)
• ▢ 1 tsp sugar
• ▢ 2 tbsp water

Serving

• ▢ Steamed jasmine rice

Instructions

• Put Sauce ingredients in a small bowl and mix to combine.
• Heat oil in wok or pan over high heat.
• Add garlic and chilli and cook for 10 seconds. Don't inhale - the chilli will make you cough!
• Add the white part of the green onions and chicken and fry until cooked, around 2 minutes.
• Add Sauce and cook for 1 minute until the water reduces to make a thick glossy sauce.
• Toss through green part of green onions and basil leaves. Stir until just wilted, then serve immediately with steamed jasmine rice.

Recipe Notes:

1. Holy Basil is the type of Thai basil used in the authentic recipe. It has a more aniseedy / peppery flavour than normal sweet basil used in Italian cooking, and is available at some Thai groceries.

Thai Basil is the more common type of basil that is sold at supermarkets here in Australia (Coles, Woolies, Harris Farms) and used in Thai restaurants.  Because my closest Asian store is a trek away, I usually make this with Thai Basil.

If you can't find Thai or Holy Basil, this is still totally worth making using normal basil. The sauce has a strong flavour and dominates, the basil is the fragrant accent flavour.

2. Garlic - Finely chopping the garlic rather than minced it (or using jarred garlic) stops it from burning quickly and spitting when it hits the hot wok.

3. Soy sauces - can sub light soy sauce or both the light and dark soy with ordinary all purpose soy (like Kikkoman). Or can use just light soy sauce. Flavour not quite as intense as it should be and colour will be paler, but still super tasty.

Do not use JUST dark soy sauce, flavour will be too intense.

4. Serving size - This recipe makes one giant serving or 2 reasonable sized servings. Complete the meal with a simple side of juicy slices of cucumber and tomato with no dressing - this is very Thai! Refreshing accompaniment to spicy Thai food.

5. Nutrition per serving excluding rice.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 160gCalories: 360cal (18%)Carbohydrates: 5g (2%)Protein: 19g (38%)Fat: 29g (45%)Saturated Fat: 6g (38%)Cholesterol: 110mg (37%)Sodium: 588mg (26%)Potassium: 231mg (7%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 2g (2%)Vitamin A: 148IU (3%)Vitamin C: 2mg (2%)Calcium: 14mg (1%)Iron: 1mg (6%)

Keywords: thai basil chicken, Thai chicken, thai recipes, thai stir fry

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

Originally published in July 2014, updated with fresh new (better!) photos, new words, a brand new recipe video and of course I added a Life of Dozer section!

Life of Dozer

Story of his life. And mine, for that matter.

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