Thai Basil Chicken

[shelley]

This is one of the easiest and tastiest stir-fried meals I've ever come across. It has a totally exotic flavor that makes everyone think you slaved for hours.

The only difficult part of this meal is finding the right ingredients. To make Thai dishes, you have to have fermented fish sauce, or Nam Plah (spelled a myriad of ways). It and soy sauce are their main salts. They don't tend to use table salt much. Fish sauce is cheap and can be stored forever.

The other difficult ingredient is the fresh Thai Basil. It absolutely has to be fresh basil, and for that exotic Thai flavor should be Thai Basil, or Purple Basil as its often called because it is purple and green and smells like anise or licorice. Luckily I have Vietnamese grocery stores near me so a quick trip gets me a cup of fresh basil for just a couple dollars.

Here's the recipe:

3 chicken breast halves, partially defrosted (easier to chop when partially frozen) cut into bite-sized, stir-fry pieces.
1 cup (or as much as you can find) of Thai Basil. Can substitute with another fresh basil. Remove the thickest stems by stripping off the leaves and just use the leaves and tops.
1 sweet red bell pepper, cored and chopped into bite-size pieces.
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic
1 tablespoons oil

In a small bowl, mix the following:

1 teaspoon soy sauce (preferably Tamari, which is fermented)
1 and 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce (recipe originally called for 2 tablespoons but I found that to be too salty)
1 tablespoon sugar or crystallized fructose or Stevia
1 tablespoon water
Stir until sugar dissolves.

On low heat add oil and garlic and cook the garlic until it's aromatic and sweated, about one minute.

Increase the temperature to med-high and add the chicken, stirring constantly. Cook until most of the pink is gone.

Add the sauce and stir a bit.

Add the basil and cook until it wilts, about 1-2 minutes.

Add the red pepper and cook just to warm it up, keep it crisp and mostly raw.

Serve over jasmine rice or white basmati.