Thai Weeknight Roasted Onion Basil Chicken Skillet

About This Recipe

This skillet dinner is built on the same logic as pad kra pao, Thailand's ubiquitous stir-fried holy basil dish, but roasts the onion beforehand to bring out a deeper sweetness that balances the dish's heat and salt. Holy basil (bai kra pao) has a peppery, almost clove-like flavor that's distinct from sweet Italian basil, and it's what gives the dish its name and character. The stir-fry itself moves fast: garlic and chile are pounded or minced fine and fried hard at the very start, the chicken goes in over high heat to sear rather than stew, and the basil is folded in only at the very last moment so it wilts without turning bitter or black. Serve it the traditional way — over jasmine rice with a fried egg on top, the yolk broken into the rice to bind everything together.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 2yellow onions(one roasted and sliced, one raw and sliced)
• 500 gground chicken
• 4 clovesgarlic(minced)
• 3Thai bird's eye chiles(minced (adjust to taste))
• 2 tbspneutral oil
• 2 tbspfish sauce
• 1 tbspoyster sauce
• 1 tspsoy sauce
• 1 tspsugar
• 1.5 cupsholy basil leaves(or Thai basil)
• 4eggs
• 3 cupscooked jasmine rice

Instructions

1. 1

   Roast one onion

   Toss half the sliced onion with a little oil and roast at 200°C (400°F) for 20 minutes until soft and browned at the edges. Set aside.

2. 2

   Fry garlic and chile

   Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add garlic and chile and stir-fry 20-30 seconds until fragrant, being careful not to burn the garlic.

3. 3

   Add the chicken

   Add ground chicken and the raw sliced onion. Stir-fry over high heat, breaking up the meat, for 5-6 minutes until browned and mostly cooked through.

4. 4

   Season

   Stir in fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar. Cook 1-2 more minutes until well coated and glossy.

5. 5

   Add roasted onion and basil

   Fold in the roasted onion, then remove from heat and stir in the basil leaves — the residual heat will wilt them without turning them black.

   Adding basil off the heat keeps its flavor bright instead of bitter.

6. 6

   Fry the eggs and serve

   Fry eggs sunny-side up with crispy edges in a separate pan. Serve the chicken over rice, each portion topped with a fried egg.

Variations

• •

  Use ground pork or beef instead of chicken for a heartier version.

• •

  Make it vegetarian with crumbled firm tofu and mushrooms, using soy sauce instead of fish sauce and oyster sauce.

• •

  Increase the chiles for a much spicier version, closer to how it's often made at Thai street stalls.

Storage

Refrigerate up to 3 days; the basil will darken but the flavor holds. Reheat in a hot skillet rather than the microwave to keep the texture from turning mushy. Fry a fresh egg for each reheated portion.

Frequently Asked Questions