Chicken with basil and chili

I first had this dish five years ago in a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms in Bangkok.  It was mind bendingly hot and it's the first time in my life that chilli made me feel.....well....a little odd.  The strangeness was compounded by thousands of fairy lights festooned around the place and by the giant snail and chorus of frogs that had taken up residence on the wall next to our table.  It was all a bit Lewis Carroll.  I digress; the dish was incredible.  The chili was an essential part of the flavour and not just there for heat, something that I didn't really appreciate prior to that night.  I've never had a better version to this day.

There seem to be hundreds of 'authentic' recipes for chicken with basil and chili and I have no idea (and don't especially care) which is correct as long as the end result tastes good.  My recipe is a hodge podge of various online versions and David Thompson's version, although he includes coriander root and doesn't add any oyster sauce or kecap manis.  My version was a mix of what I had sitting in the fridge and cupboard.  The whole thing takes about half an hour and you can cut that further by chopping up the chicken and veg the night before. 

The essential base is the chili, thai basil and fish sauce. The rest can be altered within reason according to taste. 
  • Chicken thighs (breast if you must, but it's not as good)
  • 4-8 large red chillies coarsely chopped
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 2-3 small red birds eye chillies
  • 1 large bunch of Thai basil, leaves picked off and left whole
  • 1 red pepper - chopped
  • 1 large onion - chopped into wedges and the layers separated
  • 1 tbsp palm sugar - easy to buy in blocks
  • 3 tbsp of fish sauce (maybe more)
  • 2 tbsp of kecap manis (thick, sweet Indonesian soy sauce) or oyster sauce.  I used kecap manis this time.
  • Salt
Before we start I've got a couple of kitchen tips that may be obvious but have saved me a lot of time;
  1. the easiest way to peel garlic is to first crush it a little with the flat of the knife, after which the skin will fall away; and
  2. to de-seed a large chili just chop of the fat end, turn it upside down and roll it between your hands like your trying to make a snake out of plasticine. The seeds will fall right out.
Put two or three of the chilies, the peeled garlic and a teaspoon of salt into a mortar and pestle (or electric blitzer) and mash them up to a coarse paste.  Turn the hob on high and put some peanut oil in the wok if you have one, which I don't just now, but a saute pan works just as well.  When the oil is hot add in the chili/garlic paste and fry for a minute or two.  Now add the chicken and onion and stir fry for a few minutes.  Next up add the peppers, fish sauce, palm sugar (just bung it in, it'll melt down) and kecap manis/oyster sauce.  Give it a good stir, add half the basil and let it cook for a minute.  Turn the heat off and add the rest of the basil and the coarsely chopped chilies.  Taste and add more fish sauce depending on preference.  Serve with rice and, if like me you're chasing the perfect chili high, a dish of freshly chopped bird's eye chilies.  Serve with some jasmine rice and a cold beer.

Quick, easy and incredibly tasty.

(download)

Tagged Quick Dinner Recipe Thai
​