Thai Basil Chicken

5 from 17 votes

A delicious, simple, quick, and easy, spicy Thai Basil Chicken made with diced or ground chicken, yardlong beans, and fresh Thai basil tossed in a savory umami sauce made with fish sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar.

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Total Time15

Course: Asian, Main

Cuisine: Thai

Servings:

Calories: 195kcal

Author: Joyce Lee

Ingredients

1 lb chicken (approx. 3 cups, diced boneless dark meat or ground chicken)
½ cup yardlong beans (or green beans)
3 cloves garlic (approx. 1 tablespoon)
1-2 shallots (approx. ¼ cup)
2 birds eye chili
1 cup Thai basil (leaves only, approx. 1 cup) or Holy Basil

Thai Basil Chicken Sauce

1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce
1 ½ teaspoons dark soy sauce
1 ½ tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 ½ tablespoons water

Instructions

Prepare the Sauce

Mix all the Thai basil sauce ingredients together into a small bowl and set it aside for later.
1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce, 1 ½ teaspoons dark soy sauce, 1 ½ tablespoons oyster sauce, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 ½ tablespoons water

Prepare the Aromatics

Mince the garlic and chilies finely and set them aside for later.
Dice the shallots (or small onion) and set them aside
Cut off the tips of the beans (the stem side) and discard them. Cut the yardlong beans (or green beans) into small bite-sized pieces.
You will only need to use the Thai basil leaves for this dish, since the stems are usually tough and woody, so rip off all the leaves and set them aside and discard the stems.

Prepare the Chicken (If You're Not Using Ground Chicken)

If you're not using minced or ground chicken, dice the chicken into small ½ inch pieces and set it aside.

Cook Everything in a Very Hot Pan or Wok

You want to make sure you are setting your stove to high heat because this is a very quick stir fry and you don't want your chicken to 'steam or sweat.' in the pan.
Add a few tablespoons of oil once the pan is hot.
Add the shallots and chicken into the hot pan and cook the chicken until it is fully cooked.
The time it takes will vary depending on your stove's power and the pan's thickness, whether you use a frying pan or a wok. It took about 5 minutes for me to fully cook it on a gas stove with a thick carbon fiber frying pan.
You may also notice that your chicken may release water, and that's okay! This usually happens if your heat is not high enough or if you use ground chicken since it tends to have more water in it.
To remove the excess water, you just need to cook it for longer until all the water evaporates, and you are only left with browned chicken.
Once your chicken is fully cooked, add in the garlic, yardlong beans, birds eye chilies, and sauce and cook it for about 3 minutes until the green beans are fully cooked but still have a bit of a crisp crunch.
Turn off the heat, and then mix in the Thai basil leaves. Keep mixing everything until the basil leaves wilt.
Serve over white rice with a fried egg, and enjoy!

Notes

I find it easiest to make the fried egg first and set it aside, before I start stir-frying anything. That way, the fried egg is made on a clean frying pan or wok and it doesn't stick to it from the residual stir-fry sauces.
If your chicken starts to 'sweat' and a lot of water comes out (this is more common in ground meat), keep cooking it until all the moisture evaporates before moving on to the next step.
Preparing everything ahead will make this dish very easy to put together.
You want to turn off the heat before adding in the Thai basil because cooking the Thai basil will destroy some of the oils where all the flavor comes from. Don't worry, the residual heat from the chicken will wilt the basil and soften it.
Always use fresh basil to make this Thai dish. Dried basil doesn't have the same flavor and strength as fresh basil, even if you use the whole pack.
If you can find Holy basil then definitely try to use that. It is a completely different flavor than Thai basil but it is the traditional way to make it. It is a lot more floral and it has a lot less anise flavor but it's definitely more difficult to find from the two basils. If you cannot find it at an Asian or South Asian grocery store, you may be able to find it at an Indian grocery store but they might call it 'tulsi' instead of 'holy basil'.
If you cannot find Thai basil or Holy basil, then you can use the more common Genovese basil/Italian basil instead. It won't taste exactly the same, but having some basil is better than having none since it gives a lot of flavor to this dish :)

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