Kra Pow Chicken

I’m cooking for myself at the moment – and trying to keep it at least a little healthy…especially given the amount I’m eating and drinking on the weekends!

Hubby left meals in the freezer for me, but I’ve been trying not to eat from plastic every night.

The problem is, I leave the house at 6.30am (in the dark), and get in around 6.45pm. I’m generally in bed writing by 9pm so I’m not too exhausted when the alarm goes off at 5am for me to do some more writing before work.

That means that not only do I need to have the groceries in the house, but what I cook has to be able to be on the table in 30 minutes or less.

This kra pow chicken from Adam Liaw’s Asian After Work is perfect. It’s also comfort food in a bowl.

Very like chicken larb or larb gai, it doesn’t have the roasted rice in it. The kra pow, or kra pao refers to thai holy basil- although if you have problems getting holy basil, then the normal one is ok, although, as Adam points out in the book, the name would technically be different. Whatever. I used both – I like a lot of basil…and I have a lot growing!

Essentially, then, this is stir fried minced chicken with holy basil and a fried egg on top. Ok?

Oh, it’s also known as pad kra pao gai on the street…

To do ahead:

Nothing. This one will be on the table in the time it takes you to cook your rice (if you’re not carb challenged) and fry your eggs.

My tips:

Have everything ready to go. For a meat free alternative, this would also work with prawn or squid.

What you need…

• 3 gloves of garlic
• 2 large red chillies, de-seeded (we like it hot so added a thai scud as well)
• 500g chicken mince (it’s best if you mince your own chicken meat, but who has time for that?)
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp peanut (or other vegetable) oil
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• ½ tsp caster sugar (I used coconut sugar)
• 1 ½ cups loosely packed torn holy basil leaves
• Fried egg to serve
• Cooked rice and lime wedges to serve.

What you do with it…

• Chop the chilli and garlic together on a board.
• Pop the chicken mince and oyster sauce into a separate bowl and mix together.
• Heat your wok over a high heat, add the oil.
• Stir fry your garlic and chilli for a few minutes and add your chicken and oyster sauce.
• Toss it all about a bit, and then add the fish sauce and sugar.
• Cook it all for another minute or so, adding a little water if it all looks too dry, and then stir through the basil leaves.