Kai Kaphrao Khai Dao (Stir-Fried Chicken With Hot Basil)

Total Time: 30 minutes Serves: 1

Holy or hot basil (bai kaphrao in Thai) is a variety with a peppery flavor and distinctive aroma. To find it, your best bet is a Thai-focused market, though you might get lucky at Indian grocery stores (where the herb might be called tulsi) or farmers' markets. The other item worth seeking out for this dish is Thai black soy sauce—aka black thick soy sauce or dark thick soy sauce—a pitch-black, somewhat sweet type with the consistency of a thin syrup, available at Asian markets and online at templeofthai.com.

Ingredients

4 dried Thai chilies

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce

2 teaspoons Thai black soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

4 garlic cloves, peeled, halved lengthwise and crushed with a mortar and pestle

5 ounces ground chicken (preferably thigh meat) or pork

¼ cup thinly sliced long beans

¼ cup thinly sliced yellow onion

4 fresh red Thai chilies, thinly sliced

1 cup hot or holy basil leaves

1½ cups cooked jasmine rice

What to Do:

1. Make fried dried chilies: Place dried chilies in a wok with enough oil to coat them, about 2 tablespoons. Set wok over medium-low heat. Cook chilies, stirring constantly, until dark brown in color, 7-10 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer chilies to a paper-towel-lined plate. Once cool, coarsely crumble chilies.

2. Cook egg: Wipe wok clean and set over very high heat. Swirl in 2 tablespoons oil, coating sides of wok. When oil begins to smoke, add egg and cook until whites bubble and puff, about 5 seconds. Decrease heat to medium and continue to cook egg, frequently tipping wok slightly and basting egg with oil, until whites have set and turned golden at the edges and yolk is cooked to desired doneness, about 1 minute. Turn off heat and transfer egg to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain, leaving oil in wok.

3. In a small bowl, combine fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar.

4. Stir-fry chicken: Heat wok over very high heat. When oil begins to smoke, add crushed garlic and take wok off heat. Cook garlic, stirring often, until light brown, about 30 seconds. Put wok back on heat, then add chicken, long beans, onions and fresh red chilies. Stir-fry, constantly stirring and breaking up chicken, until meat is just barely cooked through, about 1 minute. Add fried chilies and fish sauce mixture and cook until liquid has been absorbed, about 1 minute. Turn off heat. Stir in basil and cook until wilted and fragrant, 15 seconds.

5. Serve chicken with jasmine rice and fried egg.

—Adapted from "Pok Pok" by Andy Ricker with J.J. Goode (Ten Speed Press)