Sunday, June 03, 2007

Simple, Tasty!


Thai Basil Chicken
Threw this together for lunch on Saturday. I posted the recipe just over a week ago and I followed it almost exactly and it's really easy and super tasty. Hit The Spot! There are a few suggestions I'll do next time to make it a we bit easier and maybe a touch more tasty!


Gather your ingredients together. This is a stir fry so you want to be able to move quickly.

Here's the chicken hanging out in the egg white/cornstarch bath. Looks like a cereal bowl of chicken. Icky!

Chicken, onions and jalapenos.

The sauce has been added and is simmering.

Off heat with Thai Basil from my garden added!

Plated up with coconut rice and garnished with the flower from the Thai Basil plant.


My notes:
Egg white/cornstarch step: I'm not sure if there was something that didn't work for me or what, but I found this step to be a touch excessive and I don't think it brought anything to the party. I found myself picking out and removing chunks of cooked egg white and cornstarch. So in the future, I'll plan to make this, but skip this step. I will still cut the chicken super thin. I will first start the onions in the pan, give them a brief moment by themselves, then add the chicken and allow to cook for a minute before adding the sauce. I suspect that the cornstarch is in the egg whites to help thicken the sauce in some way, so I will have a small bowl with 1 tsp of cornstarch mixed with water and be prepared to add that to the pan after the sauce as heated, in case it doesn't want to thicken. Make sense? Let me know. If someone has made this and knows what the egg whites/cornstarch mix are supposed to turn out like, please let me know.

Oil: So if you remove the egg white step, you can stir fry the onions and chicken in just a small touch of oil, not the 1/4 to 1/2 cup called for in the recipe. I didn't use a full 1/2 cup this time, but there was plenty in there. I would like it better with less oil! Maybe 2 tablespoons max.

Flavors: The flavors were great! But I would probably add some extra heat with red pepper flakes or an additional jalapeno.

Additions: While enjoying this tasty morsel we traded back and forth ideas of what we might like to add. I thought bite sized pieces of fresh pineapple and some cashews would be great. Joyous suggested water chestnuts for crunch. Bell pepper would probably be alright, but you do want the basil flavor to come through and I can see the bell pepper having the potential to mask those flavors.

This was super tasty and we look forward to having it again. A winner!

3 comments:

Dancer in DC said...

Yum - very tasty! You'll have to live with the strong scent of fish sauce in your kitchen for a couple minutes, but once it's to the table, you won't regret it.

Anonymous said...

Yes i want to eat with you !

Anonymous said...

It was so good, and I'm convinced I could make it myself. In fact, heading to Whole Foods today to get coconut milk and fish sauce. Who would believe I would ever have fish sauce in my kitchen????