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This popular Thai dish has many English spellings: Pad Kra Pao, Pad Ka Prao, Pad Ka Pow, Pad Krapow...etc. "Pad gaprao" is the phonetically closest spelling, but it seems to be the least popular way because most Thai people mispronounce it to begin with! Doesn't matter, because no matter how you spell it, they all point to this same delicious, rustic, spicy stir-fry featuring the aroma of holy basil. For a truly classic way to serve this dish, pour it over rice and top with a fried egg!
Thai "Fast Food"
In Thailand, this dish might be considered the equivalent of a sandwich or a burger. Something quick, easy, and ubiquitous that lots of people have for lunch. You can find pad gaprao at a simple street-side restaurant or in a food court, and many people have it for lunch. Sometimes vendors will make it fresh for you, other times, you can find it premade in a big tray and they just scoop it up and pour it over hot rice.
Frying an Egg Thai-Style
You can have this dish on its own with rice, but the most popular way is to have it with a fried egg. This classic combination is called "kao pad gaprao gai kai dao", which simply means rice with chicken holy basil stir-fry and a fried egg. Thai fried egg is fried in a LOT of oil because the key characteristic you want is that bubbly browned edges of the egg whites.
The creaminess of the slightly runny egg mellows out the strong, spicy flavour of the stir-fry, and that's why it's such a winning combo.
Changing Up the Chicken
Although this recipe is most popular with chicken, you can make it with just about every kind of protein imaginable. Pork, beef, seafood, or even vegetarian version made with tofu and/or mushrooms. So if chicken isn't your thing, feel free to change it up!
I use ground meat in this recipe because it's the most classic and the most "street" way you'll find pad kra pao, but you can use thinly sliced pieces of meat instead. Although, I REALLY think it tastes better with ground meat, so give it a go!
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Pad Kra Pao (Pad Gaprao) Chicken Stir-Fry with Holy Basil
- Yield: 2-3 Servings
Ingredients
- 5-10 Thai chilies, or to taste
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 spur chilies or another mild, red pepper, chopped
- ½ cup long beans, cut into short pieces
- ½ small onion, diced
- 300g chicken, coarsely ground (see video for how to grind your own chicken)
- 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1½ tsp black soy sauce (or sub dark soy sauce and reduce regular soy sauce to 2 tsp)
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1 ½ tsp sugar
- 1 ½ cup holy basil leaves, loosely packed (see note)
- Vegetable oil, as needed
- 2-3 eggs (1 per person)
- Jasmine rice for serving
- Prik Nam Pla (condiment for seasoning the egg, optional): Mix together some fish sauce, a squeeze of lime juice, chopped Thai chilies, and chopped garlic.
Note: If you don't have holy basil, Thai basil will work fine; however, I have found that regular Italian basil actually has a more similar flavour to holy basil than Thai basil does, so that will work as well!
Tools needed: A wok or a large skillet for the stir-fry. For the fried egg you can use a wok or a small frying pan, and non-stick would be better so you don't have to worry about the egg sticking.
Instructions
- Pound Thai chilies into a fine paste.
- Add garlic and spur chilies and pound into a rough paste.
- Combine oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, black soy sauce, water and sugar; stir to dissolve the sugar.
- In a wok or a large saute pan, saute the garlic-chili paste in a little vegetable oil over medium high heat until the garlic starts to turn golden.
- Add chicken and toss until they're no longer in big clumps. Add the sauce and continue tossing until the chicken is almost done.
- Add onions and long beans; toss until the chicken is done.
- Remove from heat and stir in the holy basil.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
For the fried egg:
- Heat about 1 cm of vegetable oil in a small non-stick pan or a wok over medium high heat.
- Once the oil is hot (you want the oil very hot, especially if you like runny yolk), crack the egg directly into the pan and let it fry until the edges are browned and bubbly.
Serve the stir-fry over rice and top it with the fried egg. Drizzle a little of the prik nam pla over the egg and enjoy!
Tony Morris
Thank you so much for this simply amazing recipe! I’ve cooked it twice now and it is fantastic. Everyone in our family loves it and it’s so easy to make. I use an electric wok and the eggs turn out perfectly!
★★★★★
mavee125
This Pad Kra Pao recipe is so delicious! I used Healthy Boy Brand Thin Soy Sauce which I bought at Karman Foods, as an alternative, and the taste was absolutely delightful! It's our family's new fave dish!
★★★★★
David Rowbottam (Rowdyman)
Khun Pailin, alloy mak!
Really enjoyed the flavours, we lived in Thailand for four years before returning to Australia. We're fortunate that the ingredients are easy to get most of the year here in Perth.
I could almost hear the two-stroke motor bikes as we enjoyed this dish.
★★★★★
Adam from HTK
Lol love it! 🙂
St
Hi Pailin! Have been following your recipes for forever. This has become my go to as it’s my favourite lunch dish and even though I live in your country (Thailand) COVID has certainly deprived me of ordering often from the small local shops. So I bought a basil plant and now I eat kaprao kai almost every other day following your recipe. Thanks a lot. Btw I have one question can I pre mix the sauces and sugar and keep in my pantry to have on hand always?
★★★★★
Pailin Chongchitnant
Hi! That's so great to hear! Yes you can pre mix the sauce. The sugar will have a hard time dissolving in such a thick/salty sauce, so you might want to add that when cooking, or dissolve in in a little bit of hot water (make a thick syrup) and then add it in. Thanks for the review!
Eine
I have tried this many times sooo good even though without holy basil cause my holy basil plant is dead. 🙁
★★★★★
Alison L.
So good!
★★★★★
Ralph
Favorite Thai dish! My holy Basil dies in the winter though. Any thoughts on making this with dried holy basil or powder? Frozen basil? I guess a small indoor greenhouse might be in the works.
Olga
If I omit the thai chilies entirely will I be missing a crucial piece to this dish? My kids are hyper sensitive to spicy food and those little chilies have some kick.
Pailin Chongchitnant
Yes and no. The dish is supposed to be spicy, so you wouldn't be experiencing the dish as it should be. However, if you make sure you have enough of the non-spicy peppers, then you'll still get the pepper flavour, and you can always add more spicy chilies to yours at the table!
Pailin Chongchitnant
I would recommend just making it work regular Italian basil. Dried or powdered just don't have good flavours.
Brett
Is it possible to prepare this in advance without adding the basil and refrigerate or freeze for any time.
Pailin Chongchitnant
Sure, you can certainly do that. It'll last a week in the fridge at least. Then add the basil when reheating.
Lyle
This recipe is awesome! So easy to prepare and although very authentic, it is better than you find in Thailand at typical fast food shops. This is more like an elevated version you'd find in a proper restaurant. Now two things I've noted. The black soy sauce is very much the flavor of molasses. I never found this flavor prevalent in dishes in Thailand. Unless you really want a molasses flavor very prevalent I suggest reducing to 1/3rd and add more after tasting. Second is the recommendation of 5-10 chilies. I made this with 3 and it has some nice heat, which made my nose a bit sniffley. Unless you and yours like quite spicy 5 chilies may be too much. You can always add heat but you can't remove it, so be careful. Oh and lastly if you only have Thai basil, it's still amazing I'm sure even with normal basil it'd be great.
★★★★★
Brett
My grand daughter asked me to make this dish for her12th birthday for 7 people and I had to break out the BIG wok.
I hav forwarded you recipe that least 5 of the parents at the party.
My daughter, son in law and grandkids had a vacation to Thailand 2 years ago to visit my sister and her new Thai husband and my grad daughters favourite dish on the trip was Pad Kra Pao. They spent 2 weeks in Hua Hin, where my sister lives and apparently she hat this dish several times.
Last week, my grad daughter graduated from elementary school and her request for dinner was the local Thai restaurant and she ordered Thai Basil Chicken.
The next day, she told me I should take my wok over to them and give some lessons.
GJ
Sawasdee krub Pai! 🙏 Do you have other Thai recipes that use Holy Basil aside from Pad Kra Pao?
Adam from HTK
Hi GJ! https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/?s=basil Have fun 🙂 Adam
Hannah
I made this with Thai basil instead and it was absolutely delicious!!! It tasted like the ones you get at thai restaurants. Next time, ill make it with the holy basil and see if there's a difference.
★★★★★
Ed
The difference is incredible, completely different dish and well worth doing!
Wendy
Love this! and I make it with Gluten Free sauces.
I used Thai Basil as I couldn't find Fresh Holy Basil.
★★★★★
Mark
I made this tonight. Really good, although i only put two chillies in. Thoroughly recomend the recipe.
★★★★
Melissa
I really want to make a vegetarian version of this, either using veggie beef crumbles or tofu and mushrooms. Could you advise how you would do it? Thank you!! All of your recipes look so good and I’m going to start making some of them soon.
★★★★★
Patrick
Hi I make a version of this fairly often and use Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) as a replacement. It works very well as a replacement for ground meat in general!
★★★★★
Aishvarya Arora
I've also made this using crumbled firm tofu (or even extra firm depending on what brand) and it comes out SUPER well! I have personally preferred that to using a crumbled meat substitute, because when I have used those they tend to impart their own additional flavor, and don't hold up as well texture wise.
Julie
Melissa, I made it with some steamed and chopped tempeh, and it was delicious! I also made it with crumbled extra firm tofu, and it wasn’t as good (that might have been my fault but it was mushy).
Bike
I love this dish and made it several times now. It is fast easy and delicious. A slightly different dish is this one with black century eggs. Is the recipe still the same? Just add the century eggs add the end?
★★★★
Marty
I've made this recipe a few times now and it's always great. I never have the black soy sauce so I just use regular... can't find holy basil so use Italian... bell pepper instead of spur chili... chicken or pork doesn't matter - it's always awesome! If you're reading the recipe and don't have some of the ingredients, you can improvise and it will still taste great.
★★★★★
Brett
The black soya sauce is readily available as Kecap Manis which is Indonesian sweet soya sauce in most western super markets.
Dana
Instructions are clear, ingredients are easy to find at the grocery store, and it's DELICIOUS!!! It's healthy takeout you can make yourself!
★★★★★
Riane
This recipe might be my favorite dish of all time, and it's at least in my top 3 dishes.
It's so tasty, and so unbelievably quick and simple to make! I hadn't even heard of it until I stumbled on your youtube channel, and now I make it almost every week!
Thanks so much for sharing this. I love making my roommates cough when I start frying, because no matter how high the fan is turned up or how open the windows are, it still gets everyone in the house. XD
★★★★★
Ian
In Chicago I have only been able to find one store that semi-regularly stocks Kaprao, but man do I wish I could have it in my fridge all the time. If that was the case this would definitely be a weekly make. Also a great dish to teach yourself how to love spicy food.
★★★★★
Visoot
This is the first time I have a comment on your website. But I have been following your posts and videos for years. They are very informative even for a Thai like me.
The recipe you post here is very much the standard Pad Gaprao as it is being cooked nowadays. But lately I have been having some misgivings with it. I find it too similar to 三杯鸡 (sān bēi jī) or 3-cup chicken, hence not Thai enough. I have been researching and experimenting with Pad Gaprao. One ingredient has stood out in my various experiments - ลูกกระวาน (Amomum kravanh). It gives my Pad Gaprao an unmistakeable Thai flavour profile. Khun Pai, as a professional chef, what is your take on adding ลูกกระวาน to the paste for Pad Gaprao?
Holly Salley
This is one of the most simple and delicious recipes I have ever made. I love the egg on top. Take that extra step. I love this one.
★★★★★
Michael
An easy to make Thai dish.
The basil tast makes it special. Everyone loves it.
I use minced pork meet because somtimes chicken could be dry a little.
★★★★★
Tabitha McIntyre
I use this recipe almost once a week! It tastes great and is easy to prepare. Reminds me of the food I enjoyed non Thailand!!
The Holy Basil/Thai Basil makes the dish!
★★★★★
Kev
Have used this recipe a few times thanks. I'm an Englishman who worked in Bangkok for years and cooking this takes me back. I add Maggi to the sauce and sprinkle liberally on the dish. The frozen basil you can get in supermarkets here works well.
★★★★★
Oanh
Made this tonight and it was delicious. Thank you so much!
★★★★★
Adam The HTK Intern
Excellent! 🙂