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Thai Basil Chicken with Green Beans and Spinach (Pad Ka Prao)

Pad Ka Prao, or more formally known around my house as “that Thai chicken thing that you make”, is quickly becoming one of our favorite weeknight dishes. It’s essentially a garlicky-gingery chicken dish with a ton of fresh basil sitting in a salty, funky, kinda sweet sauce. It comes together in about 25 minutes, you only need one pan to make it, and it’s craveable as hell. The combo of the ginger and basil brings a razor-sharp freshness here, and the salty-sweet-fish-sauce-brown-sugar thing makes your mouth water, and it’s unmistakably Thai.
Servings: 4
Author: Brian Lagerstrom

Ingredients

  • canola oil as needed for stir-frying
  • kosher salt to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon red chili flakes
  • 2 cups french green beans haricots verts, 175 grams, cut into 2” or 5 cm pieces
  • 1 pound boneless-skinless chicken thighs ½ kg (pre-ground chicken works too)
  • 3 shallots 100 grams, rough chopped in ½" x 1" dice
  • 5 cloves garlic 15 grams, minced
  • 3 tablespoons fresh grated ginger 15 grams
  • 1 bunch raw spinach about 4 cups, leaves washed and tough stems removed
  • 1 cup fresh basil 20 grams, chiffonade(d)
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 cups prepared calrose rice 1½ cups dry, to serve

Sauce:

  • ½ tablespoon soy sauce 25 grams
  • ½ tablespoon fish sauce 25 grams
  • 3 tablespoons oyster sauce 50 grams, or hoisin
  • 4 teaspoons chicken stock 50 grams
  • 2 tablespoons palm sugar 25 grams, or brown sugar

Instructions

Prepare the chicken:

  • If grinding your own chicken, cut the chicken into 1" chunks; cut in half lengthwise then into quarters crosswise.
  • Spread the chicken in an even layer on a small tray and freeze for 10 minutes.

Prepare the rice, vegetables, and aromatics, and mix the sauce while you wait for chicken to freeze:

  • Add the rice to a rice cooker with a pinch of salt and cook.
  • To make the sauce, stir together the ingredients until the sugar is dissolved.
  • Add the 10-minute frozen chicken to a food processor and process to break down into a coarse medium grind, for about 15 seconds on high speed.

Cook the green beans:

  • Preheat a large saute pan over high and add a long squeeze of oil.
  • Add the cut green beans and a pinch of salt and stir to combine.
  • Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring until they’re charred on the outside and slightly softened. The goal is to get them halfway to tender while also getting them nice and charred on the outside.
  • Remove the green beans from the pan and set aside.

Cook the chicken:

  • Add another squeeze of oil to the pan and add the chicken with a pinch of salt, breaking up the chicken while you cook for about 3 minutes until beginning to brown. Don't be too generous with the salt here as the sauce will provide a lot of seasoning as well.

Cook the aromatics:

  • Add the chopped shallots and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.
  • Add the garlic, ginger, and chili flakes.
  • Continue to cook for about 30 seconds.

Cook the spinach and sauce:

  • Add back in the cooked green beans along with the raw spinach. Avoid any temptation to add more salt here, as the sauce will bring plenty of seasoning.
  • When the spinach is wilted in, stir in the sauce.
  • Cook for 20-30 seconds or until the sauce has reduced a bit and the pan is almost dry. You want a little bit of sauciness and mosture in the final dish, but since this is an unthickened sauce, if there's too much of it, things are going to be too juicy.
  • Remove from heat and stir in all of the basil.
  • Cover to keep warm while preparing the eggs.

Fry the eggs:

  • In a separate skillet, heat canola oil over medium-high heat.
  • Add the eggs and cook until the edges are brown and the whites are set, sunny side-up. Right away the eggs should bubble up and be kind of spitting in the pan. You're trying to replicate eggs that have been fried in a wok. That high temperature gets the eggs a little bit crispy around the outside and kind of makes them bubbly and rugged looking.
  • After about a minute or so the bottom should be well set up and the edges are getting well fried, so you can then baste any residual oil in the pan on any whites that aren't fully set up.
  • Serve the pad ka prao over rice and top with a fried egg.

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