Tonight I made the Chicken with Basil, Chiles, and Fish Sauce recipe from The Wok. I almost skipped this one because it looks very similar to Thai Chicken with Basil (Gai Pad Gaprow), for which I already have a couple of recipes that are quite good.

Looking closer, though, it is not a traditional Thai Chicken with Basil, using corn starch in the chicken marinade and ginger in the stir fry, both of which seem to be a Chinese-esque addition. Lopez-Alt readily admits in the description that it is not traditional: “This recipe combines a few classic Thai flavors (basil, chiles, and fish sauce) in a super simple weeknight stir-fry that is not particularly authentic to any specific dish found in Thailand.”

The recipe used two additions of garlic: smashed garlic at the beginning and minced garlic halfway through. I might reuse this technique for other Thai dishes that fry minced or chopped garlic at the beginning, because it so often ends up burning. I again cooked the chicken in batches to help keep the wok hot and that seems to be working well for me.

I was confused to see that the recipe only calls for chile flakes, not fresh chiles, even moreso as the recipe pictures clearly shows chile slices. Additionally, there is not an amount specified for the chile flakes. I added a pinch and put the jar of flakes on the table for extra heat as needed.

I am glad I did not skip this recipe, because it was delicious. The chicken was much sweeter than it was spicy. Because I was not sure how spicy it was going to be, I went ahead and fried eggs for the kids. My son tried the chicken and gave it a thumbs up. My daughter refused to try it. My wife and I both enjoyed the dish, and I will definitely be making this one again.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.