Thai Basil Fried Rice

I love Thai Food! Anytime we go traveling, we always look for a good Thai place especially the restaurants that are recommended by locals because they would know the best “hole in wall”

Anyhow for years now, I’ve been trying to make Thai food at home, but let’s just say my efforts have been not as successful. The dishes I have prepared in the past have not quite tasted as good at the ones in the Thai restaurants. I had mainly tried out recipes that I would read about, or ones that a friend may recommend. However, my passion for trying to make it at home didn’t work out so well until this last time when I decided to try out an idea that I came up on my own. Some friends of ours has a a lot of Thai basil growing and they asked if we wanted some to cook with. My husband was like quite skeptical, but I really wanted to try it out so I got some Thai basil from them and made my yummy Thai Basil Fried Rice.

So a few things that I’d to point is that with this recipe, feel free to make it just vegetarian or add meats. I personally used chicken, but even without the chicken, the fried rice was full of amazing flavors. Needless to say, this recipe was definitely a hit for Mr. Sunit! I hope you enjoy it!

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Thai Basil Fried Rice

Ingredients:

- 3-4 dried red chillies (soaked in hot water over night)

- 1 inch piece of ginger

- 5 garlic cloves

- 2 tsp sugar

- 2 tbsp of honey

- 3/4 cup of Uncle Bens rice or any other rice you prefer

- 2 cups julienned colored bell peppers

- 1/2 cup julienned red onions

- 1 cup small broccoli florets

- 1 cup of chicken tenders (optional)

- 2 eggs (optional)

- 3-4 tbsp soy sauce

- 2 chicken bullion cubes

- 2-3 green Thai chillies minced or blended

- Thai Basil leaves (a handful or more)

- 1/3 cup green onions/scallions

- 3-4 tbsp EVOO

Prep Work Directions

1 - Clean and cut the chicken tenders into 1 inch pieces and marinate them in 1/2 tsp of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp of minced ginger, 1/2 tsp of red crush pepper, and 1 tsp of sugar, and a tbsp of soy sauce. *

2 - Prepare dried red chillies paste (blend garlic, ginger, and soaked red chillies)

3 - Prepare green chilly paste (blend green chillies with 2 cloves of garlic)

4 - For stir fry: thinly sliced (3 cloves of garlic, 1 inch piece of ginger, 1 inch piece of red onion and 2 green chillies and set aside) *

5 - Boil water and add a tbsp of sugar and a tbsp of salt and then boil the rice in it until its cooked, but make sure its still a little al dente. *

*additional ingredients from the ones listed above.

Cooking Directions

1 - Add EVOO to a large wide skillet and turn it on medium heat, once the oil is heated, add the thinly sliced ingredients prepared for the stir fry: garlic, ginger, green Thai chillies, and red onions, and stir fry those for a couple of minutes.

2 - Throw in the colored bell peppers and the red onions and let them cook for about 3-4 minutes. Then throw in the broccoli florets.

3 - Once the broccoli has cooked for about 2 minutes, add in soy sauce, 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of honey, 1 chicken bouillon cube, and 1 tbsp of the Thai red chili paste and mix it all up. Then add the boiled rice and mix it and take it out on the side.

4 - In the same pan, add a tbsp of EVOO and one chicken bullion cube and cook the chicken over medium heat slowly, add 1 tsp of green chillies paste, 1 tsp of red chillies paste, 1 tbsp of honey, and 1 tsp of sugar. Take the chicken out on the side once it’s cooked.

5 - In the same pan, add 1 tsp of EVOO and crack two eggs, add a pinch of salt and pepper, and scramble them.

6 - Once the eggs are done add in the fried rice and the cooked chicken and mix it all up over medium heat.

7 - Lastly top it off with green onions/scallions and lots of Thai basil and mix it all up. The flavor from the Thai Basil is amazing with the sweet and spicy fried rice.