Guest Post: Thai Basil Chicken

It makes me wonder if there is a correlation between fashion people and food, aside from both starting with the letter F.


I have known Che Bool- Ilarde since she was designing for a large clothing company in EDSA. She is currently living in Singapore with her husband and are often mistaken for Piolo Pascual and Angel Locsin. (hahaha)


Aside from the business connection, she also got me as her Godmother during her wedding (ok, don't ask me, I was expecting her to ask me to be Ninang to her child, not her wedding.! )


This is her first blog post.  THAI BASIL CHICKEN

So I woke up one morning and realized I had this chicken fillet in the

freezer sitting for almost 2 weeks now.  I must find something to use it for, but what recipe? I dare not attempt another chicken alfredo linguine. (my go-to recipe of all time)

And then I remembered my LOVE for Basil Chicken Rice.  I usually get to have it only once a month when I venture out of my cave/office and try the hawker food stalls in Lau pa Sat and Suntec.  It is only there whereI can find the perfect Basil Chicken Rice. It has just the right blend of spicy Chicken stir-fried with the aromatic fresh basil leavesslathered on (guilt-free) brown rice :)    What better opportunity to try to cook it at home than on the weekend, and use my half month old chicken to boot!

When I googled for the recipe, they had tons of variations but it was
very simple to do and the ingredients are very basic.  I think
preparation and cooking time will be 20 mins tops.

Ingredients:

1/4 kg chicken fillet, chopped into small baby bite size pieces.
1 tbsp garlic (finely chopped)
1 1/4 tbsps fish sauce/patis  (can reduce to 1 tbsp)
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (see photo for the singaporean soy sauce I used)
1 big bunch of fresh basil leaves (stems removed)
1 pc siling labuyo (small bird' eye chili) or  1/4 tsp dried chili flakes
ground white pepper (to taste)
3 tbsp olive oil

In a small cup, mix together the fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar.  Set aside.
Heat olive oil over medium-high heat and fry garlic till light brown.
Add the chicken meat into the pan.  Stir around until chicken meat
changes color.  Sprinkle in the Chili and Patis/Soy Sauce, Sugar
mixture and continue frying.  Once chicken is cooked and golden brown,
toss in the basil leaves until the leaves are slightly wilted and you
can smell the fragrance of the basil.

Add a dash or two of ground white pepper.
Serve immediately on top of white or brown rice.The portions I listed here will be 2-3 servings.  I was hoping therewould be some left over for my husband's later meal (ergo, round 2) but, alas, he finished all even if I barely ate one serving.  He did say it was a tad salty so anybody trying this may want to tweak the fish sauce and soy sauce portions a bit. And if you like your food spicy, feel free to put in more chili :)