Thai Chicken with Basil, "Gai Pad Gaprao"

This is a quick and easy dish to make.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons chopped garlic 
2 tablespoons chopped shallots 
2 tablespoons chopped mixed red & green jalapeno peppers
1 teaspoon green peppercorns, whole. 
1/4 cup fish sauce 
2 tablespoons palm sugar 
1 cup coarsely chopped basil leaves, add ground pepper if preferred

You can vary this recipe by adding a medium diced spanish onion or sliced green onions, or a combination. 

1 pound ground or minced chicken

Method

The garlic, shallots, peppers and peppercorns are ground together in a mortar and pestle. In a hot wok with a little cooking oil, briefly stir fry this paste to bring out the flavor and aroma. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to stir until the chicken is cooked through.

Serving

Serve over Thai jasmine rice, or over a fried egg or egg crepe, placed on the rice. For dinner it goes well with the hot and sour tom yum soups, as well as curries and other Thai food. 

Add the usual Thai table condiments as well as ground chilis and sugar. You might add ground black pepper also.

Variants

You can experiment by replacing the meat with hard tofu marinated in a mixture of sweet soy, fish sauce and ground ginger, soy, or a vegetable mix of your choice (we like to mix broccoli and cauliflower florets, with julienned carrots), to make a vegetarian gai pad-gaprao.