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You can find great street food all over the world, of course, but I think Thai street food is hard to beat. Unfortunately though we can’t all pop over to the streets of Bangkok whenever we get a craving – so I thought I’d try and make this delicious Thai basil pork stir-fry for myself. Absolutely delicious, and ready in just 15 minutes!
I came across something very similar to this dish a few weeks ago in a new Thai street food restaurant called Zaap that’s recently opened in my town.
Not to be a Debbie Downer or anything, but I usually brace myself for disappointment at these kinds of places. But wow – I loved this restaurant! The dishes were simple, the portions were generous and the prices surprisingly reasonable.
And as the entire restaurant is set out like a real Thai street, and not really in a gimmicky way, you truly do get the bona fide Thai street food experience.
Any normal person would simply pop back to the restaurant for another plate of this delicious Pad Ga Prao, of course. Well, actually, I will. But first I wanted to figure out how to make my own version so that I could share it with you good people!
This is apparently a really common day-to-day dish in Thailand – usually eaten with rice, and often topped with a fried egg, which is the way I’ve made it. Well, to be precise there was an egg for me, and no egg for Mr. Scrummy, who hates eggs on top of anything! 😉
As usual, what I love so much about this dish is the amount of intense flavour for the length of time it takes to make – barely 15 minutes once you’ve fished the various sauces out of your cupboard (but I’m sure your food cupboard is better organised than mine!).
The main flavour in it comes from the mixture of soy sauces, fish sauce and oyster sauce, the Thai basil, and the chilies, of course. If we were being totally authentic here (which we’re not), we’d be using something called ‘Holy basil’, but as this is difficult to find over here, I decided to use simple Thai basil from an Asian supermarket. If you can’t find either of these types of basil, just use any basil. The finished dish won’t taste entirely the same, but it will taste just as wonderful.
The version of this that I first tried in the restaurant was made with chicken, so if you like you can make it with chicken mince instead of pork. Or even beef.
It’s totally up to you whether you throw a fried egg on the top or keep it ‘au naturel’, of course, but I’d highly recommend going the eggy route! For me, it turns a really great dish into an excellent one. 🙂
15-minute Thai basil pork stir-fry (Pad Ga Prao)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon kecap manis sweet thick Indonesian soy sauce*
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 4 tablespoons water
- 5.5 ounces fresh green beans chopped into small lengths (1 to 2 inches)
- 3-6 small red chillis** de-seeded and chopped finely
- 4 garlic cloves crushed or chopped finely
- 7 ounces minced pork or chicken, turkey, beef!
- a really large handful of Holy basil or Thai Basil if you can’t find it
to serve
- plain rice
- fried eggs 1 per person - optional
Instructions
- Mix together the fish sauce, soy sauce, kecap manis, oyster sauce and water in a bowl or jug and set aside.
- Heat up a large drizzle of oil in a wok or stir-fry pan, then stir-fry the green beans for a few minutes. Add the chopped chillis and garlic and stir-fry for a couple more minutes.
- Add the pork and stir-fry until cooked (an additional few minutes). Pour in the sauce, stir well, then let bubble for a minute or two more.
- Stir in the basil until wilted, then serve with the rice (and a fried egg, if desired).
Notes
Nutrition
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[email protected] says
Hi Helen, I think this would be my next breakfast recipe. I don’t have too much time for cooking breakfast. But I still want to try different kinds of recipes. I would come back if I have any question. Thanks.
Helen says
Hi Tiana. Wow, I bet this would be fabulous for breakfast. I really hope you enjoy it! Thank you so much for popping by and please do ask anything at all.
Jen - Eatreadtravel says
I’ve made this one multiple times now, and it just keeps getting better! Last time I added half a shredded cabbage as well, and even grated a carrot (I was feeling like a super serve of veggies that night!). It was delicious. I love how you can add or substitute things so easily, it’s delicious!
Helen says
Hi Jen, thank you once again for leaving lovely feedback! I love this recipe too and it’s a great idea to add extra veggies:-)
steve g says
Wow, looks so tasty, but the problem I run into is all these fishy sauces. I’m not really a fish lover( actually more hate than lover) wondering if this would work with other sauces??? hmmmmm
Helen says
Hi Steve. Believe it or not, you don’t really taste the ‘fish’ in the fish sauce. It’s more salty than anything.
steve g says
hehe, ok, but my girlfriend once told me the reason I don’t like fish is the people cooking it were cooking it wrong, and she bet she could get me to like fish. she then proceed to cook a dish with fish(without my knowledge) then asked me how the dish was. I said fine except for the fish taste hehe. I’m not sure you can get someone who doesn’t like fish to not taste the fish . I guess I’ll experiment with this dish to find other sauces that might work well, cause the dish looks great .
Helen says
Good point Steve! But I still challenge you to add the fish sauce all the same. I promise you it doesn’t taste fishy!!! LOL!
steve g says
😉
Alvin says
in Thai language, ผัดกะเพรา just means stir fried basil… you need to include หมูสับ (moo saab/ minced pork)… and you also need ไข่ดาว (khai daao/ sunny-side-up)
the name of this dish is: ผัดกระเพราหมูสับลาภข้าวไข่ดาว
Helen says
Thank you so much for this info, Alvin! I think this is the first time I’ve had a message from someone who knows the Thai language. I love Thailand!