A Warm Lunch on a Rainy Day

Hi everyone!

Since we're in our monsoon season in Bangalore, it has been a roller coaster ride with the city flooding and a sudden drop in temperatures. With the changing weather and the strong winds, my girlfriend immediately began craving for something comforting and spicy.

I opened my fridge to see what’s available and a couple bunches of Thai Basil stared back at me. After a quick Youtube search, I decided to make her some-

Thai Spicy Basil Chicken Fried Rice

Being in India, the ingredients weren’t pantry staples in our home. I quickly went on to our food delivery app called Swiggy that also delivers groceries and in 10 minutes, I had all the necessary ingredients to try out this recipe.
Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Ingredients:

• 200g of Boneless Chicken (I used Chicken Breast, but the recipe recommends Chicken Thighs) Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp Onion powder
• 2 whole Garlic heads (Medium-sized)
• 5 Green Chillies (Recipe calls for Bird-eye Chillies, which were unavailable at the online store)
• ½ tsp Sea Salt
• 1 White Onion
• 1 cup of fresh Basil leaves
• ¼ cup Oyster Sauce
• 1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp Fish Sauce
• 1 tbsp White Vinegar
• 1 tsp Sugar Oil, as required
• 2 Eggs
• 2 cups of day-old rice (Recipe recommends Jasmine rice, we had cooked Basmati rice leftover)

Procedure:

I started by slicing the chicken breast into thin strips. Marinate the chicken with salt and pepper (I used 1 tsp each) alongside a teaspoon of onion powder. Let the chicken marinate for 15-20 minutes.

In a mortar and pestle, pound the chillies and the garlic together with some sea salt, until it is coarsely crushed.

Chop the onion into thick slices and set aside.

Clean the basil stems since the leaves alone are required for the recipe.

Combine the measured-out oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, white vinegar with some sugar and you have a delicious sauce ready.

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Start by adding some oil to a vessel. While a wok is the best for all East Asian recipes, we did not have one and just used a thick bottomed utensil, so that nothing burns.
Break an egg into the oil, coat the egg with the oil to make yourself a nice fried topping.

Set this aside and in the same oil, add the crushed garlic-chilli paste.

To this add the sliced onions and sauté for a couple of minutes.

Add the marinated chicken and cook it for another couple of minutes.

Add the rice to the mix and keep tossing it around till it combines with all the ingredients.

Add the sauce that we’ve made, while continuing to fry the rice till all the moisture is evaporated.

Lastly, add as many Basil leaves as you like.

Once the leaves wilt, check and adjust seasonings and your Fried Rice is ready!

Tips:

• Keep all ingredients prepped and ready before starting the process, since the flame needs to be at its highest setting throughout this cook.

• This is a bit of an arm workout because you need to keep tossing it all together without letting anything burn, so stay mentally prepared😂

• A squeeze of lemon on the rice brightens up the flavors even more.
  Make yourself an extra fried egg because halfway through your meal, you will want another one.

My girlfriend was beyond happy with how this turned out and she asked for 2nd servings too. That’s a win, right?

Catch y'all next time with more Adventures, Food and Fun!

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