One of my favorite Thai dishes.

The recipe below calls for chopped chicken thighs. While this will result in great flavor, it is somewhat time-consuing. If you are in a bit of a hurry, substitute GROUND chicken, and then chop the shredded carrots and green beans.

INGREDIENTS ( * = see notes at bottom)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 tablespoons oyster sauce *
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons fish sauce *
6 tablespoons sugar
2 red bell pepper, chopped
16 ounces green beans
1 cup shredded carrots
3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, coarsely chopped *
8 sliced shallots *
8 cloves garlic, minced
minced Thai chiles *
2 cups chopped fresh Thai basil leaves *
1 Tbsp Cornstarch
Jasmine rice, to serve

PREPARATION

In a small bowl, whisk together the oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar until well-combined. Set aside. [Sauce]

Rinse carrots. Clean green beans & cut in half. Julienne the bell pepper and half them into ~2 inch long pieces. Place all together in a medium bowl.

Coarsely chop chicken and place in a medium bowl.

Chop shallots/onion, chiles, and garlic and place in a small bowl.

Place coarnstarch and a small amount of warm water in a small bowl.

Chop basil and place in a medium bowl.

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Get it very hot before using.

Add the bell pepper, carrots, and green beans to the hot wok. Note: water may have accumulated in the veggie bowl. Drain off before adding veggies. Stir-fry for one minute.

Add in the chicken and stir-fry, breaking apart as you go, until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the shallots, garlic, and thai chiles. Cook until fragrant, about 1 more minute.

Stir up the sauce and add into the pot. Continue to cook until the sauce begins to glaze onto the meat, about 1-2 more minutes.

Stir the cornstarch mixture and add to the wok. Stir. If there does not appear to be enough sauce, add an appropriate amount of water. Ideally, you want about 1 to 1.5 cups of sauce in the bottom of the wok.

Stir in the basil leaves and cook until the chicken is completely cooked through, the basil is wilted, and the liquid has thickened.

NOTES

Oyster Sauce - Commonly sold in 9 oz bottles. This will yield about 12 Tbsp, so 1 bottle = two makings of this. Available in most American & all Asian stores.

Fish Sauce -Not all fish sauce is created equal. You will find some more pungent than others. For example, Vietnamese Premium Anchovy Fish Sauce is extremely pungent, and you may want to reduce the amount of it accordingly. Lighter fish sauces are not as pungent and you can add a bit more. The recipe as written assumes sort of a medium value. I recommend you start with less, and taste the sauce after whisking. You can always add more. I like the taste to be there, but in the background. Others may want it more pronounced. In general, the lighter color / cheaper fish sauces are fine for me. Available in most American & all Asian stores.

Chicken - Yes, use THIGHS. Do not go white-suburban-mom here and use perfect no-fat chicken breasts. The texture will be fucked up and there won't be any flavorful fat. Having said that, even thighs come with too much fat on them, since the meat industry has no reason to remove it. Spend a few minutes getting some of the major chunks off before chopping, and be happy with the rest. I have found that a 3.5 pound tray of thighs, yields about the 3 pounds of usable chicken for this dish.

Shallots - Not that important. If you have shallots at a reasonable price, by all means use them. But you can confidently use white onion instead. When picking, do not get the onions the size of baby heads - they have no flavor. Get the smaller ones. You'll cry more but it's worth it.

Hot Peppers - If you can, get Thai chiles. What I do is go to the Asian market, and get a 1 pound or so bag and FREEZE it. You can remove what you need at recipe time. De-stem, chop up, and throw em in frozen or not, who cares. If you have none, or are afraid to vist the Asian store, you can use whatever your store has (habanero, Jalapeno if hot, Red hots, even serrano) but it won't be the same. You need at least a half of one of these for flavor, and still call it mild. Go up from there as high as you want. In general, add 1 chile for each point on the heat scale, 1-5.

Basil - At suburban grocery stores, Basil is expensive. If they even HAVE real Thai Basil, it will cost a small fortune. Do yourself a favor and go vist an authentic Asian grocery store. Not only will you save a fortune on Basil, you will quickly find many more items you will save on. Plus it's fresh and delicious.