Thai Basil

I just harvested my first round of Thai Basil from the herb garden, so excited I have about a dozen plants that have really taken off and are growing nicely (started by seed too!)

(The other side of the photo, sage…which is an herb that has been impossible for me to grow by seed and I have to buy new plants every year. I currently only have three and a few branches I’m trying to propagate in rooting hormone, we will see.)

With about two cups on hand I decided to go ahead and try making Thai Basil Chicken, which is a dish I’ve never actually tried before. As with all things cooking, I found a few different recipes and borrowed here and there and then added a few other things at the last minute, because that’s what I do and that’s also why it’s nearly impossible to recreate anything I make the first time.

I present thee with Thai Basil Chicken (Jenny Style)

First I roasted a chicken. I stuffed it with the leftover stems of the Thai basil, garlic and celery.

Then I made some rice in the rice cooker. I used an organic ginger soother drink I had leftover in the fridge and added extra water and (wait for it) chopped Thai basil.

The rest? I threw together in a giant bowl:

  • Garlic, Sliced Ginger, Soy Sauce, Fish Sauce a splash of Sriracha.
  • SO MUCH Thai Basil and chopped celery, sweet red pepper and a green pepper. Chives.
  • (And then I lost control.) A smidge of coriander, paprika, curry sea salt and crushed red pepper.
  • Chicken stock and oh, I had a 1/3 of a bottle of Thai Peanut Sauce that was just sitting around, so I added that too. Some of the recipes called for honey or brown sugar so I thought this would substitute the sweetness. (And this recipe said peanut oil and this one said add peanuts so I was in a nutty state of mind.)

Into the Instant Pot along with the cut up pieces of roaster chicken and set to manual for 10 minutes.

This recipe said to serve with a hard fried egg, which you don’t have to tell me twice! (I LOVE EGGS!)

All I can say is WOWZA! This dish packs a PUNCH OF FLAVOR! Holy fresh heated goodness! Whatever I did, worked. At least this time. YUM!

Of course the leftover chicken carcass went into a stockpot immediately for more stock.

Because that is how I roll.