It's More Than Thai Basil Chicken - Lemongrass Basil Chicken

My mind is still on vacation. Ugh.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July and enjoyed yummy food with friends and family! My friends and I got together at a friend's apartment to have some food and watch fireworks. It was so fun especially since the weather was so nice.

The day before, Roxan @SweenShanti and I met up. Yes, she was in town for her friend's wedding! It was the first time we met in person after we had been "talking" through the blog and Facebook. I was nervous at first because I didn't want to look or be different from what she might have imagined I would be hahaha. It was fun and I felt like I was hanging out with friends (at least to me!).

Here's a picture of us at Sculpture park.

Photo Credit: Roxan

 Now back to the food.  For the get-together function with friends I made Korean tacos, Vietnamese salad with grilled shrimp, and so called "Cookie Singapore" which I will share with you soon. The Korean tacos were the bomb! Although I've made it before, I dressed them up a bit more this time. The key is the meat and the sauce - recipe here.

Korean taco with homemade saamjung sauce

Without further ado, the recipe I'm going to post today is lemongrass basil chicken. It's another version of Thai basil chicken. In fact, if you take off the lemongrass and other vegetables, it's a regular Thai chicken basil.

I wanted to spice up my regular chicken basil so I added lemongrass and featured Summer vegetables. I found a beautiful Japanese pumpkin and some green beans at the market. They went perfectly with this basil. Also, I used basil from my little herb garden! It's sure organic and I felt super good to use my own herbs. You can use red basil a.k.a Thai basil if you wish and for a more authentic recipe. If you don't, I would say forget about it and use what you have on hand.

Chicken thigh and dark meat are my favorite. I ignored the hubs' white meat fondness for once and went ahead with chicken thigh - all in. Lemongrass adds a deep flavor and aromatic smell but doesn't over power the rest of the flavor. I hope you like it if you have a chance to try.

PS: If you serve with rice, the sauce should be a little saltier.

Oh, almost forgot! I recalled a great dish from Lazaro and craved for a light, good, flavorful dish. If you remember his pan fried cod and black bean soup dish, it's one of my all time favorites. I made one from my memory and adjusted seasonings based on my taste buds.  Here we go. Thanks to Laz for a great recipe!

Although this doesn't look like his dish, you get the idea of the deliciousness.

Lemongrass Chicken Basil

Yield: 4-6 portions

Ingredients:

2 cups basil leaves
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1.5 lbs chicken thigh, cut to small pieces
2 cups Japanese pumpkin, peeled and cubed
2 cups green beans, cut to 1.5" length
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
3 stalks lemongrass, minced or out in a food processor to release oil
8 oz. sliced white mushroom
3 coves garlic, minced
3 Tbs fish sauce
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp white vinegar
1 Tbs black soy sauce
3-4 fresh Thai chilies, tabbed with a side of knife to release flavor and heat (optional)
White pepper
Vegetable oil

Directions:

•  Heat up wok over high heat. Add oil; swirl to coat.
• Add lemongrass and garlic and stir fry for a min or so. The aromatic scent is just so good.
• Add chicken and stir fry until it's cooked. Season with fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar.
• Add onion and pumpkin. Stir fry until onion is translucent and pumpkin is getting soft.
• Add green beans. Correct seasoning.
• Stir fry until it's all cooked and flavorful!
• Add basil and cilantro and turn off the heat. Stir fry basil until it's all mixed. Remove from heat.
• Serve with rice.

When you work with wok, the longer you have food in the wok, the more liquid it will come out from vegetable. The key is to have everything on hands, stir fry fast so you get a nice and crisp chicken basil.

Basil and Cilantro from my garden!

Sorry lemongrass is a little burn

Add onion and pumpkin

Serve with rice and enjoy!