Thai basil beef (pad kra pao)
Fiery, garlicky beef stir-fried with basil and chiles, spooned over jasmine rice and crowned with a crispy fried egg.
- 35 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $3.93 a serving
- 710 calories
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- ¾ cup jasmine rice
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 serrano peppers
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp gluten-free tamari
- 2 large eggs
- 8 oz 85/15 ground beef
- ½ cup fresh basil
- 1 lime, cut into wedges (optional)
From your pantry
- 1¼ cups water, divided
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 5 tsp vegetable oil, divided
Each serving has about 710 calories, 35 g protein, 65 g carbs and 34 g fat, and costs about $3.93 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No jasmine rice? Long-grain white rice or basmati rice works.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No limes? Lemons work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the rice until the water runs mostly clear.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Put it in a with 1 cup water and over high.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cover, turn to low and cook 15 minutes.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Let it sit covered.
the garlic and serranos together until fine, and slice the shallot. Stir the fish sauce, tamari, brown sugar and remaining ¼ cup water in a small bowl.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Dolly’s tip: Serranos are hot. Scrape out the seeds for less heat, and wash your hands before touching your face.Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a over medium-high until it .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Medium-high heat
Crack in the eggs and fry 2 to 3 minutes, until the edges are crisp and the whites are set.
Medium-high heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Thai fried eggs are cooked hot on purpose, so the edges go lacy and crunchy.Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
Set them aside.
Turn the heat to high, add the rest of the oil, and stir the garlic, chiles and shallot 30 seconds, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
High heat
Add the beef and cook 5 to 6 minutes, breaking it up, until no pink is left and it browns in spots.
High heatTimer: 5 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Pour in the sauce and 1 minute, until it’s soaked up.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
High heat
Take the pan off the heat and in the basil until it just .
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Serve over the rice with a fried egg on top and lime wedges on the side.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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