Thai basil chicken with fried egg and rice
Thailand's fastest weeknight fix: chicken chopped small and fried hard with garlic, chilli and a big handful of basil, piled over rice with a fried egg on top. Wok to table in half an hour.
Notable for: B vitamins
Ingredients
- 620 gchicken breast, finely chopped
- 320 gbasmati rice
- 20 gcrushed garlic
- 1fresh thai basil, leaves picked
- 40 mloyster sauce
- 20 mlsoy sauce
- 15 mlfish sauce
- 5 gchilli powder
- 100 gbrown onions, sliced
- 4eggs, size 7
Method
Put the rice on to cook.
Chop the chicken small by hand rather than using pre-minced meat, since the rougher, more irregular pieces are what give the stir-fry its texture.
Fry the onion and garlic hard in a hot wok or pan for 1 to 2 minutes until starting to catch at the edges.
Add the chicken and fry it over high heat, breaking it up, until cooked through and starting to crisp in places, about 6 to 8 minutes.
Stir through the oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce and chilli powder, then fold in the basil leaves off the heat until just wilted.
Fry the eggs separately in a hot pan until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny.
Serve over rice with the fried egg on top.
Fry the chicken hard and fast
This dish is meant to taste a little charred, not gently simmered. Keep the heat high the whole way through so the chicken sears and crisps at the edges instead of stewing in its own liquid.
Storage
Best eaten fresh while the egg yolk is still runny.
The chicken keeps three days in the fridge if the egg is fried fresh each time it's reheated.
Cost per serving is indicative, based on New Zealand supermarket prices as at September 2026. Batch prices your own week against your own store on the day. Nutrition figures, including calories, are estimates rather than label readings, so always check the packet if you have an allergy. "Notable for" reflects well-established qualities of the ingredients used, not a lab measurement of this exact dish.