Name: Fragrant Thai Chicken with Chilies and BAsil
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 4 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces; 6 large cloves garlic, crushed; 1-2 Tbsp sambal oelek; 2 Tbsp soy sauce; 2 tsp fish sauce; 2 tsp brown sugar; 1 tsp white sugar; 1 large handful of fresh basil, chopped

Cooking

Fragrant Thai Chicken with Chilies and Basil

thai chicken with chilies and basil with rice on a plate

Thai Chicken with Chilies and Basil is the perfect comfort food. Tender pieces of bite-sized chicken nestled in a fragrant spicy sauce with basil added at the end. Served over top of a mound of rice completes this dish.

This dish, Thai Basil Chicken is considered comfort food in Thailand. I read about this dish a few years ago, when I was following the news story about the Thai soccer boys trapped in a cave. One of the boys said that the first dish he wanted his mom to cook for him was ‘Gai Pad Krapow’ (Thai Basil Chicken).

ingredients for thai chicken with chilies and basil

Comfort food is so very personal. We have a few favourites in our house and they always hit the spot when I serve them at dinnertime. Comfort food can be personal or cultural. It can also be sentimental and remind us of dishes our moms cooked when we were little. I often prepare our family’s favourite comfort dishes after a stressful week, during a blustery cold winter day or even for a celebration. And my family is always happy when I do. Even the aroma of these dishes cheers everyone up.

After following the news story of the thai boys, and learning a bit about Thai people, I was eager to sample comfort food from Thailand. This comfort dish is made from garlic, sambal oelek, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, chicken and basil. And it’s a snap to prepare. In Thailand, they make this dish with Holy Basil, which is extremely difficult, if not impossible to find outside of Thailand. I used regular basil from the local supermarket and it tasted delicious. In Thailand they also use local chilies, but I like using sambal oelek, as there is no chopping involved and it is very easy to adjust the amount of heat I want to add to the dish.

Thai Chicken with Chilies and Basil is so delicious. One bite combines a hit of chilies, tender chicken pieces, sweet herbal basil, comforting rice and aromatic fish sauce. It may actually become a new comfort food for our family.

thai chicken with chilies and basil and rice

What’s your comfort food? Write back and let me know. I’d love to hear from you!

Print Recipe

Fragrant Thai Chicken with Chilies and BAsil

Serves: 6

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
6 large cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 Tbsp sambal oelek
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp white sugar
1 large handful of fresh basil, chopped

Instructions

Prep all your ingredients: cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, peel and crush the garlic, measure out the sambal oelek, stir together the soy sauce, fish sauce and sugars and wash and chop the basil.

Pour some oil into a frying pan or wok. Add garlic and sambal oelek. Saute until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds or so.

Add the chicken. Saute on medium until the chicken is cooked, about 5-8 minutes.

When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, add the soy, fish sauce and sugar mixture. Stir this mixture and continue cooking on medium, until everything is mixed thoroughly.

Stir in the basil and then remove from heat.

Serve over jasmine rice.

1:45 am

Cooking

Sizzling Mapo Tofu with Pork, Tofu and Eggplant

This recipe for Sizzling Mapo Tofu is an easy and delicious dish to make any night of the week. As preparation only takes about 10 minutes and cooking is just as fast. So, your family dinner will be on the table in no time.

Another thing that I love about this dish are the textures. I love the combination of soft eggplant, tender tofu, small pieces of pork, crisp green onions. And that fiery trio of ginger, garlic and hot sauce really hits the spot. So, this dish couldn’t be more perfect.

I’m sure you have your own go-to dinner recipe when food needs to be on the table as fast as possible. Well, Mapo Tofu is that dish for me. I have been making this dish for many many years. I just love it. It is warming, satisfying and delicious anytime of the year. And, boy, is it fast to make.

I make this dish with pork. but you could easily turn this dish into a vegan dinner by omitting the pork. Because there are so many seasonings, you won’t miss the pork.

I love reading about the history of recipes. And this one is pretty amazing. Mapo Tofu actually dates back atleast 200 years. It was originally made by an elderly woman at The Chen Xingsheng, a small restaurant near the Wanfu Bridge in north Chengdu, the Capital City of Sichuan province in China, that she ran with her husband.

Ma means pork, and po means elderly, so mapo was actually used to describe the woman who made and served this delicious dish.

If you need a quick and delicious dinner – Mapo Tofu with Eggplant is for you!

Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Ma Po Tofu

Serves: 4

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

Part A
1 eggplant, cubed
2 garlic clove, chopped
2 tsp chopped ginger
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp sambal oelek or other hot chili sauce
300 grams ground pork
Part B
360 ml vegetable broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tsp sake
dash of pepper
1 package of firm tofu, cut into cubes
Part C
4 green onions
3 Tbsp corn starch
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp sesame oil

Instructions

Saute eggplant, then remove from pan.

Saute garlic and ginger and when aromatic add the sambal oelek.

Add pork and saute until cooked.

Add Part ‘B’.

Add eggplant back into pan.

Mix cornstarch with water.

Add mixture to pan.

Add sesame oil and green onions.

Serve with rice.

Enjoy!

6:12 pm

Cooking

Quick and Spicy Chicken Wings Recipe

Chicken Wings are one of the easiest and quickest meals anyone can make. You can buy chicken wings all year round from your local supermarket, which is great. Also, they’re inexpensive and quick to prepare and cook: no chopping, marinating or deboning. And they’re finger foods. Who doesn’t love that!

Normally I bake them slathered in barbeque sauce, but I wanted to try and get crispier chicken wings. This Quick and Spicy Chicken Wings recipe works a charm.

My Quick and Spicy Chicken Wings are super quick to prepare. They are seasoned with a balanced combination of spices and herbs including chili powder, chipotle chili pepper, oregano and a few others. The cayenne pepper is adjustable. I used 1/2 a teaspoon, but if you are making these for wee ones, just leave it out. It’s not super hot, just a nice warm flavour, but too much heat for small ones.

This recipe makes about 1/4 cup of spice mixture. You could also multiply the recipe by 3 or 4 and keep it in a jar and just measure out 1/4 cup every time you make wings. You could also sprinkle a bit of this spicy mixture on chicken breasts to use in wraps or fajitas.

For a fantastic finger food dinner, serve these up with some veggies, pita bread and hummous or one of your favourite dips. Then you could eat the whole dinner with your fingers! Less dishes, more time for fun!

Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Quick'nSpicy Chicken Wings

Serves: 3-4

Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

2 lbs of chicken wings (rinsed and patted dry)
1 T chili powder
2 tsp chipotle chili pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 T dark brown sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Mix spices together.

In a large bowl, sprinkle spices over chicken wings.

Coat the wings with the spice mixture with your hands.

Place the seasoned chicken wings on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 45 minutes, turning once after about 20 minutes.

Bake until a deep golden colour.

Serve hot or room temperature.

Notes

Chicken wings give off a bit of oil when cooking. When you're turning them over, just place them on a clean portion of the parchment paper.

1:00 am

Cooking

Sweet’n’Spicy Asian Chicken BBQ Marinade with Sake

I’m sure most people will agree with me that there is nothing more summery than cooking outdoors on the barbeque!

Living in Canada with four distinct seasons, means that each season is only about 3 months long, June, July and August are the warmest months of the year, so we like to cram in as much outdoor activities during these months as possible. So, lots of bike rides, swimming, picnics at the beach and farmer market visits. And for mealtimes, it’s all about barbequing out on the patio.

This Asian Chicken BBQ Marinade with Sake ticks all the boxes for a lively summery grilled chicken dinner. Nothing says big flavour like this combination of sweet asian pear and honey, aromatic ginger, green onions and sake, salty soy, nutty sesame oil and spicy sambal oelek!

When I was growing up, my Dad mostly barbecued hotdogs and hamburgers. And that’s fun, if you’re in a pinch for time or cooking for four very hungry kids. But my favourite barbeque dinners are with meats that have marinated for hours and then grilled to perfection. In my house we all have our favourites, jerk pork, steaks coated with a sizzling spice mix or my favourite – marinated chicken.

Chicken is the perfect vehicle for a marinade as it is a milder meat than beef or pork. After marinating for a few hours, grilled chicken comes out moist and tender with a crispy exterior brimming with flavour.

Chicken should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees fahrenheit and the juices should run clear.

And my favourite part about barbequing chicken is coming up with new maraindes. Marinades really up the game when barbequing adding lovely sweet, spicy, salty, boozy flavours.

This marinade is so simple and easy to make. All the liquid ingredients are poured directly into the blender. Chop the asian pear, green onion, ginger and garlic and throw them in too. Blitz the marinade on high for 3-4 minutes until it is very smooth and then pour over the chicken to marinate for a couple of hours. Then you’re ready for grilling.

I hope you enjoy this Asian Chicken Marinade.

Print Recipe

Quick'n'Easy Asian Chicken BBQ Marinade with Sake

Serves: 4-8

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp sesame oil
1/3 cup honey
1\4 cup sake
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3 green onions
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
1-2 tablespoons sambal oelek
1 asian pear

Instructions

Measure all liquid ingredients into blender.

Add chopped garlic, green onions, ginger and asian pear into blender.

Blitz for about 3-4 minutes until smooth.

Place chicken in a plastic container or freezer bag or glass bowl.

Pour marinade over chicken. Cover.

Place in refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

Remove chicken and place on plate.

Simmer remaining marinade in a pot for 10 minutes. Use this marinade to brush on chicken while barbequing.

Grill the chicken on barbeque until thermometer reads 165 degrees fahrenheit.

Serve on a bed of lettuce with a simple oil and vinegar dressing. You can also serve this grilled asian chicken on italian or ciabatta buns with your favourite toppings such as lettuce, tomato and raosted red peppers and barbeque sauce.

adapted slightly from Sauces by Steven Raichlen

7:34 am

Preserves

Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Recipe

January is a great month to make changes to your daily life. Maybe you want to hit the gym more often, go to the theatre or read more books. This year, I’m going to be cooking a lot more vegetarian and vegan recipes. I’ve been experimenting lately with some different dinner ideas and they have all gone down a treat. This vegan roasted red pepper pesto caught everyone offguard with it’s smoky flavour and heat from the chipotle.

Eating less meat and more vegetables is a much healthier and more economical way of dining. I found this recipe recently in Meatless: More than 200 of the Very Best Vegetarian Recipes and everyone in the family loved it.

I was a vegetarian for a few years when I was a teenager. Eliminating meat from my diet was easy, but back then, there were not many resources to inspire me to make interesting meatless meals. To make sure that I got enough protein in my diet, I ate a lot of eggs and cheese, and salty sunflower seeds.

Nowadays, there are SO many amazing vegetarian ideas. I love Buddha bowls, vegetarian curries as well as all the wild variations on pesto. I love the influence that international cuisines bring to vegan and vegetarian dishes. Spices and techniques from Thailand, Vietnam, India or South America really liven up our local veggies. We’re so lucky that international restaurants, recipes and ingredients have become more prevalent.

While I am familiar with vegetarian diets, the vegan diet is new to me, and perhaps to other people as well.

This vegan roasted red pepper pesto is amazing with it’s smoky hot chipotle peppers and nutty almonds. It does have quite a kick to it from the chipotle pepper. If you are serving this to anyone who does not like spicy food, decrease the chipotle pepper to 1/4 or 1/2 and add an extra half roasted red pepper. It is delicious on pasta, but you could also spread it on crackers, or a bagel or have as a dip with veggies.

Print Recipe

Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

Serves: 6

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 large roasted red peppers
1 chopped jarred chipotle chile in adobe
1 chopped small garlic clove
2 tablespoons toasted almonds
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

Place all the ingredients in the food processor, EXCEPT the olive oil. Pulse a few times until roughly chopped.

Add the olive oil and blend until everything is mixed together.

Season with salt and pepper.

Boil up 450 grams of spaghetti. Follow package instructions for timing.

Toss the spaghetti with the pesto.

Notes

To toast the almonds, spread them on a parchment lined baking tray and pop them into a preheated 350 degree C oven. It takes about ten minutes for them to toast.

If you are interested in further reading on vegan diets, here is some additional reading. Enjoy!

The Vegan Society

History of Veganism

6:15 am