Chicken Krapao

Ask a Thai person what to eat when they can’t decide, and the answer is almost always krapao. It is the country’s true comfort food — quick, fiery and personal, cooked in a single blazing minute and eaten with a spoon over rice.

In the kitchen

The whole dish lives or dies on two things: the heat of the wok and the leaf itself. We use holy basil — krapao — which is peppery and almost clove-like, nothing like the sweet basil of an Italian kitchen. Garlic and chilli are pounded coarse, the wok is taken to the edge of smoking, and the minced chicken is tossed hard until its edges catch and crisp. The basil goes in only in the final seconds, wilting into the sauce so its fragrance stays sharp and green.

At the table

It arrives loud — fragrant with basil, flecked with chilli, the chicken caught and savoury at the edges. The heat is real and immediate, cut by the salt and the rice beneath. It’s the dish Thais eat more than any other, and once you’ve had it cooked properly, you understand why.

Order it with a fried egg on top, burst the yolk through the rice, and eat while it’s still fierce.