Thai Chicken with Basil and Vegetables

At first glance, you might not expect for this dinner to be flagged as one of your easy weeknight dinners, but it can be if you have 30 minutes to prepare it. For those of you that have basil plants that are starting to grow, this is a great recipe to help use it up. The original recipe calls for Thai Basil, but I ended up using regular sweet basil out of convenience and it was wonderful. What I love about this dish is how quickly the flavors develop and I can only imagine how good leftovers would be if we had any! Note to self- must double this recipe next time!  I usually will not insist that you serve a particular side dish with my recipes, but I do insist on the coconut rice.... amazing!

Thai Chicken with Basil and Vegetables
Adapted from epicurious.com
Serves 2-3

Ingredients
 ¾ lb pound skinless boneless chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
 3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
¼ cup diced onion
1 large fresh red or green Thai (bird) chilies or serrano chilies, or to taste, seeded and minced
4 oz chopped mushrooms
1 ½ cups steamed broccoli
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoon Asian fish sauce (preferably naam pla)
3 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup loosely packed fresh basil

Directions

• Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces and marinate in 1 teaspoon of olive oil , salt and pepper. 
• Heat a heavy skillet over med-high heat until hot. Add oil and heat until hot but not smoking. Add chicken and brown on one side for two minutes, flip and brown the other side for 2 minutes and remove from the pan. Be sure to not overcrowd the chicken or it will steam instead of brown. 
• Add 1 tablespoon of oil, onions, garlic, and chili pepper and sauté for 2 minutes. 
• Add mushrooms and broccoli and sauté for 2-3 minutes. 
• Add broth, fish sauce, sugar, soy sauce, and black pepper and stir-fry until combined. Add basil and stir seconds.  
• Serve chicken with coconut rice.