Basil Chicken With Jalapenos

Prep time is very quick, and consists of cutting up your garlic and green onions; set aside. Carefully chop your jalapenos… be careful to discard all seeds if you don’t like your food ultra-spicy, but leave a few in if you live on the spicy side of life. Slice your basil leaves into long strips; set aside.

Fill a small saucepan about halfway up with water and put on to boil.

While the water heats up, pour your oils into a medium-size pan (I don’t have a wok, so these ingredients are done without that blessed, blessed cooking tool) and get to heatin’. I put it on medium heat first, let the oil warm a bit, and then turned the heat up to high just as I dumped in the green onions and garlic.

Let those cook for a bit until you can definitely smell garlic in the air and the white part of your chopped green onions is getting a bit translucent. Add the jalapenos and allow to cook for about thirty seconds to a minute.

Then, dump in your chicken; we used a whole small package of chicken tenderloins. Allow to cook, stirring constantly at first.

Add your fish sauce at this time. I got my fish sauce from a little international grocery store, but they probably carry it at larger grocery stores too. Trust me, it will smell fishy at first while it cooks but the flavor it adds to this dish is actually fairly subtle.

When your water begins to boil in your small saucepan, add enough rice that it just piles above the water when you pour it straight in. Stir, then replace your lid and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the rice takes up all the room in the pot. Set aside until your chicken is done, although in my case that was at roughly the same second.

I had to add about a 1/2 cup of water because my chicken was a bit sticky; this is optional, but it did create an amazing chicken-broth-and-fish-sauce concoction that I poured over my rice. In any case, keep stirring your chicken until it is fully cooked.

When your chicken is done and the rice is done, keep the heat up and add in your basil. Give it one or two quick stirs around the pot, then turn the heat off and continue to stir until your basil has fully wilted into the chicken, onions, and jalapenos. Savor the smell of basil. Savor it and weep tears of joy.

Add salt and pepper to taste at this time, then stir again to get it all mixed up.

Put rice into your serving bowls, then cover with your basil chicken. I spooned in a bunch of the watery-broth-sauce that was made when I had to add so much water, and it made the rice taste really velvety and wonderful even after my chicken was gobbled up.

Enjoy!

I made this for my husband and I, and I sincerely believe we could have fed four people easily, since we’ll also be having it for leftovers later!

As a note, we made a version that, even with chili oil and jalapenos, wasn’t very spicy at all. In the future, I would add a few of the jalapeno seeds, since we are spicy-lovin’ folk. But in any case, deliciousness!