Gai Kaprow/kaphrao...Thai chicken with holy basil

This is one of my favorite dishes and it's part of my regular weeknight rotation since it's pretty easy to throw together. Golden Pacific seems to be the only place near me where I can consistently find kaphrao (holy basil), though Thai basil will do in a pinch (though I guess it's not really gai kaphrao then). Lately, I've been frying some of the holy basil leaves to top the finished dish with. I use a hybridized recipe--from Cooks Illustrated, Nancie McDermott's book and a few online recipes. Cooks Illustrated recommend processing some basil, red chiles and garlic to make a paste and cooking some of the paste on low with shallots in a little oil to start the dish. I cook the chicken, add some bell peppers (not authentic, but to sneak in some vegetables), then finish with a sauce made with oyster sauce, sweet soy, sugar, fish sauce, white pepper and the remainder of the basil paste and some whole basil leaves.

Fried basil leaves for topping the dish:

The coook's Illustrated recipe sounds a little fussy, to be honest (though a LOT of their recipes are a bit overwrought. Must be all that testing!). I swear by the shesimmers.com recipe - fabulously hot and very garlicky. Great resource of a website, too. Don't forget the fried egg!