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Thai·Southeast Asian

Pad Krapow Moo Sub (Thai Basil Stir-Fry with Ground Pork) with Rice and Fried Eggs

A classic, hugely economical Thai stir-fry: savory-spicy ground pork quick-cooked with garlic, chilies and fragrant holy basil, served over jasmine rice with a fried egg. Fast, cheap and full-flavored — great for weeknights or feeding four on a budget.

Pad Krapow Moo Sub with Rice and Fried Eggs, servedAI image

35 min

start to finish

10 min

hands on

Easy

difficulty

4

servings

4 servings

Ingredients

For the rice

For the pork stir-fry

For the eggs & garnish

Optional garnish

Contains gluten, soy, fish, egg, shellfish. Cooking for an allergy? Check the label on every packet you use — brands differ, and we can only tell you what the recipe calls for.

Roughly, per serving

An estimate, not a lab analysis.

Method

  1. Rinse the jasmine rice under cold running water in a fine-mesh sieve until the water runs mostly clear.

  2. Combine rinsed rice and 2 1/4 cups water in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil over high heat.

  3. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly and simmer until water is absorbed and rice is tender, about 15 minutes.

  4. Remove the pan from heat and let the rice rest covered for 10 minutes.

  5. Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves.

  6. Finely chop the bird's eye chilies (remove seeds for less heat).

  7. Thinly slice the shallots.

  8. Pluck basil leaves from stems and rinse, then roughly tear or leave whole.

  9. In a small bowl, whisk together fish sauce, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and palm sugar until the sugar dissolves; set the sauce aside.

  10. Heat a large wok or heavy skillet over medium-high heat until hot, then add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.

  11. Add the sliced shallots, chopped garlic and chopped chilies to the hot oil and sauté, stirring, until fragrant and the shallots begin to soften, about 1 minute.

  12. Add the ground pork to the wok and break it up with a spatula; cook, stirring and flattening clumps, until no pink remains, about 6 minutes.

  13. Pour the prepared sauce over the cooked pork and stir to combine; cook and stir until the liquid mostly evaporates and pork is well coated, about 2 minutes.

  14. Add the basil leaves (and sliced scallions, if using) and toss quickly just until the basil wilts, about 30–60 seconds.

  15. Taste and adjust seasoning: add a little more fish sauce for saltiness or a pinch of sugar if it tastes too sharp.

  16. Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a separate nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering, then crack in the eggs and fry sunny-side up (or to your doneness), about 4–6 minutes for set whites and runny yolks.

  17. Divide the cooked rice among four bowls or plates, top each with a generous portion of the basil pork, place a fried egg on top of each, and serve with cucumber slices on the side.

Worth knowing

  • If you can't find Thai holy basil (bai krapow), use Thai basil or sweet basil; the flavor will be slightly different but still excellent.
  • Adjust chilies to taste: use fewer bird's eye chilies or substitute serrano for milder heat. You can remove seeds to reduce heat further.
  • Split the ground meat into two batches if your pan is small so it browns rather than steams.
  • To make this stretch further on a tight budget, mix half ground pork with half ground chicken or ground textured vegetable protein, and increase the basil and shallots for flavor.
  • Leftover cooked rice makes this even faster; day-old rice holds up well and fries less sticky.
  • For a vegetarian version, replace ground pork with firm tofu (pressed and crumbled) and swap fish and oyster sauces for a mixture of soy sauce and mushroom-based stir-fry sauce.

Make it yours

Cooking without dairy, without an oven, for someone who won't touch chilli, or for six instead of four? Have the recipe rewritten around it — quantities, steps and all.

BudgetQuick

More Thai cooking

An original Restaurant Pro recipe — our own composition in the idiom of Thai cooking, not any restaurant's recipe.