Where Street Fighter 2 Meets Food Stuffings

Granted, it might be a stretch, but for anyone who can recall the super Nintendo days, you can't help but know the title: Street Fighter 2.  But wait, this isn't a throwback video gaming blog... it's a cooking blog, so what does Street Fighter 2 have to do with filling your belly?  Only that one of the levels takes place in Thailand, and so does the efforts of this night's dinner dish: Thai Basil Chicken.  Hey... but at least the catchy title made you read this far, right?

 

If you're wondering what officially goes into making this dish (minus the veggie rolls, as that is for another time), see the following list:

Ingredients
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2 cups jasmine rice
1 quart of water
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 white onion, sliced
2 tablespoons ginger root, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 lbs boneless chicken breast
8 chopped green onions
1 cup basil leaves

First make the rice, following Betty's adage (which apparently is a common rule of thumb) using the rule of 2 to 1.  I.e, for every 2 cups of rice, you need 1 quart of water.  While the rice is cooking, do the rest of the following:

1.  Mix coconut milk, soy sauce, and vinegar together in a bowl.  Make sure the coconut milk you've bought for this endeavor is the canned sort, not the kind in the carton next to the Almond and Soy milks at the grocery store.  This is the part when Tony beings to start loading in the red pepper flakes like no tomorrow.

2.  That should reach a tan like color, then you know its done.  Slice up your white onion and toss it into a wok or deep pan with the olive oil.  Cook this until the onion begins to turn a light brown.  Also add in the ginger and garlic, mixing it all together.

3.  Now add in the chicken, which hopefully you've chopped into smaller pieces.  Cook for about 7 minutes, medium heat until its turning that white-brown color.  No need to cook ALL the way brown, as you still have a long way to go.

4.  Once the chicken begins to start turning, add the coconut milk sauce you made at the start.  Just pour it into the cooking pan as if you were adding taco seasoning to a burrito or taco meat mix.  Now stir and mix and chop with your spatula for a while, as the sauce simmers.  Once its all mixed up, only give it attention now and then, sort of like how you treat your beta fish or bamboo plants... too much attention is not a necessarily a good thing, just now and then.

5.  After the milk is down to about 1/3, add in the green onions and basil leaves... Tony slipped in even MORE red peppers flakes at this point.  Now simmer until the milk is all absorbed and mix well.

6.  By this point, the rice should also be done.  All in all, this probably took 30-40 minutes.  You can just dish out yourself some of the rice and plop the chicken basil on top of the rice.

With the ingredients we grabbed from the store, it came out to be about 6 servings around 450 calories per serving or so.

This meal has been approved by the Thai figher, Sagat.