This quick and easy Thai Basil Beef recipe takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and is so delicious! It’s made with ground beef (or steak) and a homemade Thai basil sauce that’s easy to customize to your preferred spice level.
Want more 30-Minute Meals? Try Salmon Bowls, Orzo Salad, or Kung Pao Shrimp!
We absolutely love Thai food, wether we make homemade Thai food, or go to our favorite restaurants. My husband’s favorite dish is Pad Gra Prow, AKA Thai Basil Beef, and I love this quick and easy version that mimics the flavors we love, even if it’s not truly authentic! For authentic Pad Gra Prow, try this recipe from Hot Thai Kitchen!
I love this recipe because it uses ground meat, so it’s inexpensive and soaks up more flavor, like I image Thai street food. It’s practical for a regular weeknight meal and you can have it on the table in less than 30 minutes!
Let’s Talk Basil:
There are a few different types of basil used in Thai cooking.
- Holy Basil (or hot basil) is known for adding heat to dishes. It can be harder to find so Thai basil is often used as a substitute.
- Thai Basil (or Thai sweet basil) has purple stems and a spicy licorice-anise flavor. Thai basil can be difficult to find in American grocery stores but can be found in most Asian grocery stores (I’ve seen it in every Asian grocery store I’ve ever been in!). If you can’t find it, regular old sweet basil will work as a substitute.
- Sweet Basil is the type of basil we are all probably most familiar with. It’s the most common type of basil found in grocery stores and is used in all types of sauces, marinades, and other recipes. This is a perfectly good substitute for Thai basil in any recipe, you just loose a little of the pungent taste that comes from Thai basil.
How to Make Thai Basil Beef
Cook Veggies: In a wok or large skillet over medium high heat add the oil, shallots, garlic, ginger and bell peppers. Sauté for 3 minutes. Push the veggies off to the side.
Add Ground Beef: Turn the heat to high and add the ground beef, breaking it up into small bits. I like to spoon the cooked ground beef into my food processor and pulse it a few times to break it into really small pieces.
Make Sauce: Stir together the brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornstarch beef broth and water. Add to the pan and cook for 2 minutes.
Add Basil and stir-fry until wilted.
Serve over hot cooked rice.
Recipe Variations:
- Meat: Use ground chicken, ground pork, or extra firm tofu (and vegetable broth) to make it vegetarian. Flank steak would also taste delicious in this recipe. Slice it thinly, against the grain.
- Oyster Sauce: You could substitute more soy sauce.
- Vegetables: Use any color bell pepper and add more vegetables if you like. Try shredded carrot, thinly sliced zucchini, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, or mushrooms.
- Chili Sauce: Substitute sriracha hot sauce in place of the Asian Garlic Chili Paste.
- Rice: Use any kind of rice you like, or skip the rice and serve it in a lettuce wrap!
More Thai-Inspired Recipes:
- Pad Thai
- Green Curry Meatballs
- Spring Roll Bowls
- Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- Chickpea Curry
- Thai Quinoa Salad
- Red Curry
Follow me for more great recipes
Recipe
Thai Basil Beef
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 shallots , chopped
- 8 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger , minced
- 1 red bell pepper , thinly sliced
- 1.5 lbs lean ground beef*
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
- 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1.5 Tablespoons oyster sauce*
- 2 or 3 Tablespoons chili paste with garlic*
- 3/4 cup low-sodium beef broth
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1.5 cups holy basil leaves* , chopped
- 3 green onions chopped, for garnish
- 5 cups hot cooked rice
Instructions
- In a wok or large skillet over medium high heat, add the oil, shallots, garlic, ginger and bell peppers and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
- Push the veggies off to the side and add the ground beef, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks. (I like to use a meat chopper to break up the meat in very small pieces.)
- In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili paste, cornstarch, beef broth, and water and add to the pan. Simmer for 5-10 minutes
- Add the basil and stir. Serve over hot steamed rice, with chopped green onion on top.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
Tag @TastesBetterFromScratch on Instagram with #TastesBetterFromScratch!
Follow Me
I originally shared this recipe September 2019. Updated July 2020 and August 2023.
This post contains affiliate links.
Made this last night over Jasamine rice. It was amazing. So much flavor. I didn’t have Holy Basil so I just used regular and added about 1/8 teaspoon of Ground Star Anise to get some of that licorice-anise flavor, that Thai Basil has. Also added some Thai Chilies to give it the heat we like.
Thank you so much for your wonderful recipes.
I used this as a filling for puff pastry turnovers and it was great! I needed it to be veggie, so used green lentils and mushrooms in place of the beef. I couldn’t find Thai basil, but regular basil worked well.
What a fun idea! So happy you enjoyed it.
This is delicious! I can’t stop eating it so I’ll have to leave the kitchen.
I used a Thai chicken sausage that I took out of the casing.
How many times a week can I make this????
Thank you
Lovely.
I used thinly cut steak though.
Delicious.
This was delicious as lettuce wraps. My Hubby and I devoured it. I will be making it for some friends and will serve it over Jasmine rice. I’m also making it for a potluck fellowship where I will serve it with flour tortillas as a Thai Taco garnished with cilantro and lime 🌮 😀
Hello! Are you sure I’m supposed to use 1.5 cups of holy basil? 1.5 cups seems too much. Please let me know. Always, thank you for your recipes ❤️
This looks pretty good except it’s missing one crucial element, lime juice. The acidity of half a lime makes this dish complex , complete and authentic.
159 gram carbohydrates has no place in a low-carb meal plan. Just saying.
Low carb option would be without rice. I like to serve it over spaghetti squash.
If you going to comment on a recipe, make sure you follow it to a T and use you common sense and taste food before serving.
I think most recipes should have skill level of cooking, because some do not know to fix an issue that might come up.
Did the Thai beef dish for tea last night somes mates came to watch rugby so instead of going to take away I cooked that it was great and everyone loved it Ernie
Very yummy! Added extra bell pepper, some shredded carrots, and topped with green onions and sesame seeds.
Had to cook down the final meat / sauce / veggie mixture because it was too saucy for our taste, did this before adding the final basil.
Will definitely be making again!
I used regular soy sauce without noticing it called for low sodium soy. It was inedible. Big huge waste of time and ingredients. So disappointed.
Thank you for trying our recipe, and I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t turn out well for you. We understand how important it is to follow the recipe instructions, including the specific ingredients and measurements. Using regular soy sauce instead of low-sodium soy can definitely affect the overall taste and saltiness of the dish which is why we started to use low-sodium soy sauce. If you’d like to try the recipe again with the correct ingredients, we’d be happy to answer any questions you may have and would love to have you update your review. Thank you for your feedback
Great recipe, added other vegetables on hand. Super tasty.
3 Tbsp of soy sauce would have been plenty. 6 Tsbp is WAY too much. Otherwise, pretty solid, but I would also add a good amount of sambal or a couple of thai chiles for some extra heat
All of your recipes are reliably great, but this one is top-notch. 💯 I make it often for my family and friends, and everyone loves it. Thank you, Lauren.
WAY WAY WAY too salty. I thinned it with more beef broth, added sugar and green onions and still way too salty.
Loved the recipe I used lime squeezed over the finished product. I also palm sugar instead of brown sugar. It could have been hotter. Next time slice some jalapeños in it.
Really yummy thank you Jenny Webb Zimbabwe
Delicious! I had to use regular basil (frozen as I didn’t have fresh and I didn’t have the Thai one) and used regular soy sauce (halved it to 3 tbs) and it came out very tasty. Can only imagine how better it is with Thai basil!
Awesome flavor, added zucchini, served over thai noodles
Really good. I used just a touch of fish sauce but otherwise followed the recipe. Thanks!
I just did a google search and came across this recipe. It was a hit with my husband and picky 5 year old daughter. I loved that it created so much sauce which I often lack when I have made this dish in the past. I increased the amount of brown sugar to temper the salt, but other than that change it was delicious!
Thank you!
DC
Loved this, made vegan with open nature ground, yondu (sub for fish sauce), vegan oyster sauce substitute. and vege broth. Super tasty. My hubby’s version was my vegan sauce on regular ground and he loved it. Thanks so much! This one got saved for the rotation.
Tried this recipe and I love it!! It was so good! Looking forward to try other recipes from this website…..
Hey! Great base recipe, I advise making a few adjustments.
6 tbsp of soy is too much. I started with 2 tbsp soy sauce, and if that wasn’t enough salt, I added more.
I also changed the liquid amount. I did 1/4 cup beef broth and that is it. Otherwise you’ll end up with soup. You can also use a slotted spoon and scoop out the beef if you want to reduce excess liquid.
Fresh basil is the best! I’ve also messed up and used dried, but the flavour is weak.
Finally, I served with lime!
The flavors are fantastic – I did have to buy several of the ingredients for the sauce buy it seems like a worthy pantry investment for future stir fries. My only problem was that there was way too much liquid in the sauce. A single tsp of cornstarch barely seemed to do anything for it, I had to boil it down for a few minutes and even then it was still pretty runny. But despite that, it was still a hit with the whole family, even the picky kids (possibly because I diced all the veggies quite small 😅). Thanks Lauren!
Far too salty for us
I normally don’t comment on recipe websites, but I have to here. You nailed the sauce! I have been eating this for decades at my favorite Thai restaurant, and for the last 5 years have been trying to refine this at home. The key items are: your specification of low sodium soy sauce and beef stock (it’s easy for this dish to be too salty), the addition of extra water (help distribute the flavors and gives you extra sauce for the rice) and cornstarch (makes for a silky sauce.) Also, I hadn’t thought of using Chili paste before (I used plain Chili paste, I didn’t have the Asian Garlic variety). It adds umami and really rounds out the flavor.
For the posters who replied this was too salty, they didn’t use the low sodium varieties of soy and beef broth. 6 Tbls of soy seems like a lot, but it’s not when using low sodium.
To repay the favor of you passing along the sauce, here are my suggestions for taking this over the top: use sliced steak for the meat. I don’t need to explain, you know why. Also, add a couple sliced Thai bird chili peppers. This completes the spicy flavor profile. And skip the ginger.
Thank you very much, I will be adapting this with chicken next (sliced breast with chicken broth)!
Recipe is easy to make and delicious.
This is so delicious! I added sugar snap peas and water chestnuts, instead of peppers. My husband has a hard time with peppers, but he absolutely raved about this recipe! Thanks, and will definitely be making this regularly 🙂
Sue
I love this website!! All recipes I had cooked for last 4 months are just FANTASTIC!!!
The Best cooking website there is!!!!
100% proof
Lidia R.
I Agree!!!!
This turned out terrible! Too salty not great flavour.
Oh my goodness, made this tonight and it was absolutely AMAZING!! Rave reviews from both my husband and my 10-year old. We’ll definitely be doing this one again! Thanks!
When did you add the chili paste? Annoying that you didn’t put it in yet listed it in the recipe list
It’s added in step 3.
Oh my gosh! It had so much promise, but the salt was deadly! It absolutely ruined it, all the liquids were so salty, even the low salt version didn’t make a difference. Very disappointing to have a meal be such a fail.
We have enjoyed some other recipes on this site, but did not care for this one very much. The primary flavor profile was salt, which overpowered any of the sweetness from basil or brown sugar. Next time we may double the basil and brown sugar and halve the soy sauce / oyster / fish sauce, and add some lime at the end.
This is one of my weekly go to meals! So yummy and savory, just love it with some sriracha sauce.
Really great recipe. I substituted bell peppers for anaheim and marble peppers which gave it a good kick.
Stupendously good recipe! We made it with LightLife minced meat and it worked like a dream! Thank you so much for the excellent recipe!
Diana
I made this recipe using regular basil; and it was amazing!! I made it with noodles! Kids loved it. This will be on monthly rotation.
We loved this recipe!