This quick and easy Thai Basil Beef recipe takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and is so authentic tasting you’ll feel like a true Thai chef! It’s made with ground beef (or steak) and a homemade Thai basil sauce that’s easy to customize to your preferred spice level.
One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it’s a 30 minute meal! Some of my other favorite International foods that make great quick weeknight meals include Arroz Chaufa (Peruvian Fried Rice), Chinese Chow Mein, and Baked Ziti.
Thai Basil Beef
When my husband and I lived in St. Louis, there was a Thai food restaurant that we frequented that was unlike any other; I’m salivating just thinking about it. This Thai basil recipe is my attempt at recreating one of my favorite dishes from this restaurant, Pad Gra Prow AKA Thai Basil Beef. It was made with ground beef in a very liquid-y sauce that was delicious as it soaked up in the rice it was served with.
Pad Gra Prow:
The king of street food in Thailand is called Phat kaphroa, and it’s made with your choice of meet (pork, chicken, beef, or seafood), stir fried with Thai holy basil and garlic, and served with rice and a fried egg. It has MANY names including: Pad Kra Pao, Pad Ka Prao, Pad Ka Pow, Pad Krapow, and Pad gaprao. Pad means “stir fried” and Krapow (kra pao, ka prao, ka pow) means “holy basil.”
Thai bail beef is known as Pad Gra Prow and is made with Thai sweet basil…I know, it starts getting confusing.
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.
What makes this recipe unique (and more authentic) from other Thai basil recipes you may have had is that it is made with ground meat rather than thinly sliced pieces of steak. I love this because it feel like more authentic Thai street food, it soaks up more flavor and it’s cheaper and more practical for a regular weeknight meal. And best of all, you can throw it together in less than 30 minutes!
My favorite Thai Basil recipe because:
- 30 minute meal. Yep, this Thai basil recipe can be on your table in less than 30 minutes!
- Ground beef: I think this is the real star of the recipe. It adds a great texture to the dish and I love the way it absorbs some of the sauce.
- That Asian sauce: this sauce recipe is packed with flavor and I love that you can make it as spicy or mild as you like.
5 steps to easy Thai Basil Beef:
- Cook the veggies. In a wok or large skillet over medium high heat add the oil, shallots, garlic, ginger and bell peppers and fry 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 with a spoon. (I like to spoon the cooked ground beef into my food processor and pulse it barely a few times to break it into really small pieces).
- Make the sauce. In a small bowl stir together the brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornstarch beef broth and water and add to the pan. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the basil, and stir-fry until wilted.
- Serve over hot cooked rice.
More ways to make it your own:
- 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, like 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!
Looking for more Thai Recipes? Some of my favorites include:
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Thai Basil Beef
Video
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 shallots , thinly sliced
- 7 cloves garlic , sliced
- 1 Tbsp fresh ginger , minced
- 1/2 red bell pepper , thinly sliced
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 2 teaspoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon fish sauce*
- 6 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 3 teaspoons oyster sauce*
- 2 Tbsp Asian garlic chili paste , more or less to taste, for heat*
- 1/2 cup low sodium beef broth
- ¼ cup water
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 cup basil leaves**
- Cooked Jasmine rice , for serving
Instructions
- In a wok or large skillet over medium high heat add the oil, shallots, garlic, ginger and bell peppers and fry for 3 minutes.
- Push the veggies off to the side. Turn the heat to high and add the ground beef, breaking it up into small bits with a spoon. (I like to spoon the cooked ground beef into my food processor and pulse it barely a few times to break it into really 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. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the basil, and stir-fry until wilted.
- Serve over hot cooked rice.
Notes
More ways to make it your own:
- 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, like 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!
Nutrition
HAVE YOU TRIED THIS RECIPE?!
RATE THIS RECIPE AND COMMENT BELOW! I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR EXPERIENCE.
Lidia Robinson says
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.
Trang says
I Agree!!!!
Sue says
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
Sheila says
Recipe is easy to make and delicious.
Eric says
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)!
Heather Martin says
Far too salty for us
Valery says
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!
Moselle says
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!
Kathi says
Tried this recipe and I love it!! It was so good! Looking forward to try other recipes from this website…..
Lisa says
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.
Danice says
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