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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
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I originally shared this recipe September 2019. Updated July 2020 and August 2023.
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
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Lidia R.
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