Eating In: Thai Basil Chicken with Cashews

Over the weekend, I decided to make my mom's recipe for Thai Basil Chicken. Whenever I cook I like to make things that have lots of sauce and can easily be scaled up to a large amount so that I have leftovers for the rest of the week. This is my first attempt at writing a recipe, so I'm sure there are going to be some things that need work. Ingredients needed are as follows:

1 pound minced chicken thighs / ground chicken
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons vegetable / canola oil
1/3 cup unsalted roasted cashews
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
basil (about a small handful of leaves)
black pepper



1. Start by heating 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok on medium heat.
2. Once the oil is hot, add the chicken. You can use either chicken thighs that have been minced or ground chicken if you want to save time. Chicken thighs will produce better flavor, but having to chop them up adds time to the process.
3. Cook the chicken until all of it appears to be cooked through.
4. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Also, keep any juices that collect in the pan as a result of cooking and set aside in a separate dish.
5. In the same pan on medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and the garlic.
6. Cook the garlic until it starts to brown, then add the oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice and stir to mix all the components.
7. Depending on how saucy you want the dish to be, add some of the chicken juice set aside earlier to the pan (about 1-3 tablespoons should be fine). Water can be used as well.
8. Once the sauce starts to caramelize (gets thicker and starts to bubble), add the chicken and the cashews, and stir to coat with the sauce.
9. Add pepper to taste and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
10. Remove from heat. Add the basil and stir to combine.
11. Serve with steamed white rice.