Is Thai Basil Chicken Healthy? (Healthy Thai Basil Chicken Recipe)

Thai basil chicken, or pad kra pao, is a classic Thai stir fry dish that is fragrant with the aroma of basil with an added kick from Thai chilis. It's a classic Thai dish loved by Thai locals and it's popularity has spread throughout the Western world as well. It's definitely delicious, but is thai basil chicken healthy?

Thai basil chicken can be a very healthy dish given that it predominantly consists of protein from the meat and eggs, carbs from the rice, making it a well-balanced nutritious meal.

A serving of Thai Basil Chicken is 310 calories, with 47 grams of protein, 9 grams of fat, and 9 grams of carbs.

However, the key to making this dish help rather than hinder progress towards your fitness goals is portioning high calorie ingredients mindfully and choosing the right proteins.

Jump to:

• 🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Is Thai Basil Chicken Healthy?
• 🍏 How to Make It Healthy – The Fitsian Method
• 💡Tips and Tricks
• 📋 Ingredient Notes
• 🔪 Step by Step Instructions
• 🍳 Recipe

🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Is Thai Basil Chicken Healthy?

To understand the calorie and nutrition content of Thai basil chicken, it’s useful to look at the core ingredients that make up the dish. Thai basil chicken is made of three main components: protein, stir fry sauce, and the base.

• Protein: The dish is often served with ground chicken or pork. It is often also topped with an egg, complementing the salty taste stir fry sauce well. If your goal is to keep calorie count low, using a lean protein such as boneless chicken thigh or chicken breast is ideal. A protein source such as pork can be as high as 400 calories per 4 ounce serving from predominantly fats, so it's important to make mindful decisions about the protein choice.
• Stir Fry Sauce: The sauce consists of a soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce, none of which add a significant amount of calories.
• Rice: Rice is often served with pad kra pao and complements the dish well. Carbs are definitely a necessary part of our diet, but it's important to portion this mindfully as carbs can easily add up calorie-wise if not portioned correctly, hindering progress towards your fitness goals. You can also omit the rice for a low carb meal.

Looking at each component, it’s easy to see that Thai basil chicken can easily be made to be a high calorie and high fat dish if the protein and rice are not chosen or portioned correctly, making it less than ideal for dieting purposes. However, it’s not hard to make it low calorie and macro conscious — this recipe will show you some tweaks that will make this dish easy to fit into your everyday diet.

🍏 How to Make It Healthy – The Fitsian Method

In this recipe, I use a more protein heavy ratio to make this a more macro friendly and calorie conscious dish. Here are some key tweaks I made:

 

• Portioned 6oz boneless, skinless chicken thigh for a lean protein source. Contrary to traditional recipes, I used cut chicken thigh pieces instead of ground chicken. Chicken thigh pieces have slightly more fat content, which I personally need a certain amount of to hit my macros! I personally do 45% grams of my bodyweight. I also personally prefer whole chicken pieces to ground chicken.
• Portioned stir-fry sauce ingredients to be only 40 calories based on the portions in the recipe below

For a detailed breakdown of each ingredients, their portioning, and how they make up the nutrition profile of this low calorie Thai basil chicken recipe, you may refer to the table below:

💡Tips and Tricks

What can I substitute for Thai basil?

Thai basil has a very unique flavor that is very characteristic of Thai cuisine. Unfortunately, it can be harder to find in your everyday supermarket. If you don't have Thai basil available, you can also opt to use traditional Italian basil or holy basil. For more Thai basil substitute ideas, you can check out this list of various Thai basil substitutes.

Is Thai Basil Chicken Spicy?

Thai basil chicken is usually served spicy and the spice comes from sautéing the Thai chilis. To adjust the spice, you can modify the amount of Thai chilis to use. Here's a rough guide for how many Thai chilis to use based on your spice preference:

• Mild Spice: 1 Thai chili
• Medium Spice: 2-3
• Very Spicy: 3+ (Be careful!)

What can I eat with Thai basil chicken?

In this recipe, I served the chicken with a serving of brown rice, which is ¼ cup uncooked. You can also opt for other types of rice if you’d like. You can also make bigger portions of rice to prep for various recipes throughout the week to save time. 

If you liked this recipe, check out the following:

• Noodle lovers -- check out my Healthy Pad Kee Mao recipe!
• Low calorie recipes that are still high in proteins are the number one more important recipes to consume when trying to stay fit. If you love Thai foods similar to this recipe, check out some of my favorite low calorie and protein packed Thai food recipes in my Low Calorie Thai Foods Guide.

• For more quick and healthy recipes, check out my Fast and Fit Recipe Collection.
• Pair it with a bowl of Seafood Tom Yum Soup

📋 Ingredient Notes

Stir Fry Sauce

• 1 clove Garlic
• 2 teaspoon Soy sauce
• 2 teaspoon Oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon Dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Fish sauce

Chicken and Rice

• 6oz Chicken thigh (Boneless, skinless)
• ¼ Onion
• 1-2 Thai chili (Adjust based on spice tolerance)
• 1 Egg
• Black pepper and salt (To taste)
• Thai basil (Can substitute with regular basil)

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🔪 Step by Step Instructions

1. Gather the chicken and marinade ingredients.
2. Cut the chicken into small bite-sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
3. Prepare the garlic and onion by mincing them. Then spray a skillet with cooking spray and sauté the vegetables. Begin to add in the chicken pieces in a single layer.
4. Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side while stirring the vegetables around consistently to avoid overcooking and burning anything.
5. Once the chicken looks about done and the vegetables have softened, add in the stir fry sauce and mix with the chicken and vegetables thoroughly. Use water if needed to help deglaze the skillet.
6. When the stir fry look well mixed together, turn the heat to low and add in the Thai basil. Stir until the leaves begin to wither and you'll know that the basil is done. Remove from pan and enjoy your delicious and healthy meal!

🍳 Recipe