Tamarind, basil and snow peas chicken stir-fry

No story behind this recipe. Just that I went to an Asian supermarket over the weekend and stocked up on tamarind paste and snow peas and wanted to play with them :)



INGREDIENTS (for 4 people, or 2 people with leftovers)
- 2 large chicken breasts, sliced finely and dredged in cornstarch
- 1 medium onion, diced finely
- 4 cloves of garlic, grated
- 1 inch fresh ginger, in fine sticks
- 1 tbsp fresh chili paste (I used Sambal Oelek, but you can also use a fresh red chili of your choice and grate it into a paste)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/4 cup tamarind paste (you can make your own out of the dried fruit: click here for a recipe, or rehydrate commercially available tamarind concentrate)
- 2 1/2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
- 3 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
- about 1 cup chicken broth
- snow peas, rinsed (I think I had about 1.5 lbs here, but you can use as much as you want, really!)
- a big handful of fresh Thai basil
- a splash of coconut oil


RECIPE:
- in a very (VERY) hot wok, fry the onion, garlic and ginger in coconut oil for a few minutes, stirring almost constantly

- add the chili paste, the chicken and stir again until the chicken is almost cooked through (opaque), then add the soy sauce and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes

- while it is cooking, dissolve the brown sugar in the fish sauce

- after 3 minutes, add the snow peas and stir until well mixed, then add about 3/4 cup chicken broth and stir until the sauce coats the snow peas and chicken

- after 3 minutes, add the tamarind and sugar dissolved in fish sauce, and cook for another 3-4 minutes, or until the snow peas are cooked to your liking, then turn off the heat, sprinkle fresh basil on top and mix well

Note: if the stir fry is getting a bit dry, add more chicken broth
- serve piping hot over steamed jasmine rice and decorate with a few leaves of fresh basil

- Enjoy!