Sweet and savory, easy 20 minute Thai Blackberry Basil Chicken.
This dish… it evolved. It started out good but the time it actually got to the dinner table it was G O O D. The kind of good that makes you think – woah I’ve got some pretty mad skills in the kitchen, but then you realize the entire recipe took only twenty minutes and was pretty much the easiest dinner ever.
Yeah that’s this recipe.
So how did the evolution come about? It started with just a simple idea for spicy Thai chicken. I knew I wanted chicken, and I knew I wanted some kind of spicy-savory Thai sauce. But then basil came to play because basil is my new love. (Really, I have been buying fresh basil every week for the past month – I can’t get enough!)
But the blackberries, they are the real star here. Because the Thai chicken with basil was amazing, it really was, but the moment I grabbed a handful of blackberries and on a whim threw them into the pan will go down in history as my greatest (and probably only) stroke of genius ever.
I actually wondered if my husband would like the blackberries in this dish because it’s a little bit out there you know? So much so that I actually gave a disclaimer right before dinner saying he was welcome to just pick out his blackberries if they weren’t his thing – but he devoured the entire dish, blackberries and all! I was both a little bit shocked and a lot a bit happy when he said he loved this Thai blackberry basil chicken – blackberries included. So if you’re on the fence, just take the leap and go for it. I’m about 103.7 percent sure your entire family will love this easy 20 minute meal!
Thai Blackberry Basil Chicken
Ingredients
- 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts - cut into bite size pieces
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 cup blackberries
- handful fresh basil leaves - thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons roughly chopped cashews - (I used Diamond of California Cashew Halves)
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk together fish sauce, garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes, sugar.
- Drizzle a large pan or skillet with oil and bring to medium heat. Add chicken and stir 4-5 minutes until browned.
- Add sauce to pan and continue to stir over heat for 3-4 more minutes until chicken is cooked through.
- Add blackberries and basil and stir another 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle with cashews and serve immediately.
This just simply tastes amazing. Really easy and fun to cook. I had fresh basil from my garden and its a great way to use extra basil you may need to get rid of quick! It looks really pretty too, nice purple color on the chicken if the berry gets semi crushed while mixing it in the pan. Id make this for anybody if they wanted to try something different but didn’t want to get too exotic with their food. The flavor was really unique and this is a special dish. Definitely worth conversation. 5-Stars!! Cheers.
This is surprising quick and easy, and so good. The sweetness of the berries balances out the saltiness of the sauce. My boyfriend doesn’t like blackberries or contrasting textures like nuts (insert eyeroll), and said he wasn’t really looking forward to dinner when he saw what I was making but in the end he said it grew on him and now he’s licking his platter clean, literally. I said, “But I’ve made this about 3 times before, and you’ve loved it every time.” He said, “I know, but it’s not really my thing but it always really grows on me.” I keep this recipe in my keepers pile. Thanks!
Do I need to put in fish sauce and hoisin sauce in this, or can I just put soy sauce?
I haven’t tried it myself but I think it could work.