This is one of the classics of Thai food and is surprising easy to make.

	2		tablespoons		vegetable oil					Tips and substitutions You can substitute ground turkey or pork for ground chicken. Some people like the meat cut up in bite size piecesrather than ground. In Thai restaurants in America, Sweet basil or Thai basil is usually used for this dish. While an acceptable substitute, it is not quite the same.
	4-7				Thai chili pepper, minced
	1		tablespoon		sugar
	1-2		packages		holy basil
	1/2		lb		ground chicken
	1		tablespoon		garlic, minced
	3		tablespoons		fish sauce

Mince garlic and chili pepper together. Clean and pick gra-pow leaves from their stem. It may appear like a lot of leaves, but the leaves will shrink when cooked and this dish's flavor comes from the leaves.

Fry the garlic and chili pepper in oil over high heat. When garlic starts to turn brown, drop the ground chicken in. Stir constantly. The juice will start to come out. Keep stirring until all the juice is gone. It might take a couple of minutes. Add sugar and fish sauce. Then add Thai basil. Quickly turn it over a few times to mix the leaves with the meat and then remove from the fire and put the gai pad gra pow in the serving plate or dishes. Serve hot with rice.

Normally in Thailand, gai pad gra pow is served with a small bowl of chili pepper in fish sauce.

	1-4				Thai chili pepper					Tips and substitutions For a vegetarian chili fish sauce, substitute light soy sauce for fish sauce.
	1				shallot
	2		tablespoons		fish sauce
	1/4				lime		Optional

Slice chili pepper and shallot and place them in a sauce dish. Add fish sauce and lime juice. Some people omit the lime juice. But in our house, lime juice is a must. Some like garlic instead of shallot.

This sauce is like salt and pepper, appearing on most people's table. Chili fish sauce is also served with crispy fried dishes like fried fish, deep fried okra or green beans.