Thai Basil Chicken Pizza and Becoming Cousteau

Hello and welcome to Pizza and a Movie! This week we have a pizza that may seem familiar to you: Thai Basil Chicken. Back in March I shared a recipe for a popular Thai Street food called Pad Gra Prow Gai, a basil chicken stir fry served with rice and a fried egg. Well, I thought that Thai Basil Chicken (or in our case turkey) stir fry mixture would be really tasty on a pizza. I wasn’t wrong. I have left out the egg, though that would be a good addition; added mozzarella and put it on a pizza. Garnished with fresh basil leaves, green onion and sriracha sauce. Let’s get right to it!

If you made the Pad Gra Prow Gai and you have leftovers, this is a perfect use for them. Even without the leftovers, this recipe is super simple and very quick.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with a pizza steel or stone. Let’s start with the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together Dark Soy Sauce, Fish Sauce, Oyster Sauce, and Regular Soy Sauce. Set this aside until we’re ready for it. Then we have thinly sliced peppers, minced or diced shallot, and minced or pressed garlic.

Thai Basil Chicken Stir Fry

Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat for 3 minutes or so. Then pour in 2 tablespoons of grapeseed or peanut oil. Let the oil get hot, about 1 minute. To the hot oil add garlic, chile peppers and shallots. Stir and let sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Then add the ground chicken or turkey to the skillet. Break it up into small pieces as it cooks and browns. Once the chicken or turkey is cooked through, add the sauce to the pan and stir well to coat the cooked turkey and peppers in the sauce. Add the diced green beans to the skillet and stir well to incorporate the green beans into the turkey/sauce/peppers mixture.

Add the torn basil leaves to the mixture and stir to incorporate. Cook for about 30 seconds more and cut the heat. Set the skillet aside while we prep the rest of the pizza ingredients and let the stir fry cool down to room temperature.

Assembling the Thai Basil Chicken Pizza

We have about 1-1.5 cups of grated mozzarella and our store bought pizza dough. Roll, stretch or spin your dough out to about 12-inches round. Spread an even layer of grated mozzarella on the dough, reserve about 1/4 cup of cheese for the top.

Then spread an even layer of the stir fry mixture over the cheese. I used all but about 1/2 cup of the stir fry mixture. Feel free to use less and save the remaining mixture for leftovers.

Then top the stir fry mixture with the reserved mozzarella. Then we are ready to bake!

Bake the pizza for 10-15 minutes, until the crust is puffed and golden and the cheese is melted and bubbly. While the pizza is baking, thinly slice 1-2 green onions for garnish.

I have several fresh basil leaves to add as garnish along with the sliced scallions. Top the baked pizza with the scallions and the fresh basil leaves.

Slice and serve with sriracha sauce.

I love experimenting with Asian flavors on pizza. It works surprising well. This Thai Basil Chicken Pizza is rich and deeply savory, with hints of spiciness and a lot of great textures; we have the crust of course, but we also have a fresh crunch from the diced green beans and the meaty chew of the ground turkey. The sweet flavor of the basil and the bite of the raw scallions bring a bright freshness to the flavor.

Movie Night: Becoming Cousteau

We have our Thai Basil Chicken Pizza ready so let’s get to the show! This week, we have a great documentary: Becoming Cousteau follows the career and life of Jacques Cousteau. An incredibly honest, in-depth look at Cousteau’s beginnings, innovations, and his change of heart toward protecting the environment, Becoming Cousteau doesn’t hold back on showing the uglier parts of Cousteau’s career and underwater adventures. Some of this doc is hard to watch; hard to believe that it started this way for Cousteau. But witnessing his turnaround to becoming a conservationist and advocate through the grainy archival footage, audio recordings and his own diary (read by Vincent Cassel) is compelling.

Becoming Cousteau is available to watch with a subscription to Disney+.

Thank you so much for joining me today for Pizza and a Movie! I do hope you give Thai Basil Chicken Pizza a try. It’s really wonderful! If it’s outside your comfort zone, or you think it’s too weird for Asian flavors to be on a pizza, I highly encourage to give this one a try, I think it will surprise you – it is really, really good! Let me know your thoughts! Take care and be well, xo Kelly

Print Recipe

Thai Basil Chicken Pizza

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Dinner, Main Course – Thai-inspired

By Kelly Djalali – Serves: 2-4

Prep Time: 25 Minutes – Cooking Time: 10-15 Minutes – Total Time: ~40 Minutes

Today we have a Thai-inspired pizza featuring Thai Basil Chicken. This pizza is rich and savory with great textures and little bit of spice.

Ingredients

• Thai Basil Chicken Stir Fry
• 2 tbsp. Dark Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp. Fish Sauce
• 3 tbsp. Oyster Sauce
• 1 tbsp. Low Sodium Soy Sauce
• 2 tbsp. Grapeseed or Peanut Oil
• 1 Serrano Chile Pepper, sliced thin (with or without seeds)
• 1 Small Red Chile Pepper, sliced thin (with or without seeds)
• 5 Cloves Garlic, pressed or minced
• 3 Shallots, minced
• 1 lb. Ground Turkey or Chicken
• 1 cup Diced Green Beans
• 1.5 cups (or 1 large bunch) Sweet Basil (or Thai basil), leaves torn from stems (plus several leaves reserved for garnish)
• Thai Basil Chicken Pizza
• 1 prepared Pizza Dough
• 1.5 cups Grated Mozzarella Cheese
• Fresh Basil leaves
• 1-2 Scallions, sliced thinly for garnish
• Sriracha Sauce, if desired

Instructions

Thai Basil Chicken Stir Fry

1

In a small bowl, whisk together Dark Soy Sauce, Fish Sauce, Oyster Sauce, and Regular Soy Sauce. Set this aside until we're ready for it.

2

Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat for 3 minutes or so. Then pour in 2 tablespoons of grapeseed or peanut oil. Let the oil get hot, about 1 minute.

3

To the hot oil add garlic, chile peppers and shallots. Stir and let sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.

4

Then add the ground chicken or turkey. Break it up as it cooks, we are looking for small cooked pieces of protein. No large chunks.

5

Add the sauce to the meat mixture and stir to coat the meat in the sauce.

6

Then add the diced green beans to the stir fry. Stir to fully incorporate the green beans and coat them in sauce.

7

Now, add the basil leaves to the stir fry; pluck the leaves from the stems and drop them in, tear the largest leaves in half as you add them to the meat mixture. Stir in the basil leaves, cooking for only about 30 seconds, then cut the heat. Let the stir fry mixture cool to room temp before using it to top the pizza.

Thai Basil Chicken Pizza

8

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F with a pizza steel or stone.

9

Roll, stretch or spin your dough out to about 12-inches round. Spread an even layer of grated mozzarella on the dough, reserve about 1/4 cup of cheese for the top.

10

Spread an even layer of the stir fry mixture over the cheese. I used all but about 1/2 cup of the stir fry mixture. Feel free to use less and save the remaining mixture for leftovers.

11

Then top the stir fry mixture with the reserved mozzarella.

12

Bake the pizza for 10-15 minutes, until the crust is puffed and golden and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

13

Top the baked pizza with the scallions and the fresh basil leaves.

14

Slice and serve with sriracha sauce.