Thai garlic pepper chicken (gai pad kratiem) with bok choy
20 min · 36 g protein · 315 cals / serving
One of Thailand's simplest and most loved home stir-fries: a whole head of garlic fried until golden, chicken thigh slices tossed through it with plenty of white pepper, oyster sauce and fish sauce. Glossy bok choy and cool cucumber slices round it out.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb chicken thigh, trimmed, thinly sliced
Sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp gluten-free oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp white pepper, ground
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp canola oil, divided
- 12 cloves garlic, pre-peeled, finely chopped (a mini chopper does it in seconds)
- 5 baby heads bok choy, halved or quartered
To serve
- 3 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1/2 large cucumber, sliced
Steps
- Stir the oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, white pepper and water together, and toss a spoonful of it through the sliced chicken.
- Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil and the garlic in a wok or large skillet over medium heat, stirring, until the garlic smells sweet and turns pale gold, 1–2 minutes (slice the cucumber while it colours). Turn the heat to high, add the chicken and stir-fry 4–5 minutes until cooked through. Pour in the rest of the sauce and toss 1 minute until glossy. Tip onto a platter.
- Wipe out the pan, add the remaining oil over high heat and stir-fry the bok choy with a splash of water for 2–3 minutes until the stems are just tender.
- Serve the chicken with the bok choy, cucumber slices and cilantro scattered over.
Good to know
Isn't a whole head of garlic too much?
Not here: fried gently, garlic turns sweet and nutty rather than sharp, and it is the whole point of the dish. Keep the heat moderate while it colours, because burnt garlic turns bitter.
Can I use chicken breast or pork?
Both are common in Thailand. Breast is leaner, at about 84 instead of 72; pork loin is the other classic.
Per
- Calories
- 93
- Protein
- (47%)
- 11 g
- Fat
- (42%)
- 4 g
- Carbohydrates
- (11%)
- 3 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 208 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1258 kcal goes into the pot and 1636 g of ingredients comes out as about 1355 g of food: 93 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.