Pad Kra Pao with Beef (Pantry Version)
Spicy ground beef stir-fry over rice with a runny fried egg on top.
Discover smart recipes
Sign up on Homecooked to cook this recipe as the chef intended, with parallel steps and built-in timers guiding you along the way. Stock your pantry to discover more recipes you can cook with the ingredients you have at home.
Join HomecookedIngredients
- 400 g Ground beef
- 6 cloves Garlic
- 2 tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp Neutral oil
- 300 g Rice
- 2 Egg
- 1 tsp Red pepper flakes
- 1 bunch Thai basil
- 1 tbsp Fish sauce
- 1 tsp Dark soy sauce (optional)
Method
- Smash the garlic and chop it roughly.
- Heat half the neutral oil in a wide pan over high heat. Crack in the eggs and fry them crispy-edged with runny yolks, about 2 minutes. Lift onto a plate.
- Add the remaining oil. Fry the garlic and chili flakes until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
- Add the beef and brown it hard, breaking it up, until deeply coloured.
- Stir in the soy sauce, dark soy, sugar, and fish sauce. Bubble for a minute. Tear in the basil at the end and toss once.
- Spoon over the rice and top with the fried eggs.
Nutrition per serving
Estimated from ingredients; varies with exact portions and brands.
About Pad Kra Pao with Beef (Pantry Version)
Pad kra pao is Thailand's default fast meal, the dish you order at a street stall when you can't decide on anything else, and this beef version keeps to the essentials: minced meat fried hard with garlic and chilies, hit with soy and fish sauce, and finished with a fistful of holy basil. What separates it from a generic stir-fry is that peppery, almost clove-like basil torn in off the heat, and the willingness to let the beef take on real colour rather than just cooking through. The seasoning leans savoury and slightly sweet, with dark soy giving both depth and a burnished look, while the chili flakes carry the heat that gives the dish its reputation.
Traditionally it arrives over rice with a runny fried egg on top, the crackling, lacy-edged kind fried in hot oil so the whites blister while the yolk stays loose to spill into the meat. That egg isn't a garnish so much as a sauce, and breaking it over everything is part of eating pad kra pao properly. This version is built for a weeknight, coming together in under twenty minutes with pantry staples, and the technique it teaches is worth carrying to other stir-fries: fry the egg first, keep the heat high, and add the basil last so it wilts rather than stews.
Pad Kra Pao with Beef (Pantry Version): frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Pad Kra Pao with Beef (Pantry Version)?
One serving of Pad Kra Pao with Beef (Pantry Version) has about 742 calories, with 24g of protein, 72g of carbs, 40g of fat and 1g of fiber. These are estimates based on the ingredient amounts in this recipe and will vary with your exact portions and brands.
Is Pad Kra Pao with Beef (Pantry Version) gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Soy sauce, Dark soy sauce. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for those ingredients to make it gluten-free.
Do I need every ingredient to make Pad Kra Pao with Beef (Pantry Version)?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out dark soy sauce — it's optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Pad Kra Pao with Beef (Pantry Version) make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.