Nam Prik Pao is Thai chilli ‘jam’ and has a great flavor of slightly spicy, sweet, sour, and a lot of umami. You can make it from scratch or buy it. A very popular dish is cashew chicken, which is the Thai version of a Chinese dish. The nam prik pao is what makes it Thai. I’ve mostly followed Hot Thai Kitchen’s recipe here, but I cook the chicken a bit less to prevent overcooking it. If you take out the chicken if it is not yet completely cooked, it will continue to cook while it rests. This will ensure tender and juicy chicken. You can feel if the chicken is cooked before you return it to the pan, because cooked chicken is more firm than raw chicken. If you are not confident that the chicken is cooked through, you can of course always cut the biggest piece in half to look inside. If the biggest piece is cooked through, all the chicken will be fine.

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 300 grams (.66 lb) boneless and skinless chicken thigh, cut into bite size pieces
• 60 grams (generous 1/3 cup) unsalted cashews (raw or roasted)
• 1 green, 1 red, 1 yellow bell pepper, cleaned and chopped
• 2 Tbsp cooking oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• about 7 dried red chillies
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 2 green onions, chopped

For the sauce

• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp Golden Mountain sauce (or fish sauce or Maggi seasoning)
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp sugar (preferably palm sugar)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp nam prik pao
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Instructions

Start by mixing 300 grams of chicken thigh with 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, to allow the chicken to marinate while preparing the other ingredients.

Roast the cashews in the oven at 180C/350 until nicely browned and crunchy, 8 to 12 minutes (depending on whether they were already roasted or not).

Combine the ingredients for the sauce in the bowl of a blender…

…and blend until smooth.

Prepare the bell peppers, onion, green onion, and garlic.

Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a wok, casserole, or Dutch oven. Add the dried red chillies and allow them to fry in the oil over low heat for a couple of minutes to infuse the oil with chilli flavor, turning them as needed. They should darken in color, but not get burnt.

Take the chillies out of the oil with a strainer and reserve.

Turn the heat to high and add the chicken. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes undisturbed, so the chicken can get a nice sear.

Then turn the chicken and sear the other side as well. The chicken does not need to be cooked through (as explained in the introduction).

Take the chicken out of the wok with a strainer, as soon as it has developed a nice sear, and reserve.

Add the onion, and stir fry for a minute.

Add the garlic and stir.

Add the white part of the green onions…

…and the bell pepper.

Stir fry for a minute or longer, depending on how crunchy you like your bell peppers.

If you like to properly cook the bell peppers rather than leaving them raw (I am allergic to the skin of raw bell pepper so I have to cook them), add some water…

…and cover to steam the bell pepper.

When the bell pepper is cooked to your liking, add the prepared sauce…

…as well as the reserved chicken and reserved chillies, and stir to mix.

Then add the roasted cashews and green part of the green onions, and stir briefly.

Then turn off the heat.

Serve with Jasmin rice.