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Thai Crispy Chicken Basil

I have been living in New York for about a year now and have yet to find the delicious and spicy crispy chicken basil that is served at one of my favorite Thai restaurants in Boston. The name of the restaurant is Nud Pob and it is right across the street from Boston University on Commonwealth Avenue. If anyone has eaten this dish and can recommend to me a place ANYWHERE in New York City where I can find it, I will be extremely grateful! I have had some good Thai meals here in NYC but have never found anything that resembles the tantalizingly spicy and flavorful dish for which I am searching. Thank you in advance.

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  1. I've had spicy chili basil pork and duck at several places in NYC -- Zabb Thai, Sripraphai, Pam Real Thai -- and I'm sure they all have chicken too. I think it's often called Pad Kra Prow on menus.

    3 Replies
    1. re: chompchomp

      Kra Prow is standard at all Thai restaurants. I believe what crisp is looking for is the variation that uses chunks of fried chicken... not unlike general tso's, but usually not battered as heavily. I've had it in San Francisco but have never seen it here either.

      1. re: bhill

        Thanks for the replies so far. I really haven't found really spicy Thai food here in NYC and I have eaten at a variety of places. Whenever I have ordered the Kra Prow, the chicken is not fried and even though it may be described as "spicy," to my palate it is very mild and tastes quite different than the variation I described in my original post. Do you think that I could request that they fry the chicken pieces and then make it EXTRA spicy at Sripraphai?

        1. re: crisp444

          I've never seen chicken fried that way when ordering chicken basil at any thai place I've been to in NYC. The chicken basil at Sripraphai is ground up usually, unless you ask otherwise.

    2. Zabb Queens (in JH) and Poodam's both do very good crispy pork basil (not to be confused with the regular pork), and if you look sincere when you ask for stuff Thai-hot at Poodam's, it's downright incendiary and delicious.

      Maybe if you ask them do do chicken the same way as the crispy pork, they can put something together.

      3 Replies
      1. re: hatless

        Widmark: thank you so much. The crispy pork basil (maybe I could substitute the crispy chicken for that) seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. The funny thing is that I never had to ask for "extra hot" or give special instructions to get it spicy like I have to do pretty much EVERYWHERE in NYC. I guess the business owners here just play it safe and cater to a more European/Western palate unless the customer specifies otherwise.

        1. re: crisp444

          for the record, that was hatless w/ the Poodam's rec. I've eaten there once and enjoyed it though.

          1. re: Widmark

            Widmark: I realize I credited you instead of him/her, so thank you, hatless!

      2. Just noticed I am Thai in sunnyside has some sort of crispy chicken dish.

        1. Thank you everyone for the replies! I will have to try I Am Thai and Poodam out in Queens. I will give you guys an update and let you know if this is what I'm looking for.

          1. there's a thai place on court street in cobble hill called Chili i think that does crispy chicken basil. i had it once, was pretty good but it was a lil too heavy for me.

            1 Reply
            1. re: the_state

              Wow. That's right near where I live and I believe is the only Thai restaurant around there that I have not tried! Thanks for the info.