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This easy Thai-inspired basil beef recipe has ground beef, sautéed onions, and bell peppers with fresh basil! The sauce is the perfect balance of savory, sweet, and lightly spicy.
You may also like my Easy Beef Bowls or Ground Beef and Broccoli next.
Why you’ll love it
Let’s talk about the outstanding flavors in this Thai-style basil beef! The homemade sauce has soy sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar, and a touch of sriracha along with plenty of garlic. It’s amazing with fresh sweet basil and the strips of tasty onions and peppers.
I am really excited about this weeknight wonder. It’s another Asian-inspired dish using budget-friendly ground beef, ingredients you can find at the grocery store for the sauce, and no wok is needed! It’s also ready in just 30 minutes for a speedy, satisfying meal.
What you’ll need
- Ground beef – it’s lean, filling, and affordable
- Olive oil – for stir frying
- Onion and red bell pepper – for added flavor and freshness. I prefer sweet onions.
- Soy sauce – use low sodium to control the saltiness
- Fish sauce – find it in the same aisle as the soy sauce. It adds so much depth!
- Brown sugar – for a hint of sweetness to make this dish well rounded
- Sriracha sauce – we’re not using tons in the sauce itself, so it’s a gentle heat
- Oyster sauce – optional but recommended
- Garlic – I like a lot in this one!
- Basil – for that signature pop of freshness. Regular/sweet basil is what we’re using.
Helpful tips
- This isn’t Pad Kra Pao, but it very loosely borrows some of the flavors and adapts it to readily available ingredients to make it more accessible. For example, we don’t have the traditionally used holy basil, but it’s actually closer to sweet basil in flavor. To complicate things further, you can get something called Thai basil in North America, but I don’t recommend using it in this dish because of its licorice notes. It’s very different from both sweet basil and holy basil.
- Get your pan nice and HOT to get a good sear on the veggies!
- This recipe doesn’t make tons of sauce, so you could always double it if you want lots to put over rice.
How to make basil beef
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.
Mix together the sauce ingredients in a prep bowl. Cook the beef in a skillet, breaking it apart as you go along. Drain any excess fat, then transfer the beef to a paper towel lined plate.
Add the olive oil, onions, and bell peppers to the skillet. Sauté until tender-crisp (a little char is great). Remove the skillet from the heat, then return the beef. Pour in the sauce. Return it to the stove, and add in the basil.
Cook until it’s wilted and everything is heated through. Give it a taste, and season with salt & pepper if needed. Serve as suggested below, and be sure to top with freshly squeezed lime, cilantro, etc.!
Tools for this recipe
Check out Natasha’s favorite kitchen essentials, gadgets, and cookware!
- Cast iron is important for this one to get a good sear! I use this Le Creuset skillet with this splatter guard.
- Mince the garlic effortlessly with this easy-to-clean garlic press.
- Store your brown sugar in one of these airtight pantry containers with a sugar bear to keep it soft and clump free.
Substitutions and variations
- This recipe isn’t particularly spicy as written, but you can definitely add more sriracha (I like to when serving) or stir in some chili flakes or even sliced Thai chilis/serrano peppers when you’re cooking the onions and peppers.
- I list the oyster sauce as optional since I know not everyone stocks it in their kitchen, but it does give this dish a little something extra.
What to serve with Thai beef with basil
- Plate it over rice (I like jasmine best or this Coconut Lime Rice) or noodles. I love to generously squeeze lime juice and drizzle on some extra sriracha sauce when serving.
- I’ve seen versions of similar recipes serve it with a sunny-side up fried egg on top!
- You could start the meal with my Quick Thai Green Curry Soup or serve it with a fresh salad like my Thai Quinoa Salad.
Leftovers and storage
- Store leftovers for 3-4 days in the fridge in a covered container.
- Reheat slowly over a low heat. Add a splash of beef broth, sriracha, etc. if it has dried out a bit.
- You can freeze it for 3 months, but keep in mind that the basil will be very wilted and the veggies will soften up even more.
If you made this Asian-style beef and basil recipe, please leave a star rating and review below! Or tag me on Instagram stories so I can see your S&L creations.
Basil Beef
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon (packed) brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon sriracha sauce + extra for serving
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce optional
- 4-5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion sliced fairly thin
- 1 red bell pepper sliced fairly thin
- 1 cup (loosely packed) fresh basil torn
- Salt & pepper to taste
- For serving: cooked rice, chopped fresh cilantro, lime wedges optional, to taste
Instructions
- Add the sauce ingredients (soy sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar, sriracha sauce, oyster sauce, and garlic) to a medium bowl and mix together.
- Add the beef to a skillet over medium-high heat and break it up with your spoon as you go along until it's cooked (about 8-10 minutes). Drain excess fat and transfer the beef to a paper towel lined plate.
- Add the olive oil, onions, and peppers to the skillet and sauté, stirring occasionally, until they're tender-crisp. I like to get a little char on mine!
- Take the skillet off the heat. Add the cooked beef back in, and stir in the sauce.
- Return the skillet to the burner over medium heat. Toss in the basil and cook for a couple more minutes, until it's wilted and everything is heated through. Season with salt & pepper if needed (I find the sauce quite salty on its own so be sure to taste first!).
- Serve the beef over the rice if desired, and garnish with chopped cilantro, extra sriracha sauce, and serve with lime wedges (I add a generous squeeze to my bowl!) if desired.
Notes
- This dish is not particularly spicy with the ingredient quantities listed.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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