Stir-Fried Butternut Squash with Lemon Basil: My Version of Pad Fuk Thong

I really don’t make stir-fries with exact proportions. I just throw everything together. The ingredients vary depending on my mood. This time I started with just butternut squash but found a bag of sugar snap peas in the fridge and decided to throw in some color.

This stir-fry is very similar to a Thai dish called Pad Fuk Thong. Fuk Thong is a Thai pumpkin. It looks very much like Kabocha or Japanese pumpkin (maybe they're the same thing but I'm not 100% sure so don't quote me). I think Buttercup squash also looks very similar to Kabocha and I've been known to use them interchangeably. I usually make this dish with Kabocha but I happen to have leftover butternut squash in the fridge so I decided to try this stir-fry with the butternut squash. It turned out really well. I also usually use chicken breasts in my stir-fries but I had a package of ground chicken that I had defrosted.

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons canola or olive oil
1 pound ground chicken or sliced chicken breast
2 cloves garlic
salt
pepper
MSG
1 medium onion, sliced
3 cups butternut squash, sliced (or kabocha or buttercup squash)
two handfuls of sugar snap peas
basil (lemon, sweet and/or thai)
2 green onions, sliced
Fish sauce, to taste
Maggi sauce, to taste
1 tablespoon sugar

Method (this time in pictures):

Heat a saute pan or wok, add oil, allow oil to heat and then add chicken, garlic, salt, pepper and MSG. Allow chicken to brown.

Add squash and onions.
Cover with a lid and allow the squash to steam until slightly tender. (I suppose I should have specified a pan with a lid. I'm using a 4 quart/12" inch saute/simmer pan. I didn't feel like fetching the wok and this pan was a compromise. It has the rounded sides of a skillet but the depth of the a saute pan.)

The squash and onions will look like this after cooking for several minutes.
Toss in a couple handfuls of sugar snap peas. (Another of my favorite items from Costco.)

Toss in large handfuls of basil and sliced green onions. (Preferably lemon basil but you can use sweet or thai basil. I used a combination of the three.)
Add fish sauce, Maggi sauce and sugar. Stir everything together and cook just until the green onions and basil wilts a bit.