Chicken Fried Rice, It's What's For Dinner...

It seems that at least once a week in our home some sort of dish calling for rice HAS to be served.  The Sprout absolutely L.O.V.E.S. anything with rice in it.  Last time I made Fried Rice for dinner, I made it vegetable and had a protein for a side instead.  Tonight I was feeling lazy, so it was inevitable that the grain and protein would be combined.  Chicken Fried Rice, a long time favorite in our family, is a VERY easy dish to make.  Sure, there are a few steps but the WHOLE thing takes less than 15 minutes to make.  When I made this I TRIPLED the recipe.  It is VERY easy to meddle with this recipe so it bends to your needs.  But, if and when you should decide to do any such thing, be certain you are using quality ingredients.

Be sure you have every ingredient you need before starting this process.  Once you get into it it goes fairly quickly.  If you haven't a large wok in your house consider buying one, but a kettle/pot large in circumference will do just as well.  

What you will need:

6 c. uncooked instant rice

6 c. unsalted chicken broth
½ lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast
½ small yellow onion
¾ c. frozen peas and carrots 
3 eggs
2 T. vegetable oil
2 T. dark soy sauce (preferably without sugar in it)
2 tsp. pure sesame oil
1 tsp. sea salt

Marinade:
1 T. dark soy sauce
1 tsp. cornstarch
½ tsp. sugar

The very first step in this process is to marinate the chicken.  In a bowl, mix marinade together briskly with a whisk to make sure all the cornstarch and sugar are well incorporated into the soy sauce.

Cut your chicken breasts into ½ inch cubes.  Toss in the cubed chicken and either set aside in the bowl or toss it into a resealable baggie. 

In a small bowl beat your eggs and set those aside for frying in a couple minutes.  Chop your onion finely and set that aside in a bowl for later as well.  After you accomplish those steps it would be wise to begin your rice.  Now...you can make this simple or you can make it hard.  Depending on whom you are feeding you may choose to keep it simple with instant rice and tap water, but if you are having someone to dinner that may expect a little more out of your cooking you can opt for what I do and cook your rice in broth.  

For the purposes of this dish a loverly unsalted chicken broth or unsalted vegetable broth with do nicely.  This also adds a bit more color to the dish as far as the rice goes.  It is your choice whether you use instant rice or the more time consuming long grain rice.  Either way it is appropriate to cook your rice before you begin the rest of the dish, that way when it calls time to fold it into the wok it isn't violently hot anymore.  When finished, set the rice aside for its turn in line.

  

First thing to do after you have completed these preparations is to heat your wok to a medium heat.  It would be best to really wait until your wok has achieved the proper temperature for frying.  Frequently hold your hand over the center of the pan just short above the rim of your wok.  When you can feel enough heat under your hand as to feel the need to remove it or be burned...lol...it's READY!  

At this point add 1 T. of vegetable oil to the wok and pour in your beaten eggs.  Scramble them until they are firm, then remove them from the wok to a plate or bowl.  To the wok add 1 T. of vegetable oil again and saute your minced onion.  While the onion is doing its thing in the wok, drain your marinated chicken in the sink, do not retain the marinade for any reason.  (The juice from raw chicken that has been incorporated into the marinade renders it useless and rife with bacteria...let it go down the drain.)  Toss drained chicken chunks into the wok with the onion, stir fry them together for at least 2 minutes or until chicken is white on all sides.  When it has reached this stage turn in your scrambled eggs and peas & carrots.  It should look something like this....

  

Once that is all well incorporated in the wok it is time for the easiest part of all...add 2 T. of dark soy sauce, 2 tsp. of a GOOD quality sesame seed oil and 1 tsp. of sea salt.  Mix that well into the rest of the ingredients, you'll know it has coated everything when you smell the sesame oil very strongly.  The heat really ramps up sesame oil's smell.  Add your cooked rice to the pan and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring it occasionally.  It should look somethin' like this...

This is a dish that is, of course, best served hot.  But lets be real...who hasn't eaten cold fried rice and loved it anyhow?  Right.  I know I don't mind the temperature one way or the other.  Depending on how many sides to choose to accompany this, such as egg rolls or some variety of Moo Shu, one recipe of this rice SHOULD feed 4-6 adults.  If this is to be the main course I would make that more conservative and say more like 3-5 adults.  Portions in our home are about 1 cup.  As I tripled this recipe...we have Chicken Fried Rice coming out of our ears at the moment.  But, I don't hear anyone complaining.  At any rate, from MY family to yours...happy eating!! 

Note:

I used organic brown eggs for this recipe, frozen peas, fresh coined carrots that I chopped with my PC food chopper, a white onion rather than yellow and in the marinade the sugar I used was an organic cane sugar.  I always, ALWAYS buy my Asian ingredients at an Asian market.  There is a larger variety and the difference in quality can be seen RIGHT on the shelf in terms of color of sauces and you can turn bottles of oil over and roll them to see how long it films one spot to the next with oil on the sides of the bottle...the longer the better.  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does.  If you have a recipe for fried rice, feel free to pass it along.  I love to try new recipes!!