With a little prep work, this fried rice dish is super quick to make and packed with so much flavour that it will have you deleting the phone number of your local Chinese delivery. Damn, now I feel old. Who actually calls a takeaway these days!?
As I write this post I feel like I am taking “comfort” to a whole new level as I sit with my feet up with this view. Ahhhh Queensland! You just can’t beat the weather, not the mention the beaches. All I need now is a glass of wine and…………… sorry, I decided to get said wine. Ok, lets get back to the reason we are all here and that’s for some damn good fried rice.
For me comfort food usually comes in the form of an Asian takeaway, Thai or Chinese, and is typically accompanied by that lounging on the sofa drinking diet coke and binge watching a show kinda feeling! Don’t get me wrong now, I get great comfort in eating a burger or pizza but typically I’m not so comfortable by the end of it!! We don’t order takeaway much at home since moving to Brissie as I prefer to cook (aka save the money for wine) as you will learn more and more from reading this blog. Also, it’s very very hard to beat New York pizza. This dish started when my wife was grumbling (nothing new there!) about how she missed having a good fried rice dish and so never one to shy away from a challenge, I set out to recreate the best at home version I could. This recipe took multiple attempts to reach ‘perfection’, amid more grumbling as to why I didn’t just give in and order from the chap around the corner. I am proud to finally confirm that (in her opinion) I have surpassed that ‘chap around the corner’. Just what every husband wants to hear, huh!! I think what gave me the win was the fried egg on top. Luckily for me fried eggs don’t arrive too well from the takeaway. Husband 1, Chinaman 0. I should stop gloating as most other Chinese takeaway dishes kick my butt every time, but a win is a win in my books. I am currently working on a sweet and sour dish at the moment so you might just see another little victory post soon enough. Cue Chandler dance gif.
There are a few things involved in making a good friend rice dish and being truthful mine will never be as good as the ones you’ll get in China, BUT it definitely beats the local take-away. Did I mention that already? Below you will find my recipe along with some helpful tips and tricks. As always, I’d love to see some of your finished products so tag me @another_food_blogger or pin me on Pinterest.
Ingredients for 2 people
2 boneless chicken thighs
1/2 cup rice
1 ear fresh corn or 1/3 cup frozen corn
1/3 cup frozen peas
1 carrot – diced or 1/3 cup frozen carrot
1/2 red onion – diced
1/2 red pepper – diced
3 eggs
Handful coriander – roughly chopped
2 dashes sesame oil
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce – shop bought
1 dash fish sauce
1 dash soy sauce
1/2 lime
1 tbsp oil – I use olive oil but you can use any type of oil. Peanut oil would be my 2nd choice
1 tsp chili flakes – add as many as you can handle
Essential Tools
large frying pan/wok
wooden spoon
chopping board
sharp knife
containers for chopped vegetables
Method
1. Cook rice as per instructions on packet *see tip*
2. While prepping the vegetables cook the chicken thighs in the oven for 15 minutes @ 180c.
3. Chop and prepare the vegetables. I put the carrots into a separate container to the rest of the vegetables. This is because the carrot takes a few minutes longer to cook.
4. Remove chicken from the oven and cut into bite sized pieces.
5. Heat pan/wok on high heat and add a tbsp of oil.
6. Add carrots & chili flakes and fry for 2 minutes or until softened slightly.
7. Add remaining vegetables and cook for 4-5 minutes.
8. Add chicken and stir.
9. IF, like me, you want to add an egg on top heat a frying pan on medium heat with a splash of oil, crack egg into the pan and then cover the pan. Covering the pan will cook the egg quicker and leave you with some pretty good looking egg porn. See photo above. But this step is totally optional.
10. Add pre-cooked rice, mix it in with vegetables and then add soy, sesame, sweet chili & fish sauce. Cooking for another 2 mins.
11. Once everything is combined and heated remove from heat and add 1 raw egg and stir it in to rice.
12. Squeeze lime on top and sprinkle with coriander.
13. Serve and top with fried egg if you decided to increase your cholesterol intake!
Tips/Tricks
*I pre-cook my rice and allow it to cool. I find this helps in having individual grains when making stir fried rice. Obviously this step can be omitted and the rice can be made when you are prepping the vegetables*
**when pre-cooking rice it is very important to store rice in the fridge and not at room temperature or else you risk bacterial contamination. For this I cook it in the morning when feeding our daughter and then spread it thin onto a baking sheet and place it in the top shelf of my fridge to cool**
***if you are making fried rice regularly invest in a cheap microwave rice maker, trust me you will thank me***
****mise en place (aka food prep). To me this is the key in making a delicious and quick fried rice dish and probably any dish you cook really. There is nothing worse than spoiling your dinner as you dance around the kitchen (not that we frown upon dancing in anotherfoodbloggers kitchen) looking for an ingredient****
*****when adding egg to fried rice you are looking for the egg to add a creaminess to the dish and not to end up with a lump of scrambled egg in your fried rice. To do this remove the rice from the heat before adding and stirring in the egg. Remember the residual heat from the pan/cooked ingredients will cook the egg for you*****
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