Chicken fried rice or fried rice is the best and cheap way to feed a crowd in my opinion. You have a lot going on in this simple dish, there is no need worrying about additions.
These are my simple steps I follow when making fried rice
- Meat: If using meat, please marinate your meat before frying. I have been very disappointed over restaurant fried rice because the dish tasted raw and I could barely eat it. It can be a simple marinate like salt and pepper, just soy sauce or garlic and ginger. Anything, your preference! You can skip marinating the meat but the overall dish together should taste good and not raw.
- Frying: Do not clump everything together in the pan. There are experts, they do that and everything comes out fine. I am tired over having a soggy rice. So I do it, one at a time.If you are worried about having a soggy mess, let’s do it one at a time.
- Rice: Overnight rice is best for fried rice according to fried rice professors 🙂 But if you like me, you get to the kitchen and you realise fried rice is the only appropriate meal to cook at the period. Do not panic, boil your rice as you usually do making sure you see less water. Let it cool for about 5 to 10 minutes and spread it on a stray under a fun to cool faster or stash it in the freezer to cool.
- Pan: You can use a wok or a large frying pan. I normally use a large frying pan nowadays as our wok got rusted badly because someone left water stains on it. Obviously someone can’t be trusted around this place. When using a frying pan, use ones with sides up like wok so the rice does not spill over when frying.
- ¼ kg chicken cubed
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon corn starch*
- Oil as required
- 3 medium carrots chopped
- 4-5 Spring onions white and green parts separated
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 3 cups cooked rice
- Salt as required
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Add chicken, soy sauce and corn starch together. Marinate for fifteen to twenty minutes or overnight. Crack and open the eggs, add a pinch of salt, beat together and set aside.
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Heat up a wok or pan with oil on medium heat. Add white part of spring onions and carrots. Fry till tender or to your preference. Remove carrots and spring onions from pan. Put about a teaspoon oil in the pan, add in the eggs and scramble until the egg is barely cooked. Remove from pan and clean the pan with a tissue.
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Return wok or pan to the fire, add a little oil and garlic and fry till aromatic. Remove the chicken from the marinate and add to the pan, spreading it out. Leave to fry, do not stir for about two minutes. Flip and toss to cook on the other side. Add in the rice and stir well. Add the soy sauce and white pepper and stir together.
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Add the partially cooked eggs and vegetables and fry for about two minutes. Add the green part of the spring onions, stir, check for salt and turn off heat. The spring onions will cook with the heat from the food. Serve.
*The corn flour helps to tenderise the chicken. You can omit it, marinate and continue with the frying process. However, if you worried you might end up with tough chicken cubes, steam chicken cubes for about 5-7 minutes with salt and pepper and continue with the process.
*If using frozen vegetables, do not fry it like I did in the first step, add them in when adding the partially cooked eggs.
