Family Chow Hall

Fried Rice

January 12th, 2011

For the last 6+ weeks (immediately following the roasting of our Thanksgiving turkey) - I have been without a functioning oven. I believe I am going through something similar to the stages of grief. First, disbelief, outrage, then resignation/acceptance… well, I’m not sure I can list all the emotions I have been through. I know for a short period it felt like a refreshing challenge. Then I went through a procrastination stage, thinking “I’ll bake Christmas cookies in January.” At the moment, I am back to anger, which is being directed at the repairman/manufacturer or whoever is responsible for me not having the required part.

All that to say, I have been stepping out of my box a bit and made fried rice last week. Usually my attempts at making Asian foods are pretty much failures. Usually, the best I can do is open a box of prepared egg rolls! Surprisingly, last week’s pork fried rice turned out well and most of us liked it. (My 6-year-old basically doesn’t like anything.) So this week, I tried again - shrimp fried rice for the shrimp eaters and chicken fried rice for the shrimp-detesters (me).

Again, this turned out unexpectedly well. And let me tell you - I don’t even own a wok. I’d like to own a wok. I just don’t have the space for one or the grace and finesse required to stir fry things in one, so it has always seemed a little pointless to wish for a wok.

So, here is what I used: Two skillets for stir-frying the vegetables (our family has seven members, so my largest skillet is still not big enough) AND a griddle for the rice/chicken/shrimp/eggs.

For the vegetable mix, I used:

sliced carrots
chopped green pepper
chopped mushrooms
chopped onion
a generous portion of coleslaw mix from Sam’s Club
sesame seeds

This was the easy part - heat the skillet to high, add some olive oil, and stir-fry everything. Once I see a little brown on the veggies, I turn it down, but keep stirring.

For the rice part:

Leftover rice - Apparently, fried rice should never be made with fresh rice. It should be 1-2 days old
tiny chopped chicken
tiny chopped shrimp
sesame seed oil
5 eggs

I divided the rice into two bowls and added chicken to one and shrimp to the other (gotta keep the shrimp away from the chicken). I heated my griddle to 375, sprayed it good with cooking spray and added a dab of butter for good measure. Next, I tossed the chicken/rice mixture onto the griddle and let it cook for about 5 minutes - trying to get the rice to start turning brown. I cracked 3 eggs into a bowl, whisked, and poured this on top of the rice, and began ’stirring’ it all up. Oh! And added a very small drizzle of sesame oil (it’s pretty flavorful stuff, I use it sparingly). Once the eggs were cooked, I placed this all in a bowl and repeated with the shrimp mixture.

Now the veggie part and the rice part is all ready to serve!

You’ll notice that I didn’t really flavor any of it with any sauces… At our house, everybody likes something different, so I serve the sauces at the table. Teriyaki, Sweet & Sour, Hoisin, and Sweet Chili are family favorites. (Mae Ploy Sweet Chilli is my personal best)

Entry Filed under: Leftovers, Supper, chicken