Chicken Fried Rice

(Non-Vegetarian Fried Rice, Fried Rice with Chicken and Egg, Mixed Fried Rice, Indian-Chinese Fried Rice)

Ingredients

·             Rice – 2 cups uncooked (or use 4 cups of cooked leftover rice)

·             Mixed Vegetables – 1 cup (You can use any vegetables that you have on hand like onion, carrot, french beans, water chestnuts, green peas, cabbage, capsicum, mushrooms, celery, leeks, corn, baby corn etc. The list is endless.)

·             Meat – 1 cup (I usually use boneless skinless chicken breast cut into thin strips. You can also use turkey, pork, shrimp or a mix of different meat)

·             Eggs – 2 or 3

·             Garlic – 1 tbsp (minced)

·             Ginger – 1 tbsp (minced)

·             Scallions (Spring Onion) – 1 bunch (6-8 stems)

·             Soya Sauce – 2 tbsp

·             Salt – to taste

·             Freshly Ground Black Pepper – 1 tbsp

·             Sesame Oil – 2 tbsp (or use Olive Oil)

·             Chicken bouillon cubes - 1 cube (or use ¼ tsp of Ajinomoto) - If you are not comfortable using this, just skip it.

Preparation

Chop all the vegetables in uniform size and keep it ready. You can either dice it or julienne it. Similarly, chop the meat into uniform sized cubes or strips.

Method

1.          Cook the rice: Fried rice can be made with leftover rice taken straight from the refrigerator for best results. If you do not have left over rice, cook 2 cups of rice with 1 ¾ cups of water and spread it on a tray to cool down. If the rice is hot, it will start breaking while stir frying. You can use basmati rice or any regular rice to make this.

2.          Scramble the eggs: Break open the eggs in a small bowl. Heat little oil in a wok/kadai/pan and add the eggs. When it begins to get fried, stir-fry with a spoon to scramble it. Remove it and keep it aside.

3.          Prepare the meat: Take the diced chicken (or any other meat that you are using) and season with some salt and pepper. Heat little more oil in the same wok and add the meat. Stir fry over medium high heat will the meat is cooked through. Remove and keep it aside. If not, move it to the sides of the pan and make a space in the center.

4         Add the vegetables: Put few more drops of oil in the space created and add the mince garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for a minute. Now add the vegetables and cook for couple of minutes. Usually, I like to add vegetables like beans and carrot first. After a minute, I add the other vegetables and stir-fry for another minute or two.

5.          Add the sauce: Add the soy sauce, salt and the chicken cubes (or ajinomoto). Stir-fry the vegetables and the meat together for another minute. If you use dark soy sauce, it gives a deeper color whereas if you use the light soy sauce, it yields a lighter color. I have used dark soy here.

6         Mix the rice: Add the cooked and cooled rice. Stir-fry everything together till the sauce coats the rice, the vegetables and the meat are uniformly distributed.

7          Garnish and Serve: Finally top with the chopped spring onions and scrambled egg. Serve hot immediately.

Variations

·             You can add 1 tsp of vinegar or lemon juice along with the soy sauce if you prefer a tangy touch to the fried rice.

·             You can make fried rice with a single vegetables, mixed vegetables alone, eggs and vegetables, egg and meat skipping the vegetables, with mixed meat varieties etc. This procedure is a common one that you can follow to make your own variation of Indo-Chinese style fried rice.