I thought about what food would give me excitement as I prepared it, the anticipation of it being exactly what I wanted, and just not being able to stand having to wait. Christmas as a child all over again. Then I realized a batch of fried rice with vegetables and chicken was what I wanted to make me act like the dog from the "Beggin Strips" commercial; just stupid with my want of food.
I started rummaging through the pantry, looking for long neglected items that could be the delicious attendees to my fried rice party. I became worried that my fried rice would not be, unless I braved the weather, due to my inability to find anything that would be worth a damn in fried rice. After shoving cans out of the way, it was meant to be. I found a can of water chestnuts and bean sprouts hiding in the corner, and took them as my jumping off point. I didn't find hardly anything else though, so my fried rice would be water chestnuts, bean sprouts, onions, and chicken. However, with what I didn't have in ingredient variety I would make up with flavors and spices.
Ingredients:
All of these are the amounts I used in my experimental run at this, feel free to add or take away
About 4 cups cooked rice
2 cups of onion, chopped
1/2 14.5 oz can of bean sprouts
1/2 can of water chestnuts
1 large chicken breast, sliced thin
Safflower Oil
Sesame Oil
1/4 cup soy sauce adding it a bit at a time
3 cloves garlic, minced
Ground ginger to taste (i just sprinkled a bit in until it smelled right)
1/4 cup Sizzling Salads Sesame Ginger Salad Dressing(comes in a pack with a dressing for salad and a dressing for meat. I actually used the salad dressing for this)
Cooking Directions:
I started by cooking my chicken and seasoning it to be added to the rice when it had finished cooking. I used safflower oil since it's better for cooking at high temperatures and added the chicken, Sesame ginger sauce, and a little extra bit of soy sauce. I simply cooked this until the chicken was cooked through and set it off to the side to wait. (Smelled delicious and I had to keep myself from saying "screw the rice, i''ll just eat this chicken")
Moving on to the rice bit, we start by cooking the onions over high until they were about half done. For this I used a mix of safflower and sesame oil and busted out the wok! If you don't have a wok or similarly stupid huge pan to put 4 cups of cooked rice in, then I would suggest halving the recipe or cooking it in separate batches. Once cooked halfway, I added the water chestnuts so they could have a chance to soften just a bit (a few minutes). Now time for the rice to join the party! Dump it in and begin to fry, remember this is on high heat! Make sure you have enough oil in the pan, but not too much that it's all over the place in a bad way.
This will take patience...I kinda failed at this point, lol. My rice still tasted delicious, but it definitely could've gone longer during this stage to make it feel more like fried rice. I kept thinking "is it done now? I don't think so....damn...should I just eat the stupid chicken and forget it? NO, keep cooking damn your eyes!" Anyways, fry the rice, onion, and water chestnuts until a lot of the water has left the rice and it looks more crumbly (you know how fried rice looks when you get it at a restaurant) At this point we're ready to add in about 1.5 Tbsp of sesame oil and the minced garlic. Make a clearing in the rice and put the oil and garlic in the middle, just to let the garlic cook a little, then begin mixing everything together. You also add the soy sauce and bean sprouts at this time (make sure to add the soy sauce a little at a time to make sure you like the flavor and that the rice needs more. I added mine and then ended up adding a bit more of the sesame ginger dressing and soy sauce at the end to make the flavor really come out) Also make sure to add your cooked chicken and mix it in.
I did notice when i was finished that it wasn't very colorful, and looked rather pale, so I definitely know I should have cooked my rice longer, so I'll know that for next time, but I also thought a way to make it better would be to add scallions and cabbage. I think about 1.5-2 cups of cabbage would work really well. If you want to add it in, put it in and cook it a few minutes to get everything the same temperature. Voila!
In the end, I've learned that fried rice really isn't that hard to make, it's just a game of patience and fighting your laziness of not wanting to go get ingredients and instead rummaging around until you scrape together things that you forgot you owned and decided would make an ok fried rice. I know my second run at fried rice will be less spur of the moment and probably better planned out and I won't be as hungry as a pack of wolves while I make it.
Now go eat it like you're a kid getting home from Halloween and get to eat as much candy as you can in the next 5 minutes.
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| Not a super great pic, but damn was it delicious! |
