Fried Rice...a tutorial

Here's one of those little things that's always bugged me, so I finally took two seconds to check it out:

"Marinade" is a noun. It means a spiced pickling solution for steeping meat, fish, etc., often before cooking.

"Marinate" is a verb. It means to steep in a marinade.

So you can make a marinade sauce to marinate your marinated OR your marinaded flank steak. See? Isn't that easy to understand? Good grief. No wonder English is considered one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn.

There. I just needed to clear that up. And of course it has absolutely nothing to do with making fried rice. :-)

We love fried rice, and I think most people do, even people who say they don't like Oriental food. I made chicken fried rice for lunch today. Here's my recipe:


CHICKEN FRIED RICE

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cups cooked rice, chilled
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup sliced scallions
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 large eggs, beaten with a fork
1/2 cup diced, cooked chicken*

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add rice and stir over medium-high heat until rice is coated with oil and hot.

Add peas, scallions and soy sauce. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes.

Push rice mixture to the edges of the skillet. Pour eggs into center of skillet and quickly scramble.

When eggs are cooked through, add chicken and stir into rice mixture until combined.

Heat through and serve.

Serves: 4

*Ham, pork, bacon or shrimp may be substituted for the chicken.

This is an excellent way to use leftover rice. And it's just as good with brown rice as white.


Here's what you need.

I made a batch of Minute Rice last night and refrigerated it, but this is a great thing to do with leftover rice. Also, as always, I made a double batch, so my ingredients look like more than the recipe calls for because, well, they are. :-) I love leftover fried rice. It's very easy to microwave for my dinner when I'm home alone at night...easy for Rob to take to work for his dinner too.

I just cut my chicken breasts into bite size pieces and quickly stir fried them in a little olive oil.


I decided to use my electric wok because my dad gave me this wok for Christmas way back in the 80's and it brings back sweet memories to use it. But a large frying pan works just fine too.


Just put three cups of cold cooked rice in your pan and stir fry it over fairly high heat until it's completely coated with the oil and nice and hot.


Add the soy sauce, scallions and peas and continue stir frying for a couple of minutes, until the onions are tender and everything is hot.


Now push the rice to the edges of your pan, leaving a nice size circle in the middle. You can see my wok is pretty hot.


Pour the beaten eggs into the circle...


...and use a fork or spoon to scramble them.

By the way, you may be tempted to add a little oil, but don't. You don't need it to scramble the eggs, and it will make your rice too oily.


Scramble them until they're pretty well done - wet scramble eggs aren't what you want here. If you've ever had fried rice, and I'm betting you have, then you know the egg is cooked quite well.


Add the chicken, thoroughly mix everything together and stir fry until it's all piping hot.


After Rob served himself from the wok, I put the rest in a covered dish and will stick this in the fridge. I'll be having this tonight, while I watch Biggest Loser. :-)

Easy, easy dish to make and I think the secret is the scrambled egg. If you don't do that part, it's just not the same fried rice you'd get in a restaurant.

And one of my favorite things about this is that I almost always have every last ingredient on hand. Even the chicken and certainly the bacon if I use that instead.


Avery and I are goofing off again today. But she's napping right now, so I think I'll go clean and polish the curio cabinet.

Happy fried rice and Happy Tuesday! :-)