Basic Fried Rice
Description of the dish: The secret to Fried Rice is to cook the plain rice the day before and let it cool in the refrigerator overnight. Use any vegetables and meat you have on hand. The joy of this recipe is that it is flexible. This recipe is adapted from "The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook: that I received as a gift from D. Richard and Kathryn Rasmussen.
This recipe makes 8 servings.
Time to prep: 15 minutes
Time to cook: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- 4 cups of cold cooked rice
- 4 oz of chicken, diced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 1 cup peas & carrots (frozen)
- 8 oz bean sprouts
- 3 scallions, chopped (about ¼ cup)
- 1 or 2 eggs, slightly beaten
- 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sherry
Cooking Instructions:
- Break up and loosen the cold cooked rice so that the individual grains separate and the rice is no longer lumpy. (This is most easily done if you wet your hands first.)
- Heat 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet or wok. Add garlic and ginger and stir fry for 20 seconds. Add chicken and stir fry until cooked through and slightly browned. Remove from skillet.
- Heat another tablespoon of oil in skillet. Add minced scallions and stir fry a few times.
- Add vegetables; stir fry to heat through. Add chicken and blend. Remove all ingredients from the pan.
- Heat 1 to 2 Tblsp of oil in the skillet until smoking. Add rice and stir fry over high heat, to heat through, turning rice in a folding motion with a spatula so that it heats evenly and doesn’t stick to the pan.
- Return vegetables and meat; fold into rice with spatula to blend well and reheat.
- Quickly blend in soy sauce, salt, sugar, and sherry.
- Fold in beaten eggs with a spatula and turn off heat just as eggs begin to set.
- Serve hot.
Recommended side dishes: Egg rolls, pot stickers
Submitted by: Betty Rasmussen, Office of Contracts and Grants