Chicken Fried Rice

Fried rice - what's not to like? I wish I could say my fried rice recipe comes from my Chinese mother-in-law or a good Taiwanese friend, but alas it's just the result of my experimentations over the years. This recipe is nothing fancy, but it's a lovely weekday go to when there's leftover rice on hand in the fridge. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments!

Chicken Fried Rice

(2 servings)

Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

2 eggs (whisked with a touch of salt and water)

2 chicken breasts or thighs (cubed)

1/2 of a medium-large onion (chopped)

1 cup of frozen peas and carrots

4 to 6 cloves of garlic (crushed/minced)

Black pepper (to taste)

2 cups of leftover cooked riced*

1 1/2 teaspoons of kecap manis (or to taste)

1 1/2 teaspoons of light soy sauce (or to taste)

Sriracha (to taste)

2 green onions (thinly sliced)

1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil (or to taste)

Roasted sesame seeds (to taste)

*I usually use Thai jasmine brown rice, but to each their own!

Directions

1) Prepare everything and place it near your stove - I generally try to put everything in the order it'll go into my wok. I generally keep chicken on hand in my freezer and find taking it out half an hour before I'm going to start cooking makes cubing it much easier without any significant impact on cooking time later.

2) Heat half a tablespoon of your oil in a medium-large wok over medium-high heat and scramble your eggs till they're just cooked and then set them aside.

3) Add the remaining oil to your pan and cook your chicken until just done.

4) Stir in the onion, peas, and carrots and cook another couple of minutes (until the onion is tender).

5) Incorporate the garlic and black pepper and stir fry another minute or so until fragrant.

6) Add the leftover rice and cook for two or three minutes before sprinkling the kecap manis, soy sauce, and sriracha over the contents of the wok. Definitely use a spoon or container of some sort to do that! Don't do what I usually do - try to pour from the bottle and end up with super dark and salty fried rice! That being said, taste the rice once everything's well mixed - if you want more saltiness and sweetness, add some extra kecap manis! Just saltiness? More soy sauce! Need a little more sweetness only? Give the wok a quick squeeze of honey!

7) Finally, add the green onions, stir fry for another minute or so, drizzle in the sesame oil, and then serve sprinkled with the roasted sesame seeds and enjoy!