Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Chicken-Fried Rice

After a busy couple weeks, I'm finally back in the saddle with cooking. I decided to make something I've been promising to make for months: Chicken-Fried Rice.


Chicken-Fried Rice is a favorite of Sean's, but because cooking both eggs and Asian cuisine scares me, I had been putting it off.

So, right off the bat we encountered some fairly large challenges, i.e. I only have one skillet. This is a problem when I need to be making chicken, scrambled eggs AND stir-frying. We kept having to clean the pan between each step, which made this a seemingly endless process.

Anyways, I used this recipe found on Chicken-Fried Rice. I started out by frying the chicken pieces in vegetable oil, while Sean started the white rice.

Sean's handiwork. I suggested he put the rice in a bowl. He ignored me. It's okay, though; plates work just as well.


Here's where things get embarrassing. I hate eggs, Sean hates eggs and as such, I've never learned how to make eggs. This is something that maybe I'll get over someday, but I'm not eager to get over it, either. Eggs smell awful to me; I hate how they jiggle, I hate the taste of yolks. EWWW. I know I'm much pickier than almost all of you, dear readers, but cut me some slack on this one.

Anyway, I had NO idea how to make scrambled eggs (which we felt we could stand in the fried rice), so I literally had to look it up on YouTube. After watching a "Kids Cook" segment (I know, how sad is that?), I figured I could do it. I added some water to the eggs, beat them with a fork and poured them in and started that scraping action.

People: This is the grossest thing ever. And kind of fun.

After scraping out the egg (which we reserved on a nearby plate), I added one teaspoon of vegetable oil and one teaspoon of sesame oil to the pan, then tossed in some onions, garlic and peas. We were supposed to have peas and carrots, but Sean couldn't find a frozen mix bag (he claims).


Once the peas and onions looked good, I added the rice, then doused it with soy sauce until it tasted right.


Frying that mess up.


Then I added the egg and chicken, added some more soy sauce, swirled and flipped it around and finished, just in time to eat chicken-fried rice while watching Gossip Girl. Life is good.


Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. It tasted pretty good, very much like takeout. Sean said it could have used more onion, which was my bad, but otherwise, quite enjoyed it.

3 comments:

Kate said...

Yummy, I think I might have to try this recipe myself :)

pbarfield said...

OMG Chuck and I are fried rice ADDICTS. We make it all the time, and lemme' tell ya - I'm all about "from scratch," but you CANNOT beat the Kikoman Fried Rice seasoning packet. You do what you did, but you add it at the end - yummerz! Also, if ever you're feeling adventurous, Napa cabbage is fab in it too, and green onions might solve the "needs more onion" problem! Mmm. Fried rice...

Amanda said...

Eggs rank pretty high on my list of foods for their ease and protein density, but attractive, they are not.

This fried rice does look good though. Well done.