Fried rice is a staple of Asian cuisine. You can put just about anything you want in it – but often the main purpose is to use up any rice that’s left from the day before. Here are some possible ingredients, broken into a few categories. Note: Be sure all ingredients have been cut into small pieces before you start cooking!
Your frying pan should be at medium high (7-8) to make fried rice.
Rice:
Rice should have already been cooked; otherwise, you’ll want to make it pilaf style to save a bit of time. Generally, you’ll start with steamed rice, so if you’re planning this for breakfast, you should cook extra the night before.
Ingredients you need to cook first:
These usually are raw meat, and should be cooked completely. Cook these before anything else, and drain off any significant amount of grease.
- Sausage
- Beef
- Chicken
- Pork
- Bacon
- Hamburger
- Seafood
Ingredients you can add to cooked meat:
- Fully cooked meats (ham, corned beef hash, etc.)
- Vegetables (broccoli, peas, bok choy, etc.)
- Onions – I’ve found that chopping the onions, putting them in a bowl with water, and microwaving for three minutes cooks them faster and reduces the onion smell in the kitchen
- Eggs – see below, because they’re rather special
Ingredients to add after everything is in the pan:
- Spices
- Salt
- Soy sauce
Re eggs: There are two basic ways to add eggs:
- “Golden style”: Crack them into the rice in the pan, and stir everything around until everything has egg on it. This will give the rice a yellow color, hence the “golden” reference.
- Scrambled: Push the food in the pan to the sides, leaving a round gap in the middle; Crack the eggs into the gap and scramble them right there in the pan (add a bit of oil if the main mix is on the non-oily side). When the eggs cook halfway, flip them, and then use your spatula to chop them into little pieces. Finally, mox everything together.
