Stir in cooked, chopped-up chicken, beef, pork or shrimp to turn this easy Chinese fried rice recipe into a complete meal. Serve it with egg rolls, spring rolls, pot stickers, or wontons for an extra special treat. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
4 cups cold cooked jasmine rice
1 cup cooked frozen peas and carrots (or 1 to 2 finely chopped green onions)
4 tablespoons peanut oil
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons oyster or hoisin sauce
Preparation:
- Cook the peas and carrots according to package directions. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Beat the eggs in a small bowl.
- Add the oil to a wok or large frying pan under medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the rice and stir fry it for a few minutes with a wooden spoon.
- While stir frying, separate the chunks of rice into smaller pieces.
- Move the rice to one side of the wok or pan. Scramble the eggs until cooked.
- Stir the scrambled eggs into the rice. Stir in the frozen peas and carrots or green onions.
- Pour the sauce over the rice mixture. Mix thoroughly and stir fry for a few more minutes. Serve hot.
You can substitute enriched white rice for the jasmine, but jasmine rice has a pleasant taste, texture and aroma that plain old white rice will never match. In our home, we use jasmine rice in all of our rice dishes. It's available in most grocery stores as well as in Indian and Thai markets. It's slightly more expensive than regular rice of the same quantity, but the better taste definitely makes up for the higher cost.
When stir-frying Chinese fried rice with peanut oil, avoid heating the oil to high temperatures. When heated to its smoke point, peanut oil can cause foods to taste bitter.
As a less expensive alternative to peanut oil, you can add about a teaspoon of sesame oil to flavor regular heated vegetable oil. When heated by itself, sesame oil has a taste that is too intense to be used as a stir-fry oil. But small amounts go a long way to enhance the flavor of the rice.
As you stir fry with the wooden spoon, scrape rice from the bottom of the pan or wok to avoid sticking and burning.
Oyster sauce is thick and salty, with a slight amount of oyster extract to enhance the flavor of foods. Hoisin sauce is also thick and salty, but sweeter in its flavor. It's frequently used as a dipping sauce for spring rolls and other appetizers. If you want to make a healthier version of this Chinese fried rice recipe, use a reduced-sodium soy sauce instead of these sauces.
This easy recipe is extremely flexible and forgiving. If you want to stir fry more cold cooked rice, scramble and stir in an additional egg per cup of rice added. Stir in additional sauce to taste, being careful not to make the rice too salty.
Source: EzineArticles
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