Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Chicken Fried Rice

I was in the mood for something simple, easy to make, and one that didn't require twenty ingredients. This recipe from Food Network (and my favorite chef Robert Irvine!) seemed to fit the bill.

Stuff you should obtain:
3 eggs
Vegetable oil
2 chicken breasts
1 large onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 1/3 cups uncooked rice
6 green onions
2 Tbsp soy sauce

What you should do:
1) Cook the rice!
The recipe called for 4 cups of cooked rice. Using the back of the rice bag, this equates to roughly 1 1/3 cup of uncooked rice. A lot of people I know are unsure how to cook rice, but really you just dump the rice in with ~2 cups water, bring to a boil, and then simmer until the water goes away.

2) Prepare the ingredients!
Chop the onion and green onions. Slice the chicken breasts in half lengthwise and then cut into strips. The original recipe says to coat the chicken with sesame oil, but I didn't feel like spending the money on it so I just ignored that.

3) Cook the eggs!
The original recipe says to make an omelette, but I can't do that normally, so I just scrambled the eggs a little less than usual and made sure they weren't in huge chunks. When cooked, store somewhere else to add later

4) Stir fry!
Heat 3 Tablespoons of oil in a frying pan and cook the chicken thoroughly (2 to 3 minutes). When that's done, add the onion and garlic and cook for 2 more minutes. Add 2 Tablespoons oil (or just guess, like I do) and stir in the cooked rice and green onions. Add the soy sauce and then stir in the eggs.

5) Ta da! Fried rice!
Enjoy your fresh cooked meal!



Leftover Capability: I probably got about 6 servings out of this total. So a really good amount of leftovers, even if you're cooking for two.

But What About My Money?:
I don't have the exact quote for money on this one, specifically because I chose a recipe where I pretty much already owned most of the things required (eggs, rice, garlic, soy sauce). I did get a sale on the chicken (50% off!) so I can tell you that this meal would have ended up super cheap.

Final Grade: B-
I'm sure this is a great recipe. But it didn't turn out for me at all (sorry Robert Irvine). The rice was mushy and the dish really didn't have that great of a flavor to it. I've since been told that you really need to use "day old rice" to really make the "fried" part of the recipe work. I also used my new food processor to chop the onion, and I'm still trying to figure out the best settings on it, so I probably ended up with a little bit of a liquified onion. It's edible when I microwave it and dump soy sauce on it, but I'm definitely disappointed. Maybe I'll revisit this dish later.