29 | 18 Chicken Fried Rice

Tonight I tried my hand at something new in the kitchen... Chinese-style chicken fried rice. I don't have a wok so I used more pans that it should've required and made quite a mess. But the result was yummy!

Cast of characters:

- 2 chicken breasts
- 4 cups cooked rice, day-old
- 1 bag frozen peas and carrots
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 egg
- sesame oil
- Bragg's liquid aminos
- brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp. butter

The process:

I started off by melting 1 Tbsp. butter and some brown sugar and Bragg's in a non-stick pan. When it had melted into a liquid, I added the chicken breasts and cooked them over medium-high heat until almost cooked through. Next time I'll make sure they're done before I take them off. In a clean pan I cooked the garlic, onion, and bell pepper in 1 Tbsp. of sesame oil over a relatively low heat since sesame oil really isn't meant to be a cooking oil. When the onions were nicely browned, I removed the mix to a bowl and set aside.

Then I lightly beat the egg plus three drops of Bragg's and a Tbsp. of water and poured into the pan that was still greased with sesame oil. I swirled the pan around to coat with the egg mixture and waited until the egg started to puff. Then I flipped the egg over to cook on the other side and when done removed from the pan to a cutting board. Since my chicken wasn't all the way done, I heated some grapeseed oil in the pan and finished cooking it over medium high heat, adding some garlic salt and pepper. Then in a separate pan I heated more grapeseed oil and threw in the frozen peas and carrots. I let them thaw a bit and then added in the cooked chicken and onion mixture. I stir fried that for a few minutes, then added in the cooked rice plus at least 4 Tbsp. of Bragg's and more sesame oil. I just kept adding Bragg's and sesame oil until I thought the rice was the right color. I stir fried that all together for about five minutes. Finally I chopped up the cooked egg and added that into the mix and stir fried for an additional minute.

I ate it right away and thought it needed salt and pepper and was a little bland. But I came back for seconds about three hours later and found that the flavors had blended very well and it tasted really good. A super simple meal (especially if I had a wok!) and one I'll make again. Might add some bean sprouts next time... Yum.