One of my favorites recipes to make at home is a good old fashioned chicken fried rice. Unfortunately I am a very bad Asian in the sense that I do not like egg in my fried rice… I was raised on a much simpler recipe that I have adjusted from time to time… but for all you people that has to have a recipe here is one that I found that works and you could start with from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cups cooked white rice, cold
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup cooked, chopped chicken meat

Directions
1: In a small bowl, beat egg with water. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium low heat.
2: Add egg and leave flat for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from skillet and cut into shreds.
3: Heat oil in same skillet; add onion and saute until soft. Then add rice, soy sauce, pepper and chicken. Stir fry together for about 5 minutes, then stir in egg. Serve hot.

Fairly simple, no? Now, as always I changed it up…

Ingredients that are out:
– Eggs: As I mentioned earlier I am not typically a fan of eggs in my fried rice
– Butter

Ingredients added in:
– 1 cup portabella mushrooms
– 2 or 3 teaspoons of crushed garlic
– 1 or 2 full teaspoons of brown sugar if preferred sweet

Ingredients substituted if wanting to change it up:
– Instead of soy sauce use teriyaki

The question remains… how do I cook my chicken? Well if you read an earlier recipe of mine there is a specific way I started cooking the chicken that I actually rather enjoy. Straight from an earlier recipe for the Cabbage and Chicken Salad:

when I boiled the chicken I added the following to the pot:
– Oregano
– Basil
– Thyme
– Rosemary
– Salt
– Pepper

Yes, a lot of the above seasonings were not in the original recipe, but honestly when you are a Vietnamese-American you start finding ways to “Americanize” dishes as a way to cater to the non-Asian friends in one’s life. So I whenever I start cooking chicken in any capacity (particularly when boiled) I started looking into spices and flavors that most Caucasians would enjoy. In the grand scheme of things this works out a lot better since a fair number of my friends that have tried my spin of this salad have asked for the recipe out right.

I do like to experiment and so far I have done quite a few variations of this recipe and I rather enjoy it. I haven’t made another batch in quite sometime, but I have been focusing on fish a lot lately too… which is another dish I’ll post in a little while. 🙂