Chicken Fried Rice Recipe

This is one cheap meal. And everything is cooked in one pan. You can't get much cheaper than rice, veggies and chicken. Oh, and you add two eggs to make my Chicken Fried Rice.

I marinade the chicken in a couple of sauces that I get from my local 99c only Store. Most regular grocery stores sell soy sauce and oyster sauce. If you can't find oyster sauce then use easy-to-get Teriyaki or Sweet and Sour sauce.

For chicken you only need a half breast or a leg quarter (combined leg and thigh.) So your stir fry can be white or dark meat, it's up to you. I take off the skin and slice the meat off the bone. You can purchase boneless and skinless chicken for convenience and more money. You could also just saute the large chicken segments with skin and bone and break it down later.

I get chicken from my local Latin market for 99 cent per pound or less.

The main thing is to use cooked/steamed rice. And it's best if the rice has been in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight. This allows the rice grains to separate and slightly dry out, so they don't get soggy when refrying. Anyway I always have leftover rice in the freezer. So just defrost it if you have any.

Everything is sauteed in a wok or a large frying pan and it all come together quickly. Also, my Chicken Fried Rice microwaves well the next day(s).

This is the first in my Cheapie Chicken Recipe Series, so check back as I have a coopfull of tasty entrees for you for the rest of the month, including a Fried Chicken Sandwich video.

Ingredients (about 2 servings)

• 1 pound of chicken - a half breast or leg quarter (thigh and leg,) or any favorite combination. Cut into bite sized pieces. You can also just saute whole chicken piece in marinade and slice it off the bone.
• 2 cups cooked rice - I mixed brown and white rice. Follow package directions. Best to let cooked rice set a couple hours in the refrigerator or overnight. 1 cup of uncooked rice makes 2 cups of cooked.
• 1/4 cup frozen peas - defrosted (canned are too mushy.)
• 1/2 carrot - about a 1/4 cup peeled and chopped. I used shredded from the bag.
• 2 green onions - sliced, about 1/4 cup, include green stem. Okay to substitute with regular white or yellow onion.
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic - fresh or from jar.
• 2 eggs - scramble
  
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil - or sesame oil, for sauteing veggies and chicken.
• Pepper to taste - optional. No salt necessary as soy sauce has plenty.

* Add more or less carrot, peas and onion to suit your taste.

Chicken Marinade

• 1/2 teaspoon ginger - chopped or grated. I used it from a jar. Okay to use powdered ginger.
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic - chopped. I used it from a jar.
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce - I used low sodium.
• 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce - or a favorite Oriental sauce like Teriyaki or Sweet and Sour. If you use Teriyaki or Sweet and Sour sauce then leave out honey, as it's now plenty sweet.
• 1 teaspoon honey or favorite sweetener.

Directions
First cook 1 cup of rice according to package directions (brown rice takes a little longer to steam.) Best to refrigerate overnight, or at least a couple of hours. This allows rice grains to set and separate -- so it doesn't get too mushy during stir frying. My recipe uses 2 cups of cooked rice.

Remove skin and slice chicken off the bone (or use boneless and skinless) and add to a bowl. Pour in the marinade ingredients and mix well. You can let the chicken set in the marinade (in the refrigerator) for half an hour, or go right to sauteing.

If you don't want to fool with removing the bone then just saute the chicken whole and remove the flesh when it cools down. It takes longer to cook the chicken all the way through, so add extra cooking time.

Over a medium hot, wide pan, add oil and get the pan hot. Next put in the chicken with marinade. Saute the chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Slice into largest chicken piece, it's done when there is no pink color or pink juices. 

When chicken is done, move it to a plate or bowl and set aside while you make the fried rice.

Add tablespoon oil to a medium/high heating pan. Add carrot, peas and green onion. Stir fry about 2 minutes to desired tenderness. I like my veggies a little crunchy.

Add cooked rice and mix well. Heat though about 2 minutes, continuously stirring to heat up all the rice.

Add cooked chicken and heat through for a minute. Push it aside with veggies and leave space for the rice.

Finally, push the veggies, chicken and rice to the edge of pan, forming a clear space in the middle of the pan.

Add 2 eggs and lightly scramble. (You could also pre-cook the scrambled egg and add it at this stage.) When egg is almost cooked through and firm, mix it into the rice, veggies and chicken. Cook another minute.

I like larger pieces of egg to show in my stir fry, so I don't break it up too much. Mix well and serve hot.

Hindsight
And this recipe is easy to double, if you are feeding a brood, or want leftovers to bring for lunch during the week - it reheats quickly and deliciously.

For the cheapest version use chicken legs or thighs. Don't worry about taking off the skin or bone. Just marinade the pieces and fry them up until done. When they cool down take the meat off the bone. You can get rid of the crispy fried skin if you want - or save it for the cook!

Add more or less chicken and veggies to suit your taste buds. Also, you can substitute broccoli or almost any favorite veggie, instead of peas and carrot.

Cheapie Chicken Recipe Series

Chicken is the cheapest meat, and for the next half dozen blog posts I'll give you a clutch of pleasing poultry entrees you'll crow about. I'll even stuff-in a couple recipe videos.(You can click on any recipe name now, to see all the tasty details in my blog posts.)

If you're a penny pincher like me then you know poultry is the way to go. As an example, I get chicken from my local Latin market for 99 cents per pound and less. I often get a 10 pound bag of leg quarters (that's leg and thigh combined) on sale for 67 cents per pound! White meat breast is frequently priced at around 99 cents per pound. If you can break down a whole chicken, then it's way less than a buck per pound. And every once in a while I even get boneless and skinless leg quarters for 88 cents per pound! Now you know why I like to cook with cluckers.

(Of course, if you are the health food type with a few more ducats to blow, then, by all means, splurge on chicken that's organic, free range, no hormones or antibiotics - you can still use my tasty recipes.)

When I want to feast on fowl, fried chicken is number one. It's all about the crusty coating for traditional fried chicken, and I have a delish seasoned flour recipe for you. You'll have to check back and watch my video to find out how I make a moist and crunchy Fried Chicken Sandwich. Chick-fil-A, look out, there's a new poultry purveyor on the scene!

Fried chicken is easy to make but it's a little greasy, so you don't want to make it every week, but I have a lighter entree that's even simpler to do, my Roasted Chicken & Peaches with Herbs.

It's a one pot meal: just add a couple of your favorite chicken pieces with fresh peach slices, and sprinkle on some herbs with a splash of white wine. Bake it for 45 minutes and you have the best of both worlds: sweet baked fruit and juicy roasted chicken. I find fruit and poultry go so well together. And this is another of my stop motion animated recipe videos.

You can't get much cheaper than rice and chicken, so I include a quick and easy to make Chicken Fried Rice recipe.

I also have a ripoff recipe. Hey, when you find something that's so delicious, you gotta do it yourself, and if you can do it cheaper, then all the better. My wife likes to shop at Trader Joe's here is Los Angeles. It's a cross between Whole Foods and a regular grocery store. They have a lot of prepared food stuff, and one of the best is Trader Joe's Curried White Chicken Deli Salad. It's the most savory chicken salad you can pile on a cracker.

When I was trying to figure out the recipe, I would drop by Trader Joe's after work to take a picture of the chicken salad ingredients, but I found it always sold out! It's the type of to-go food that you must buy earlier in the day -  by the time everyone hits Trader Joe's on the way home from their 9 to 5 (or in my case, 10 to 8) it's sold out.

The tricky part is, how much of each ingredient do you use? I think I got it close enough, and I'm happy to share it with you. Some of the ingredients are: cashews, raisins, shredded carrot, green onion, curry powder, and of course, white meat chicken. It's all too much of a good thing.

You know where I get my plucked pullets, or broilers. As for the other ingredients, most come from my local 99c only Store. Trader Joe's sells eleven ounces of Curried White Chicken Deli Salad for $3.99. I made almost twice as much for less than the market price.

So do check back for my flock of cheap$kate, but delicious, chicken recipes.