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.

Breakfast Salsa Tacos - Leftovers Series

Usually when I make Carnitas Tacos from scratch there are leftovers. We threw a party for my father-in-law Bob on his 80th birthday this summer. There were 10 of us to feed and I cooked 2 whole pork shoulders (click here for my Pork Carnitas Recipe.) I also made homemade Pinto Beans and Mexican Rice. It was such a big hit, that all the Carnitas were eaten -- so no leftovers there.

To get the birthday party rolling I made 6 homemade salsas served with a big bowl of store-bought tortilla chips. Since the main entree, and the beans and rice, were made a day ahead, I wanted something fresh, so the salsas were made the day of the party with veggies, fruit and pungent dried (and rehydrated) chilis.

For my salsa party recipes, just click on any name listed here: Roasted Salsa Verde (tomatillo,) Red Chili (2 dried types - but same recipe,) Pico de Gallo, Mango, and Avocado Crema. I had a lot of salsa leftovers - mainly Mango, Roasted Salsa Verde and the 2 Red Chilis. Not that the guests didn't like the leftover ones, they raved about them, especially the Mango Salsa, I just made a lot.

So the easiest way I thought to use up the salsas was to make Breakfast Salsa Tacos. I combined two of my favorite Mexican Taco recipes, Scrambled Eggs with Refried Beans, and Mexican Chorizo and Eggs (click on the names to see the complete recipes.)

Homemade salsas are so delicious and will keep in the refrigerator for about 5 to 7 days. And the cooked salsas, Red Chili and Roasted Salsa Verde (tomatillo,) can be frozen for later use.

My homemade salsas add appetizing color and intense flavors. I also used Soy Chorizo that I get from my local 99 cent only Store. Corn tortillas, pinto beans and eggs are cheap too. It's quite impressive when you serve this colorful breakfast made from humble ingredients.

Using fresh made salsa is such a refreshing way to start the day. So read on as I take you step-by-step on my Breakfast Salsa Taco cooking journey.

Ingredients ( enough for 2-3 people)

• 4 eggs - I used large eggs.
• 3 to 4 tablespoons Mexican Chorizo - the soft kind. I used Soy Chorizo, okay to use beef or pork chorizo.
• 3 tablespoon cooked pinto beans - homemade or from the can.
• Corn tortillas - about 6 to 8. I used the small taquera or taco truck ones (measures 4 inches across.) Of course, okay to use regular larger ones. Also, you can use flour or wheat tortillas.
• A few teaspoons of cooking oil, or leftover pork fat and broth from Carnitas - which I used.
• No seasoning necessary as Chorizo and beans have plenty of salt - at least for me.

Directions
Get out the salsas to bring to room temperature, so they are ready to top your tacos.

In my original Chorizo and Eggs recipe listed above I cooked the two ingredients together. For this recipe I cooked the chorizo by itself, adding it to the Refried Beans and Eggs later.

I get things going by adding a teaspoon of oil (or leftover Carnitas broth/fat) in my frying pan, over a medium heat. I add the chorizo and cook and stir it until the liquid is cooked away the the chorizo is crumbly, but still a little moist - about 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove it from the pan when done and set aside. Add more oil if needed and spoon-in the 3 tablespoons of cooked pinto beans. Add a tablespoon of the liquid too. Use a fork and mash the pinto beans. You will form a chunky paste. Stir and heat beans through, about 3 minutes.

Now add the 4 eggs. I like to break the yokes and cook it a minute until the eggs start to set - without stirring. That way you get nice egg pieces and it's not all brown from over-stiring.

At this point see the paragraph below and start the tortillas heating up.

Once eggs are semi-cooked break it all apart and loosely stir it together. Just cook eggs until they are at your desired scramble doneness. About 3 to 5 minutes total.

(If you like your eggs well scrambled, so the white and yoke are blended, then mix eggs in a separate bowl, add them to refried beans. I would still let the eggs set for a minute, then start slowly mixing it all together.)

Once the eggs have cooked for a minute, that's when you start the tortillas heating up. I add a little pork fat or oil to a grill or frying pan and start heating the tortillas over a medium heat. If the tortillas cook too fast, then just drop the heat to low and stack the tortillas and flip them, from time-to-time, until eggs are done.

You can heat the torilllas a little or char them, it's up to you. It takes just 30 seconds, to a minute, for each side to heat through. It's okay to cook all the tortillas ahead and wrap them in a paper towel (to keep warm) and place them on a plate. You can even give them a 20 second microwave to reheat them when the eggs are done.

When the eggs are almost done, I move them to one side of the pan and add the cooked chorizo to heat it up, too. Cook eggs until desired doneness. You could also microwave cooked chorizo for 15 to 30 seconds, if your pan is too small.

That's it, now you just assemble the Breakfast Salsa Tacos by adding some eggs and chorizo to the warm corn tortilla and top with any salsa, or combination of salsas.

Hindsight
It's easy tweak the the main ingredients to balance the tacos your way. Do you like a lot of egg and no chorizo? How about mainly chorizo and refried beans? It's all good. Just break an extra egg or two, or add another scoop of chorizo and refried beans.

It's best to keep leftover salsa in the refrigerator until you get to cooking. Bring the salsas to room temperature before serving.

You can use a favorite cooking oil instead of leftover Carnitas broth/fat (if you are making these Breakfast Salsa Tacos from scratch.) And, of course, you can use your preferred jarred salsa, too.

Spicy Thai Basil Chicken - Deal of the Day

This Deal of the Day will leave your taste buds spinning. It's one pungent bowl of noodles, both sweet and spicy and loaded with flavor. Spicy Thai Basil Chicken by Thai Kitchen is a very good 99c only Store find.

A big plus are the large cubes of white meat chicken. I pulled apart the chicken to to make sure it is not a solid processed cube - the meat seemed real enough as I detected strands chicken meat. And you get a lot of chicken meat for a 99.99 cent frozen meal.

If you like the classic Pad Thai entree, then you will like these rice noodles, too. I like the light and airy consistency of rice noodles. And the noodles are not mushy like typical Italian pasta frozen dinners.

But you want to give the noodles and sauce a stir when defrosted enough; this will help steam all the noodles to an even tenderness and cut down on typical microwave cold and hot spots. I don't know why they are still slightly chewy, the way I like them. Maybe it's just that rice noodles hold up better when frozen, than Italian flour noodles?

A couple ingredients make this a pungent meal, first there is chopped garlic on top and visible red Thai chili pieces throughout. At first glance when defrosted, I thought the small sprinkles-looking topping was peanuts. Nope, just garlic pieces that flavor but, fortunately, not overpower.

You will also find pieces of Thai basil, although not much of that herb. This frozen meal is not for the faint of pallet as the red chili flakes are very spicy, and I like it that way.

But one word of warning, to quote my gym-rat workmate when he read the "Nutrition Facts:" Dude, that's a crazy amount of salt in there." Yep, the sodium amount is 710mg, or 30% of the recommended daily total!

I try to keep my sodium intake low, no processed chips or crackers, except on occasion. And if I am cooking with processed foods, then I leave out seasoning with salt. I try to balance it all out - some days are salty and some aren't.

Thai Kitchen has a list of other frozen entrees including: Pad That, Green Curry Chicken and a Veggie Red Curry. All sound good to me, and if they show up cheaply, I would definitely try them all.

At 10 ounces you get a lot for your buck. So, other than too much salt and if you can take the spicy heat, I give Spicy Thai Basil Chicken by Thai Kitchen, on a scale of 1 to 9, 9 being best......I give this delicious Deal of the Day an 8 !

Baked Eggs Forentine

Luxuriate after a long workweek with The 99 Cent Chef's luscious Baked Eggs Forentine. Go ahead, you deserve it. It's the most delicious edible bonus, a rich-tasting creamy spinach sauce crowned with a soft cooked egg. The name makes it sound haute, but it's not.

All you do to make the sauce is saute some onion, add the spinach to wilt, then pour in some milk, and finally, thicken with a little flour and dried parmesan. Or, you can substitute the parmesan with any favorite cheese you have on hand, even cream cheese. Just blend it in when the spinach sauce is warmed through.

I added the spinach sauce to a small ceramic ramekin and topped it with an egg. You want to bake it at 375 degrees about 20 minutes, until the whites of the egg have set. If you want the yoke slightly cooked through, then the cooking time will be about 25 minutes total.

It's certainly economical, especially when you take home a meager paycheck. Eggs, spinach, onion, milk and dried parmesan - check. Yeah, they're all cheap and I get the ingredients at my local 99c only Store and Latin grocery store.

I used fresh spinach from the bag. You could use one bunch of fresh spinach, or a small package of defrosted and drained frozen spinach.With a bunch of spinach from the produce section of your local market, just make sure cut off the long stems and wash the leaves.

My Baked Eggs Florentine is a great way to start the weekend, along with a hot cup of coffee and pleasant company.

 Ingredients (2 servings)

• 2 eggs
• 4 cups of spinach leaves - I lightly pressed them into a measuring cup. Okay to use a small package of defrosted frozen spinach, drained. A bag of spinach is easy to use.
• 1/2 cup of milk - any type, 2% or whole milk. Okay to use half and half cream, for a richer sauce.
• 1/4 chopped onion - white or yellow onion.
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg - optional. I've made it without and it tastes fine.
• 1 tablespoon of dried parmesan - okay to use any cheese you have on hand. About a 1/4 cup shredded.
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 1 teaspoon cooking oil - for sauteing onion and spinach.
• Black pepper to taste - I find dried parmesan has plenty of salt.
• 2 ceramic ramekins - for baking.

Directions
Add 1/4 of a chopped onion to a medium hot pan with a teaspoon of oil. Saute onion for a couple of minutes until softened.

Add 4 cups of fresh spinach to sauteed onion and cook and stir until wilted. The spinach will quickly shrink and soften after a couple of minutes.

Sprinkle on a teaspoon of flour and mix well. Pour in half cup of milk or cream. Heated through for a couple of minutes then sprinkle on dried parmesan.

Finally add 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg (optional) and a little black pepper to taste.

Get the oven heating to 375 degrees. Add spinach sauce to the ramekins. I fill them no more than half way, as the sauce will rise and bubble. Top each ramekin with an egg. You can sprinkle on a little salt and pepper if you want. It's a good idea to put a wide pan underneath the ramekins, in case some of the spinach sauce overflows.

I guess this is the trickiest part is: how well done do you like your egg? I like my egg yokes runny so for a 375 degree oven it takes about 20 minutes. For a yoke that is still just barely soft, then the time will be closer to 25 minutes.

You will know by checking that the eggs white is cooked solid. And if the yoke has a little give when pressed with your fingertip.

Of course, be careful when you are handling an oven-hot ceramic ramekin.

You might want to wait a minute for cooling, when serving right out of the oven. The spinach sauce will be hot like the ramekin, so eat carefully and enjoy. For serving to kids, then allow it all to cool down longer.