Hello Friends!
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday yesterday!
Today we are going to talk about fried rice. It’s one of the simplest dishes you can ever make. They’re great for leftovers and you can pretty much dump anything into it! It’s a great form of “clean out your fridge” challenge.
I usually use Chinese sausage/Chinese sausage crumbles as my source or protein, but lately I’ve been using bacon. We always have bacon on hand in our household—it’s a breakfast staple for sure.
I’ve tried many variations for the protein including spam, ground beef, ground pork, ground turkey, and hot dogs. Really, use any protein you prefer or go meatless.
The base is just rice of your choosing + soy sauce, salt, red pepper flakes (if you like a little spice in your life), and eggs. I always throw in frozen mixed vegetables, but that’s also optional.
The key to this recipe is to make sure you remove the bacon from the pan to cool while you cook the other ingredients. This helps keep the bacon crispy, also, a great texture for fried rice.
Ingredients:
Approximately 5-6 servings
- 2 cups of cooked rice—I use white jasmine rice
- 5 eggs, scrambled
- 1 1/2-2 cups frozen mixed vegetables (feel free to use fresh diced vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, and corn, etc.)
- 6-8 strips of bacon, diced
- 1/2 onion, diced
- Soy sauce, to taste (I usually aim for 3-4 tbsp)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1tsp red pepper flakes
Cook the rice ahead of time. This can be done the night before or right before your about to make this dish. Leftover rice tends to make for a better fried rice.
In a wok or a deep sauté/frying pan, cook the bacon until crispy. Remove from the pan. Do not toss the grease from the pan. If your bacon is extra fatty, pour the grease into a separate container so it’s readily available. Leave enough in the pan to cook your vegetables.
Once the bacon is removed, toss in the diced onion and the frozen vegetables. Cook until tender. Add your red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste. If you want to shake up the taste a bit, try adding minced ginger and garlic as well.
In a separate pan, make some scrambled eggs. I like mine well done.
Meanwhile, go ahead and toss in your rice. If you’re using leftover rice, warm it up in the microwave for a couple minutes first. Throw in the rest of your bacon grease into the pan now. If you opt to not use the bacon grease, go ahead and use a cooking fat of your choice. I’d recommend corn oil. Having enough grease in your rice prevents it from sticking and lumping together, especially with leftover rice.
Once the rice is in the pan and tossed around a couple times (make sure it’s hot) you can add soy sauce + salt. You can do one or the other or evenly split it. Your preference. You could also throw in dark soy sauce as well.
When everything is evenly tossed, go ahead and add in your scrambled eggs and your bacon and toss it some more. And voila! You’re done! Feel free to get fancy and garnish with chopped green onions/scallions and/or cilantro.
This dish is great the next day as well. I usually make a large batch to ensure I have leftovers for a couple meals.
It’s honestly hard to go wrong with fried rice. Dump whatever protein you have into it! Even leftover rotisserie chicken, Chinese BBQ pork (char sui), pork chops, etc.
Hope you enjoy! Happy eating!
XOXO,
Karmen
Darling My Dearest 