As promised, I've got an excellent char sui chicken fried rice as a follow up to my char siu chicken thighs. I mean, if you've made this flavor-bomb chicken, you might as well get some good use out of it, right? All you need is a few pantry ingredients to throw together incredible fried rice. If you don't have time to make the char siu chicken, this is still a fantastic stand-alone fried rice recipe. I've got some protein alternatives for you below.
In Case You MIssed IT: Char Siu Chicken
We're living in a time where I (maybe) could have abbreviated the title and everyone would have understood. While I contemplated ICYMI, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm at an age where it made me feel like I was trying to be cool, but I'm not.... but I really am and I know that already. I don't need to use an abbreviation to feel like part of society. And neither should you if it's not really... you. Know what I mean? So that is where I stand with ICYMI.
If you did not catch my last recipe, no worries, I'll get you up-to-speed real quick. I made a delicious char siu chicken thighs recipe recently and it's a flavor bomb. You can eat it with plain white rice and cilantro. Adding sliced cucumbers and tomatoes to the side would also work well. You can stand at your counter while it's still warm and just eat it right out of the pan. It is so.damn.good. You can also use it to make this awesome char siu chicken fired rice recipe! 🙂 Full instructional video below.
vertical skewer pan: sky's the limit
I've been slightly obsessed with my vertical skewer pan and have come to consider it a kitchen essential in recent months. It's like this: I cook a lot and eat a lot. When I find a new *thing* like a new way to cook or present food - I get excited. I get easily excited anyway (I giggle a lot, intakes of breath get slightly dramatic, bulging eyes with a wide smile - you get it). This is how I reacted over. A. PAN.
Part of that is because I do like to cook in bulk so I don't have to think about food for a few days. Having a massively flavorful chicken (like char siu chicken thighs) on hand makes my life a lot easier. For me, it's so easy to marinate some chicken, stick it on a skewer and roast it in the oven. Chicken is my favorite protein so I'm always looking for new ways to enjoy it.
Protein alternatives for fried rice
- Two cups of cooked, chopped chicken or pork (cut into small pieces). Season chicken with salt and pepper and let it sit for 5 minutes. Cook on medium-to-high heat in a pan and hit it with a little soy sauce right at the end.
- One block of extra firm tofu. Cut into cubes and cook in olive oil on medium-to-high heat, turning tofu once to brown on both sides. Hit it with a little soy sauce at the end.
- Two cups of shrimp, a smaller size will work well with this recipe. Season with salt and pepper and let sit for 5 minutes. Cook in olive oil on medium-to-high heat until shrimp turns all pink and shrinks a bit. Shrimp should only take a few minutes and turn it once.
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Fried Rice ingredients made easy
Use the char siu chicken thighs recipe or not, this is still an excellent stand-alone fried rice recipe. I totally get you might not have time to make the char siu chicken. So pick your protein from the list above and then all you need is:
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Cabbage
- Scallion
- Onion
- Carrot
- 1 egg
- soy sauce
- Rice
- Olive oil
Easy Steps to Making Char siU Fried Rice
Char Siu Chicken Fried Rice
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 2-3 portions 1x
Description
Want to take your fried rice game to the next level? Then you should definitely try this fantastic char siu chicken fried rice.
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped char siu chicken (mine were heaping cups) see substitutions in blog post and notes
- 1 teaspoon grated or minced garlic (about 1 medium clove)
- 1 ½ teaspoons grated or minced ginger
- 1 cup shredded cabbage
- ½ cup chopped scallion (3-4 scallions)
- ¼ cup diced onion
- 1 cup julienned carrot (1 really big carrot or a couple smaller ones)
- 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce (add ½ tablespoon at a time to you’re liking)
- 1 egg, scrambled
- 1 cup medium-grain, white rice (cook to package instructions-add butter and salt!!)
- Neutral or olive oil works for this
** It will be good if you have a julienne peeler for the carrots
NOTE: If you made the char siu chicken thighs, this is an excellent way to enjoy them. Fried rice is pretty easy to put together. If you did not make the char siu chicken see notes for protein substitutions.
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Instructions
- If you’ve made my char siu chicken thighs – let’s get started with the fried rice. If you have not made the char siu chicken, you can see the blog post for alternative proteins like pork, shrimp, tofu or chicken.
- Plan your time with making the rice. You might want to get that cooking first so it’s ready to go when you need it. You can also cook the night before if you want.
- Grate the garlic on a microplane if you have one, or finely dice it with a knife. As you prep your ingredients, put them in small ramekins or bowls so you’re ready with all ingredients when it’s time to assemble the rice.
- Peel the ginger using a kitchen peeler or cut off with knife. Grate the ginger on a microplane or finely dice with a knife.
- Cut cabbage into thin shredded strips.
- Chop scallions making sure to use the dark green and light green parts.
- Dice onion into medium pieces.
- Peel your carrot (s) with a regular kitchen peeler. Then use a Julienne peeler to get thin carrot strips. If you don’t have a julienne peeler, try to cut the carrots into the thinnest or smallest pieces you can so they cook quickly. The carrot I used was huge so the julienne strips were very long. At the end, I made a few cuts to make the pieces a bit shorter. My video shows this well.
- Chop the char siu chicken into small, bite-sized pieces.
- Heat some olive oil in a pan on medium heat, let it get hot and add the cabbage. This will take a few minutes to soften, make sure to stir it.
- While cabbage is cooking melt a little butter and olive oil in a smaller pan and crack an egg into it. Toss it around and scramble with a spatula until cooked through.
- Add julienned carrots to cabbage and stir a minute.
- Add diced onion to pan on one side and add splash of olive oil. Stir together to coat with olive oil, then combine onions in with the cabbage and carrots.
- Add a pinch of scallions here if you want.
- Add the garlic and ginger off to the side and a splash of olive oil. Cook the garlic and ginger for a minute on its own until it’s fragrant. Now combine with the rest of ingredients.
- Add char siu chicken, mix, then add egg and mix again.
- Add cooked rice and mix well – watch the video for all the steps. Then add soy sauce to the side of the pan and mix well. I would add ½ tablespoon of soy sauce at a time. Mix it well, taste the rice. If you want a little more, add a little more soy sauce and mix well again.
- To crisp bottom of rice. Spread the rice out on the bottom of the pan and press gently. Let it cook (still on medium heat, but you could turn it a bit higher here) for a minute or so. Turn a small portion of the rice over to see if it’s crispy enough for you and you’re done!
- Serve immediately. Garnish with the scallions or serve on the side.
Notes
- Two cups of cooked, chopped chicken or pork (cut into small pieces). Season chicken with salt and pepper and let it sit for 5 minutes. Cook on medium-to-high heat in a pan and hit it with a little soy sauce right at the end.
- One block of extra firm tofu. Cut into cubes and cook in olive oil on medium-to-high heat, turning tofu once to brown on both sides. Hit it with a little soy sauce at the end.
- Two cups of shrimp, a smaller size will work well with this recipe. Season with salt and pepper and let sit for 5 minutes. Cook in olive oil on medium-to-high heat until shrimp turns all pink and shrinks a bit. Shrimp should only take a few minutes and turn it once.
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