Chicken Fried Rice

I am not sure if I mentioned it before but we eat a lot of Asian food in our house and I don't think it is because my Hubby works for Nissan and has gone to Japan a few times. We love it's versatility, ease and not to mention it tastes great.

For years I tried to make "Chinese" food and failed. I knew that I wanted an alternative to the buffets full of fat, MSG and who knows what else, but I just could not pull it off. As time went on Hubby and I discovered Thai and then Japanese and we loved them too. A few years ago Hubby got me a wok for Christmas and then the magic began...well to tell the truth a lot of practice took place and some raised brow, fake smile mmmmmms happened and after some time the flavors started to come together. Today (2 1/2 years later) I can through together some pretty good chow, it may not always be authentic but we can breath while we eat and the wok is nicely seasoned now too.

This time we had a fried rice, not the first fried rice I have tried my hand at, but one of the best and it was made with whatever I happened to have in my refrigerator.

Ingredients:

1/2 large yellow onion, sliced

1/2 green pepper, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 stalk broccoli, stem and tops. Peel the stalk and cut it into rounds and cut the florets into bite size pieces.

2 medium ribs bok choy, chopped

3 or 4 white mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

2 to 3 cloves minced garlic

1/4 cup water or stock

1 chicken breast, cut into small chunks

2 cups left over cooked rice

1/3 cup peanuts

1 egg beaten

Sesame oil
vegetable oil
Mushroom flavored soy sauce

Method:

Heat wok on high flame until very hot add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon sesame oil and the chicken. stir once or twice and add a pinch of ginger and garlic stir for another 30 second and add a few dashes of soy sauce stir for another 30 seconds remove from wok and set aside. add beaten egg and stir until soft scrambled and remove from wok and set aside.

add another tablespoon of sesame oil and add in the carrots and broccoli stir a few times and add the water or stock and a few dashed of soy sauce and another pinch of ginger and garlic stir and place a lid over the wok and let steam for about 45 seconds. Add the onion, peppers, mushrooms and bok choy and cook until just short of being done, remove from pan and set aside with the chicken and egg.

add the rice and the rest of the ginger and garlic and stir a for about 20 seconds. return all the ingredients back to the wok and stir them together adding a few more shakes of soy sauce and a few drips of sesame oil peanuts and serve. Top with green onion (I did not have any so I did not add them) and enjoy.

It sounds like it is a lot of work but as long as you have everything ready to go before you even get the wok out it is really fast and it doesn't feel like that much work at all.