Healthy Chicken Fried Rice

Fried rice is my no. 1 comfort food! It’s equal parts healthy, tasty and amazinggg! Whenever I am not in a mood to cook something too extensive, I just peek into my fridge for leftover veggies and do a quick stir-fry of them with rice and sauces.

I also love the fact that one can make a mind-boggling variety of fried-rice, simply by twisting a few veggies, sauces and meats! There’s your schezwan fried-rice, tofu fried-rice, chicken fried-rice, shrimp fried-rice etc etc etc. I also do a spicy Indian version of it with Indian spices and cottage-cheese.

This here is the textbook recipe to do a quick, healthy, delicious chicken fried-rice. Traditionally, ginger is one of the most important ingredient in this dish but as hubby and I aren’t fans of it, I have skipped it. If you like ginger, do add it along with garlic.

You can eat fried-rice with chicken/veg manchurian, chilly chicken, american chopsuey or even without any accompaniment at all. In this recipe, simply skip the chicken if you want to do a Veg fried-rice. Add a scrambled egg for an Egg fried-rice. Basically, have fun with it!

Give it a go and enjoy!

Ingredients:

Basmati rice, cooked al dante.

1 diced chicken breast

Chopped garlic

Chopped carrot

Chopped bell pepper (green and red)

Chopped onions

Chopped scallion leaves

Chopped mushroom

Chopped broccoli

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tbsp red chilly sauce

1 tsp vinegar

2 tbsn olive oil/sesame oil or any vegetable oil for cooking

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

*Chinese cooking is always done on high heat!*

-In a wok, heat the olive oil.

-Fry the chicken pieces with a little salt and pepper till done. Remove from the wok and keep aside on a kitchen towel.

-In the same oil, add carrots and let them cook halfway. You can lower the heat a bit anytime you feel that the oil has gotten too hot but mostly heat has to remain on high.

-Next, add garlic. After a quick stir, immediately add onions and capsicum and fry till they soften a bit.

-Add rest of the veggies and fry well. Do not cover and cook. We do not have to cook them completely. They have to remain crunchy.

-Add rice and chicken. Gently mix.

-Add the sauces, vinegar, salt and pepper. Be careful while putting salt as the sauces too have salt in them.

-Mix well and cook for a few minutes.

-Serve hot!

Note: It’s a great idea to boil your rice a few hours ahead and refrigerate. Fried rice turns out to be much better this way than when you make it with freshly boiled, hot rice!