Kitchen Sink Fried Rice

I have a couple of "kitchen sink" recipes - the versatile recipes that I can throw left over vegetables +/- meat into at the end of the week so that nothing goes to waste. The fried rice is perfect for this.

Before making my own at home, I wasn't a fried rice fan. I never ate it in restaurant and it never dawned on me that it would be something I would be interested in actually making or eating. The color was off putting (why was it brown?), the name horrifying (frying something that was already a simple carb?), and the vegetables and meat unimpressive (what was that speck of orange and green?).

Simply recipe's dish looked so simple and straight forward I gave it a try.  (also and I saw that the color was from soy sauce, and it wasn't fried as much as sauteed). The first time I made it I used left over chicken, and stuck closely to recipe. After that the field was wide open and I've made several variations - all of them good. I can stuff almost any left over vegetable into this recipe which is probably why I've made this weekly since I discovered the recipe.

What you need

• Some meat. Or none. A vegetarian option works here too. SR suggests 8 ounces of shrimp. I suggest you use whatever is in your fridge. Last night I used boneless skinless frozen thighs cut into generous chunks. 
• Cornstarch
• Black pepper and salt
• Oil with high smoke point (not olive oil)
• 3 beaten eggs
• Other vegetables cut into bite sized chunks - such as broccoli, bok choy, celery, etc. 
• An onion of some sort - green onion or regular yellow onion. I usually have both left over from the week and I prefer to use the green onion.
• About 4 cups of left over rice. It fries better if it's a day old and slightly dried out. 
• About 1 cup frozen or canned peas and carrot mix. I abhore carrots and peas, but use them here because it makes the dish look like fried rice, gives it color, and I can't taste them in it. 
• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil (optional)

How to Git 'er done

Lightly coat the meat with cornstarch (a teaspoon or two) and season with pepper and salt to taste. 

Heat some oil in a skillet until HOT. This is the theme of this recipe. You want to cook stuff HOT. 

Put the meat into the hot skillet in a single layer. Don't stir too much if you want a nice brown crust. Flip and stir as necessary until cooked. Remove from skillet. 

Add eggs and cook. Remove from skillet. If I don't have meat+cornstartch in the recipe I'll add a little cornstarch to the eggs after they are cooked. 

Cook other optional veggies (besides onion). Most of them just need a good sautee in the pan. Some like broccoli need to be sauteed, and then have some water added to the pan and cooked for a bit longer until they are tender enough. Remove from skillet. 

Add green or yellow onion. Sautee. Add rice and mix. Press the rice into a sheet across the bottom of the skillet and WAIT. The rice should be SIZZZLING. Yes, that is sizzzling with 3 "z's". If it wasn't, your skillet wasn't hot enough. 

Boo hoo. However, it will still work. It just might not be brown and chewy - instead it will be closer to what you are served in restaurants that they call fried rice.  

Flip the rice and let it brown on the other side. 

When your rice has been fried (or your patience run out) sprinkle soy sauce over the rice to taste and mix. add back in all the other ingredients and heat through until HOT. Finally, add seasame oil - just a bit - according to taste.

~Adapted from Simply Recipes (simplyrecipes.com)