Chicken Fried Rice

Chicken fried rice, the take-out classic, started out as a way of using leftover rice. It is popular in Chinese, Thai, Japanese as well as in other Asian cuisines. 

There is nothing complicated about chicken fried rice. Once you see how easy it is to make this stir-fry, next time you crave this Asian comfort food for a weeknight dinner, consider making it yourself instead of ordering takeout. 

The nice thing about this takeout copycat recipe is that it is so versatile. You can use virtually any type of vegetables you happen to have on hand—this dish is also great way to use those stray leftover veggies in your crisper. The harder and bigger the vegetable, such as broccoli or cauliflower florets, the longer it will need to cook, so allow extra time if necessary. 

You can use any type of cooked rice, but unless you have leftover rice, when you cook rice just to make this recipe, medium- or short-grain rice is the better option. Long-grain rice such as plain long-grain rice, basmati, or jasmine rice is high in amylose starch, the grains separate more and the rice is firmer and drier. Medium-grain and short-grain rice has a higher content of amylopectin starch, which makes it stickier. 

Instead of shredded cooked chicken, you can also use cooked shrimp. Or for a vegetarian version, you can use fried tofu cubes. You can also skip the protein altogether and serve it as a side dish. And if you have a smaller amount of leftover rice, you can easily cut the recipe in half.