Last night, I tried a new recipe from a home chef YouTuber that claimed that it was "better than takeout" chicken fried rice. It looked good, and so I decided to give it a go.
Ingredients
Chicken:
2 chicken thighs cut into small pieces ("Slivers")
1/2 tsp baking soda
Marinade:
2 tsp light soy
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp neutral oil
Fried Rice:
2 cup cooked rice (jasmine/long grain mix, 1:2 ratio, make it the night before and let it dry out a bit)
3 Tbsp neutral oil
2 eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
prepared chicken,
1/2 onion, medium dice
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
2 cloves garlic, rough chopped
bean sprouts (optional)
green onion, thinly sliced (optional)
1 1/2 tsp salt
pinches of pepper
2 tsp shoaling wine
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Sauce mixture:
1 tsp sugar
4 tsp light soy
1 tsp dark soy
Directions:
A. Prep the Chicken (at least 30 minutes before cooking, up to the night before).
1. Cut the chicken into slivers.
2. Wash it in cold water in a colander until it turns a bit white.
3. Squeeze all that water out with your hands (it helps tenderize the meat).
4. Put it in a bowl and sprinkle the baking soda. Toss until coated.
5. Pour in the marinade and toss.
6. Cover & refrigerate until ready to use it.
B. Cook the Dish
1. Turn on the heat to medium high, add 1 Tbsp neutral oil and let cook until smoking a bit and shimmery.
2. Add the eggs,let puff up and wait 30-60 seconds, then lightly scramble. Pull out into a bowl.
3. While out the pan carefully (don't want burned egg in the next step).
4. Heat up again with another tbsp of oil.
5. Cook the chicken in batches until it's about 90% cooked. Remove to the egg bowl as needed.
6. Heat up the remaining oil, sauté the onions (turn down the heat and watch so it doesn't burn), 2-4 minutes until translucent.
7. Add in the garlic and cook 30-45 seconds until fragrant.
8. Mix in the rice, use more oil if too dry. Let toast 2-4 minutes.
9. Add in peas and carrots 1-2 minutes.
10. Add back in eggs and chicken.
11. Push rice to center, and pour the sauce around the outside. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper and mix well.
12. Add in bean sprouts, if using them.
13. Push rice back to center and deglaze outside of rice/wok with the wine. Stir.
14. Turn off the heat, stir in the sesame oil and green onions.
15. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed.
The dish was delicious! I definitely will make it again. We thought that the sauce mix was too light, so I doubled it (above) and we still added more light soy. Definitely don't use Japanese soy here (Kikkoman), the flavor profile is off. And the baking soda trick with the chicken really did make a very tender meat!
Thanks for stopping by!
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