This chicken fried rice is a great comfort food recipe to make with leftover rice. It's an easy one pot Chinese inspired meal that's super tasty too!
If you eat as many curries and stir fries as we do in our house then there is always some leftover rice. If I want to make this simple stir fry then I make sure to cook extra rice the day before as it works much better if the rice is cold and dry.
This chicken fried rice is inspired by a recipe by Ching-He Huang, who is one of my favourite Chinese food writers. I love her book Chinese Food Made Easy and this recipe is adapted from one of the recipes in that book. I used peppers instead of Chinese mushrooms and I also didn't use any Shaoshing rice wine. Instead I used a teaspoon of white wine vinegar along with a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the sharpness of the vinegar. I'm not sure what Ching-He would have made of it but it seemed to work.
The best thing about this chicken fried rice!
On of the things I love about this fried rice is the dry roasted peanuts. They are certainly one of the most addictive of nuts. As well as tasting great, they really flavour the rice too. They also accentuate the toasted flavour of the sesame oil. It's one of those dishes that however much I eat, I always wish I'd filled my plate even more!
What kind of rice do you use for fried rice?
I think this fried rice with chicken works best with Chinese jasmine rice but if you don't have that then any rice except pudding rice will work. I often use basmati rice as that's the kind that we tend to use the most and I often make this the day after making a curry.
Can you reheat this Chicken Fried Rice?
Normally I love meals where I can save the leftovers and reheat them the next day. However, because this is made with leftover rice, I wouldn't advise reheating it again.
Is leftover rice dangerous?
You have to be careful with leftover rice so make sure the rice you use has been stored in the fridge. Don't use rice that has been left at room temperature for too long as there is a risk of food poisoning.
Can you adapt this Chicken Fried Rice Recipe?
As I said, I've adapted this recipe from Chinese Food Made Easy and you can easily adapt it further. You can vary the vegetables for example. How about using spring greens or baby sweetcorn?
I know the chicken is one of the main ingredients but you can leave it out for a vegetarian version or replace it with tofu. Alternatively you could use pork.
If you don't have dry roasted peanuts you could use cashew nuts instead. To get a toasty flavour then cook them gently in a dry frying pan to brown them slightly before adding to the stir fry.
Chicken Fried Rice Recipe
Recipe
Chicken Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon ginger freshly grated
- 1 onion finely diced
- 1 peppers sliced into strips then halved
- 1 green chilli pepper finely sliced
- 225 g skinless chicken breasts diced into small pieces
- 1 teaspoon vinegar or 1 tablespoon shaoxing rice wine and omit the sugar
- 1 teaspoon five spice powder
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 50 g dry roasted peanuts
- 300 g cooked jasmine rice
- 3-4 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1-2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- Pinch ground white or black pepper
- 1 spring onions finely sliced
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a wok. Add the ginger, onion, chilli pepper and peppers and cook for about a minute.
- Add the chicken and cook for a minute or two, then add the vinegar followed by the five-spice powder. As the chicken starts to turn white, add the dark soy sauce and sugar.
- Add the peanuts and then the rice, mix well and stir-fry for 1 min.
- Season with the light soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper to taste. Finally, stir in the spring onion.
Notes
Nutrition
More Rice Recipes
If you like this chicken fried rice dish then do have a look at my other recipes with rice.
If you like spicy food then do check out my spicy midweek meals recipe collection!
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Places I'm sharing this Chicken Fried Rice
Cook Blog Share hosted by Jacqui at Recipes Made Easy
Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook
Hi, Corina. Apologies, I haven't been visiting! So many other things have taken me away from spending time on my blog.
Anyway, your fried rice looks amazing. I love the addition of peanuts for some crunch. I haven't tried using five spice when cooking fried rice. I mostly don't use a lot of spices - I stick with the garlic, salt and chicken stock powder most of the time, so I have to keep that in mind next time.
I hope you are having a fantastic week!
Corina Blum
That's no problem Jhuls! I find it hard to find time to keep up with reading all the blogs I'd like to read too! I'm so pleased you like this rice anyway.
Balvinder
Looks amazing and so much better than takeout!
Corina Blum
Thanks Balvinder! I'm so pleased you like it.
Chloe Edges
I know it sounds silly but sometimes I forget to keep my meals simple - but a classic fried rice is something I should definitely be making more often!
Corina Blum
I know, I sometimes forget the simple things too! We just had baked potato and cheese for dinner the other day and my husband said how much he enjoyed it for a change!
Helen - Cooking with my kids
I love the look of this - i would happily make this all the time, if only my fussy eating kids would eat rice (although that won't stop my giving it to them anyway!)
Corina Blum
I have the same problem. My kids just picked out the chicken!
Donna
Chicken fried rice is one of my faves! This looks fantastic, such a great recipe!
Corina Blum
Thanks Donna! I'm so pleased you like it. It does make such a good easy meal.
Jacqui – Recipes Made Easy:Only Crumbs Remain
Looks so tasty Im pinning to try later will make a change to my usual chicken risotto. Thank you for sharing on #CookBlogshare
Corina Blum
I do hope you like it Jacqui! It's a recipe I've been making for over 10 years so it has definitely stood the test of time here.
Cat | Curly's Cooking
This is definitely my kind of fried rice! So many people put peas in theirs which makes me very upset.
Corina Blum
Haha! I do like peas in mine too! Maybe I should add that to ways this could be adapted!
Monika Dabrowski
This sounds delicious and is so easy to make - my kind of healthy meal recipe!
Corina Blum
Thanks Monika! It's definitely easy and perfect for any leftover rice.