KFC Fried Rice
Using your leftover fried chicken in fried rice is amazing in that you get all of the flavour and seasonings from the chicken in your dish. By frying the chicken again you also revitalise the crisp and skin from whatever soggy state it may have succumbed to in the fridge. It also doesn't hurt that the dish is usually busy with so many flavours, textures and colours that anything you add to it benefits from the ensemble.
Day-old rice is usually the best to make fried rice with, but if you are going to make a fresh batch of rice for it, reduce some of the water and once it is cooked, leave the lid off whilst your prepare all the other items going into your fry, as this will help it dry up and not be so gummy in the pan.
For three servings of rice I use the following to transform it into its fried counterpart:
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 spring onions, sliced, julienned, cut on the angle, however you like.
- 2 eggs
- 2tbsp soy sauce
- 1 large yellow onion, julienned
- Fried chicken, deboned and shredded/rough chop
- Black pepper to taste
Optional ingredients:
- Tomatoes
- Coriander
- Cucumber
- Kimchi
Heat a pan over high heat with some vegetable oil, enough to coat the bottom. Once the oil is shimmering, add the onions and blister. Reduce the heat to medium-high and add your garlic and spring onions, sautéing until the garlic is fragrant and the spring onions are lightly wilted. Add in your rice and mix, then make a well in the middle, if you need more oil before adding the eggs, add it now to the well and let it heat up, then crack your eggs into the centre. Let the egg whites cook, then mix through the rice, breaking the yolks, this should give you a nice definition of egg that is still runny enough to coat other ingredients whilst cooking further. Make another well, and with as much of the chicken skin down, add the chicken to the middle and let it crisp up before mixing all of the contents together. Season with the soy sauce and black pepper, adjust as desired.
This is where the optional items come in. If you like you can add tomatoes now, with some coriander, and cook through, just until the tomato has become soft. This is a nice addition if the rice is SUPER dry, as it will bring some moisture to the dish. Kimchi can either be fried into the mix or added as a topping up to you, and the cucumber is a fantastic topping that brings a cool crunch and can make up if some over salting has happened.
Serve the fried rice hot and maybe even pair it with some of that Prik Nam Pla you've had a go of making! Salt, fat, acid, heat - sounds good to me!