Chicken Fried Rice
July 19th, 2009 | Chinese, Chinese Recipes | 21 Comments
Chicken Fried Rice
Guest Writer: Tastes Like Home
I have known the lovely Cynthia at Tastes Like Home for a while; she is one of the early supporters of Rasa Malaysia. Last year when we were on a Caribbean cruise, we met up with her in Barbados. A few months ago, I invited Cynthia to write a guest post. Personally, I am intrigued by Caribbean-influenced Chinese food, and thought Cynthia would be the best person to write a post on the topic. We chose fried rice, a simple Chinese dish that has no geographical boundary. Please welcome Tastes Like Home with her beautiful and mouthwatering Chicken Fried Rice, Caribbean-style. Yum!
Earlier this year, I read with pleasure, the invitation by Rasa Malaysia to write a guest post for her blog. Rasa Malaysia has been among the first blogs I visited when I started blogging back in 2007 and I have been hooked since then. I’ve long admired her food and her photography. I bought the camera I use based on her recommendation! Coming from the Caribbean where countries such as my birth-land, Guyana, is made up of a vast number of Chinese, it is easy to understand how at home I feel when visiting Rasa Malaysia…
Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Suriname have long been home huge Chinese populations, today, that influence can also be seen in other Caribbean countries such as Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Dominica etc. Whether you are in any of the aforementioned countries, Turks & Caicos or St. Kitts-Nevis, a dish that gets made weekly either as part of the Sunday-lunch spread, a weekday meal or special occasion is Fried Rice, specifically Chicken Fried Rice. So popular is this dish that I wrote a column discussing the importance of Fried Rice to the Caribbean cuisine, especially in places such as Guyana. You can click here to read the column.
Each country and each household has it’s own recipe of ingredients for Chicken Fried Rice and method of making it. One thing that we call agree on is that it should have a lot of vegetables. The version I present to you today is one made up from different home cooks.
Ingredients:
3 leg quarters cut into large pieces, washed and pat dry
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
4 tablespoons Kecap Manis (or C’bean Chinese Sauce), divided
1 heaping tablespoon green seasoning
2 teaspoons five-spice powder, divided
1 teaspoon grated garlic
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger, divided
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 cups long grain white rice
3 cups water
Canola oil
1 tablespoon fine chopped fresh ginger
3 clove garlic, smashed
Minced hot pepper to taste
½ cup diced carrots
½ cup green peas (fresh or defrosted)
½ cup diced bell peppers (red, green & yellow)
½ teaspoon MSG
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 eggs, beaten and lightly fried, and cut up
½ cup thinly sliced green onions (white & green parts)
Method:
Prep Ahead:
1. Add chicken, soy sauce, 2-tablespoons, Kecap Manis or Chinese sauce, green seasoning, 1-teaspoon 5-spice powder, grated garlic and ½ tablespoon grated garlic and salt and pepper to taste to a bowl and mix together. Set aside to marinate
2. Wash the rice about 3 – 5 times until water runs clear
3. Add rice, water, 1-tablespoon oil and salt to taste to pot. Stir, cover pot, set on high heat and bring to a boil. As soon as the pot comes to a boil, reduce heat to summer and let cook for 25 minutes. At the end of that time, remove the pot from the heat and leave untouched for 10 minutes then remove cover, fluff rice and spread it out on a large baking sheet to cool completely
Assembly:
1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil to large karahi/wok or deep frying pan
2. Remove chicken from marinade and sauté in pan. Let both side brown. Pour marinade and enough water to cook chicken, cover and cook until chicken is cooked through and there is just a little thick sauce remaining. Remove the pan from the stove and transfer the chicken and sauce to a bowl and set aside
3. Wipe the pan clean and add another 2 tablespoons oil and place on high heat
4. Add chopped ginger, smashed garlic and minced hot pepper and sauté for 30 seconds
5. Add carrots and cook for 30 – 45 seconds
6. Add peas, peppers and rice to pan and stir to mix; let cook for 2 – 3 minutes or until the rice is heated through
7. Sprinkle 5-spice powder, MSG, grated ginger, salt and pepper to taste and toss to mix thoroughly
8. Drizzle in sesame oil along with remainder 2-tablespoons Kecap Manis/Chinese Sauce and toss; cook for another minute
9. Add cooked chicken and drippings along with eggs to rice and toss to mix. Cook for another minute and serve garnished with green onions.
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What beautiful looking fried rice. It looks like it’s peppered with jewels with all those colors.
I always love when I come across recipes that call for ingredients I’ve never heard of (green seasoning…explanation please?), it always perks me up and inspires me to seek them out. This whole idea of regional varieties of fried rice is wonderful…sort of like paella but much more international!
Hi Laura,
Green seasoning is a mixture of fresh herbs, garlic and onions that are grind fine into a paste. It is used often in Caribbean cuisine as a foundation for many dishes. Think Latin American sofrito. Here is a link to what it looks like: http://www.tasteslikehome.org/2008/08/green-seasoning-donation-for-heart.html
This chicken fried rice looks better than the Chinese version. I love the colorful presentation, it must be the Caribbean influence. :)
I live in US and constantly run into recipes that require “dark soy sauce”, I have problem finding and understand it, can someone please explain to me what it is?? Is that the thick black sauce??
What is the “green seasoning” ?? I am interested in making this fried rice, but need to understand and be able to find these items first. Thanks for anyone that can help me with it.
from what I know, dark soy sauce is indeed thicker. As for the green seasoning…I know there are recipes online for it, its made up of chives, coriander leaves, fresh thyme, oregano, parsley, and garlic cloves. :)
Candace, I’m so glad that you are going to try making this dish. To answer your questions, dark soy sauce refers to the regular soysauce (not lite) and the kecap manis refers to the thick, dark sweet soy sauce.
Green seasoning is a blended mixture of herbs made into a paste, please see the following link for more details: http://www.tasteslikehome.org/2008/08/green-seasoning-donation-for-heart.html
Thank you so much, Alisa & Cynthia. Cynthia’s reply not only help me with this one particular recipe, it also helps me with a lot of other recipes. Now just that I learned from you that kecap manis is actually the 黑油 （translate into Black Oil. Its the black thick sauce)
Thank yall so much again ;)
The colors are so beautiful, so..Caribbean :) I’ve been gazing at the perfectly cooked rice. Looks and sounds tasty!
Huh? MSG? Must I?
Yes, you can – MSG. Read this NY Times article for reference (the author of this blog – Rasa Malaysia is also quoted in it: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/dining/05glute.html
This is the most colourful and nutritious fried rice I had ever seen! Simply awesome!
It was nice to read your guest post here Cynthia. I’d love to learn more about SE Asian cooking so I will place this blog in my favorites. Thanks!
Thank you for featuring Cynthia’s blog and her recipes here. I am an avid reader of Tastes Like Home and I learn so much about Caribbean cuisine from Cynthia. First time on Rasa Malaysia and love it here!
wow, what a lovely presentation and delicious fried rice for sure.
What a scrumptious spoonful! I was going to ask about the green seasoning, but already read that in the answer.
Years ago on the island of Antigua, I visited a chinese restaurant (China Gardens) that would forever bar my taste buds from enjoying a typical American chinese buffet. The cooks didn’t even speak english. I have no clue which part of China they originated from, but they served a soup whose deliciousness still haunts me today. It was a clear soup, with some veggies and either shrimp, scallops or chicken maybe. The soup was so clear as to be almost the colour of water, but was so flavourful that I’ve never forgotten it. Does anyone have any idea what I’m talking about? what it’s called? where I can find it? how to make it? anything? They also served prawn crackers, likewise delicious. but which seem to be hard to find in most chinese restaurants I’ve been in. Thanks for reading.
Cynthia- I just made this and it was super delicious. It’s in my recipe box. We loved it.
I tried this recipe and posted my results on my blog. Thank you again Cynthia for a great recipe.
I tried this recipe and posted my results on my blog. Thank you again Cynthia for a great recipe.
http://bangamary.blogspot.com/2010/01/caribbean-chicken-fried-rice.html#more