Fried Rice

Fried Rice

The legend of fried rice is that hundreds of years ago in China, the emperor paid a surprise visit to a warlord. The warlord was expected to feed the emperor, but since he was unprepared, either he or his kitchen staff could lose their heads if the emperor was not pleased with his meal. The desperate cook took the only things he had, some left-over rice, some eggs, onion, garlic and bits of leftover meat and served the emperor the first ever bowl of fried rice. The emperor loved it, and it has been a staple of Chinese cooking ever since.
It is still a great way to use left over rice.


1. Scramble about 3 eggs with some chives (or green onion) and salt

2. remove eggs from wok and add any chopped meat you are using, the greater the variety, the tastier the rice.  Chopped bacon, browned first and then chopped chicken (that has been marinated in a little soy sauce and cornstarch) chopped ham or pork (pork also marinated in soy sauce and cornstarch) and shrimp can all be used. If the only thing you have on hand is bacon, bacon alone will make yummy fried rice. (if you are using bacon, no other oil is needed, otherwise you will need to use some oil to cook everything in)

3. When meat is mostly cooked, add 2-3 cloves pressed or finely chopped garlic, 1 finely chopped onion and brown with any other vegetable you might want to add. Possibilities might include finely chopped cabbage, green pepper and/or red pepper, or frozen peas and/or carrots

4. When everything is cooked, add 2-3 C. cooked left-over rice and previously scrambled eggs to wok and mix well. Only add as much rice as your wok can comfortably hold and mix, or it will be difficult to mix well and make taste right. Easier to make twice than to try mixing too much at a time. Flavor with soy sauce (not too much), kosher salt, and sesame oil.  Sometime I rob a flavor packet from ramen noodles (I like maruchen) and add some or all of that for flavor too. For Thai fried rice, they add about 1T. of ketchup to their fried rice for flavor too.