Vicky’s Gourmet Fried Rice

Vicky's gourmet fried rice recipe has been tried, tested and perfected over the years. It makes a wonderful accompaniment to a BBQ and is also delicious with our chicken or beef schnitzels.

At a glance

Approx 2.5 hours

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Maharaja basmati rice
  • 2 1/2 cups strong chicken stock (room temperature)
  • 1 chicken breast and 1 chicken thigh of a roast chicken
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 1 bunch spring onions
  • 2 x-large free range eggs
  • 3 or 4 bacon rashers, cut into thin strips, retaining the fat
  • 1/2 a brown paper bag mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup dry sherry (or Chinese cooking / rice wine)
  • 1/2 cup strong chicken stock (extra)
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • olive oil

Method

PREP – STAGE 1

  1. Put the rice in a medium saucepan with a good bottom. Cover it with the chicken stock and swirl the rice around to ensure it is all lying flat and completely covered.
  2. Bring uncovered to the boil, then put the lid on and do a fast simmer for 5 minutes.
  3. Take off heat and leave the lid on, allowing the rice to sit for 20 minutes. Set a timer so you don’t forget it. Ensure the lid is not removed during this time.
  4. After 20 minutes, take the rice out of the pan, put into a roasting pan and break it up with a fork. Allow to cool to room temperature.
  5. You can store the rice in the fridge for a few hours or day, depending on when you want to finish continue cooking the rest of the dish.

PREP – STAGE 2

  1. Shred the chicken breast and thigh of the roast chicken very thinly. This will take 15-20 minutes. Set aside in a bowl.
  2. Boil, but don’t over boil the frozen peas.
  3. Peel and chop the spring onions, including some of the green part.
  4. Whisk the eggs together and cook as a well-done omelette in a pan.
  5. When the omelette cools, place on a chopping board and cut into strips about 1/2 cm wide and 5 cm long.
  6. In the same frying pan, very slowly fry the bacon until crispy, then set aside.
  7. Slice the mushrooms.
  8. Put all the above into containers in the fridge until ready to cook the fried rice.

READY TO SERVE – STAGE 3

  1. In a jug, mix together the sherry (or rice wine), the extra chicken stock and the soy sauce. Set aside
  2. Get out all your prepared ingredients and have them at the ready beside the stove.
  3. Heat about 1/4 cup olive oil in a large frying pan on low heat. Grab a meal utensil/very large stirring spoon and gently fry the spring onion.
  4. When the spring onion is soft, turn the heat up to medium to high, add the mushrooms and stir continuously until they are lightly cooked. Then add the bacon, chicken and rice.
  5. Just after adding the rice, add another 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the frying pan and constantly stir to coat the rice well – about 1 minute.
  6. Add the peas and egg, stirring continuously to coat – about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
  7. Immediately add the dry sherry, stock and soy mixture, scraping the residue at the bottom of the frying pan with a metal spoon. You want the liquid to sizzle so that it gathers up all the encrusting frying pan residue.
  8. Turn the heat right down so that the liquid doesn’t evaporate before it soaks into the rice.
  9. Keep stirring and scraping the pan residue through the pan mixture.
  10. Once all the liquid has been absorbed, remove from the heat.
  11. Taste the rice and if it needs more salt, carefully sprinkle over a bit of stock powder or soy sauce.
  12. Allow to cool completely before covering and serve hot or at room temperature.