How To Cook American Chinese Style Chicken Fried Rice

As someone who lived in China many years you would think I’m quite the fan of traditional and regional mainland Chinese dishes. However growing up in California gave me a pretty good appreciation of Americanized Chinese food. This recipe for American Chinese style chicken fried rice is a great crossover dish since it isn’t all that much different from the original!

Many countries have a variation of fried rice, but the Chinese version is by far the most world renowned. Although I will say I’m also a huge fan of Thai style pineapple fried rice – which is quite a foreigner friendly food as well. This Chinese chicken fried rice is so easy to make, because once you start actually cooking you’ll be completely finished in around 15 minutes.

In all honesty the most time consuming part of this dish is the mise-en-place. Cutting and chopping all of the vegetables takes quite a bit of time, but if you are like me you might find it quite therapeutic.

How To Make The Best Fried Rice

Here are a few tips and tricks when planning to make an excellent fried rice at home:

• Use either day old rice or steamed and chilled rice from a rice maker. You don’t want to use freshly boiled rice for a fried rice dish since there is too much moisture to really get a nice fry.
• Try to balance your vegetables and meats so the flavors go together. For example sliced beef and broccoli are a classic pairing which would of course go well in fried rice. In this recipe I just use chicken and crisp vegetables which is one of the most simple options you can do.
• Use MSG. No, it isn’t bad for you (any more than regular table salt is) and it gives you that authentic Chinese takeout taste. I always have a big bag of Aji-no-moto on hand for not just Chinese recipes, but plenty of other Asian and even European recipes as well!
• Make sure everything is dry. If your rice is too wet it won’t fry well, as mentioned earlier. But, this rule also goes for the vegetables. If you plan on adding things like frozen vegetables, make sure they are fully defrosted and drained of excess water before adding them to the pan.

Ingredients For American Chinese Chicken Fried Rice

Think of these ingredients as more of a guide rather than hard and fast rules. Well, the vegetables. For the sauce this is my preferred blend for that authentic Chinese-American fusion taste.

Fried Rice Ingredients

• 3 cups Cooked Rice
• 2 Chicken Breasts (cubed)
• 1 large Yellow Onion (chopped)
• 1 large Red Bell Pepper (brunoise)
• 1 large Carrot (brunoise)
• 6 cloves Garlic (thinly sliced)
• 1 tbsp Ginger (microplaned or finely grated)
• 4 large Eggs
• 1/2 tsp MSG
• 3 Green Onions (chopped)
• Sunflower or Soybean Oil (for frying)

Fried Rice Sauce

• 2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
• 2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
• 2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
• 1 tbsp Rice Vinegar
• 2 tsp Sesame Oil
• Fish Sauce (to taste, start with 1 tsp and you can add more at the end if you feel like you want a more funky flavor).

Fried Rice Cooking Method

In a hot pan or wok add a bit of your neutral oil and let it come to temperature. Add in the onion, carrot, and bell pepper and stir around so they brown as they fry. You want to extract some of the moisture from the onion and bell pepper, and the sweetness from the carrots. This step takes around 10 minutes.

As the vegetables are browning add in half of your MSG (about 1/4 of a tsp). Just stir it in as the vegetables are frying so it enhances their flavor.

Move the vegetables to one half of the pan and add in your cubed chicken breast. Tilt the pan so the oil drains down from the vegetables and helps fry the chicken. This step only takes around 2 minutes as the chicken will continue to cook in the next step.

Once the chicken is white on all sides add in the garlic and ginger and stir it around. Both garlic and ginger can burn quite easily so make sure to stir it in just until fragrant. Then push the everything into the vegetables on half of the pan.

Pour in the egg on half the pan and use your utensil to break it up into pieces as it fries. You don’t want super large pieces, and you definitely don’t want it overcooked. This step only takes about 30 seconds. Once the eggs are done mix them into the rest of the pan and finally give everything a good toss to combine.

Lastly add in your rice and mix it in. Pour over your sauce and stir while the sauce soaks into all the ingredients and the rice begins to darken. You still don’t want to overcook the eggs or chicken so this step only takes a minute, but if you want a bit of crispy rice you can leave the pan on the heat a bit longer to ‘burn’ some of the rice.

Take off the heat and add in the green onion. Stir and serve immediately for the best tasting homemade fried rice ever.

The Best American Chinese Chicken Fried Rice