This chicken fried rice recipe made with Belles Hot Chicken’s Southern fried chicken is the best ‘east meets west’ fried rice with chicken recipe that you’ll ever cook and eat, even if I do say so myself. Like the best fried rice dishes, it was a result of leftovers. These days, we steam more rice than we need just so we can make this spicy fried chicken fried rice.
This chicken fried rice recipe combines our favourite Nashville-style fried chicken by chef Morgan McGlone of Belles Hot Chicken with a classic fried rice. This is a great dish to make to use up your leftover rice if you’re like us and always seem to steamed rice in the fridge. Because as you know if you’re a regular reader, we’re big rice lovers here.
If you’re a fan of fried rice and haven’t yet read Lara’s post ‘Make Rice Not War, A Celebration of Rice Diversity to Inspire Curiosity and Connection’ definitely take a look at that. Lara is on a quest to celebrate the countless ways that rice is made right around the world – in kitchens, in restaurants, on the streets, and in communities; in countries of origin, in rice-cooking diasporas, and in places where rice dishes have journeyed and been adopted.
Lara contacted some 50 rice lovers around the globe – from World’s 50 Best chefs to street food cooks, from cooking school instructors to culinary guides, from cookbook writers to supper club hosts – in “pursuit of peace, (rice) love and understanding” and asked them to share their favourite rice dishes and rice cooking tips. She has so far ended up with 66 rice dishes nominated by 65 rice lovers and she has more to add.
The result is a fascinating compilation of rice dishes, histories, memories, anecdotes, and advice – it’s so inspiring I have started to make some of the dishes myself. If you do the same, share the results on Instagram with us and use the tag #MakeRiceNotWar. Back to my chicken fried rice recipe…
Chicken Fried Rice Recipe Made With Spicy Southern Fried Chicken Leftovers
This chicken fried rice is a result of experimentation, as the best recipes are. Whenever I make batches of our favourite Southern fried chicken, which I shared yesterday, we always have leftovers. Often we reheat the chicken the next day and have it for lunch or a snack.
However, after making tonkatsu fried rice with tonkatsu and onsen eggs and it turning out so well, we thought I should try making fried rice with spicy fried chicken. I tried to replicate the flavours of the spicy fried chicken in the fried rice – mainly the cayenne pepper and paprika – but it didn’t work as every mouthful was spicy.
But one of my attempts at this chicken fried rice dish really stood out, inspired by a Japanese curry fried rice recipe. I made it with a little curry powder and it was magic. I tried it with a little more and it was addictive.
In this chicken fried rice recipe, I use carrots and peas, garlic and shallots, but no ginger as it just made everything even spicier. For the final sauce, I went with the traditional mix of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce, drizzling the sesame oil over the individual bowls before serving.
Tips for Making This Chicken Fried Rice Recipe
First you’ll need to make the Belles Hot Chicken Southern fried chicken recipe by Morgan McGlone that we shared yesterday with the chef’s permission. Make it the day before and make enough so that you have leftovers for our chicken fried rice recipe.
The best tip I can give you for this chicken fried rice is to do with the curry powder. Not all curry powders are created equal obviously. A Jamaican style curry powder is very different from a Madras style curry powder, just as a Japanese curry powder is different to a Vietnamese curry powder.
In this case, we used the Nguan Soon curry powder brand which comes from Thailand but you could use your favourite curry powder – or even make your own curry powder blend, which is Lara’s next cooking project. Did you try her homemade Japanese furikake seasoning with Southeast Asian flavours?
If you make fried rice frequently but you don’t yet have a carbon steel wok, I highly recommend writing a letter to Santa. After it’s been seasoned, a carbon steal wok heat up quickly and has great heat distribution, so when it’s on really high heat you’ll get those wonderful smoky aromas in your dishes.
If you like this chicken fried rice recipe, also see our recipes for our Chinese special fried rice, this classic Cambodian fried rice (bai cha) and Lara’s Cambodian shrimp fried rice with shrimp paste (bai cha kapi).
Chicken Fried Rice Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 80 g pieces fried chicken chopped into pieces
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- 4 eggs whisked
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 60 g carrot peeled, finely chopped
- 60 g peas
- 1 garlic clove crushed
- 20 g shallots chopped finely
- 2 cups day old jasmine rice separated with no clumps
- 2 tbsp spring onions chopped finely
- 2 egg omelette
Instructions
- Heat a wok until hot and add a little of the vegetable oil.
- Mix the eggs with a little soy sauce and pour into the wok to make an omelette. Remove from the wok just before fully set. Cut the omelette into strips.
- Add a little more oil and fry off the shallots and carrots until soft.
- Add the garlic and peas and stir-fry for a minute. Add the curry powder and mix until combined.
- Add a little more oil and then add the rice, mixing well. Add the light soy sauce by pouring it around the wok above the rice. Stir-fry until all of the rice is coated in oil. Carefully break apart any clumps of rice with a spoon.
- Turn the heat down to medium and add 1/2 of the omelette strips and fried rice and mix well, without tearing apart the fried chicken pieces.
- Mix in the rest of the light soy sauce, the dark soy sauce and the oyster sauce.
- Add half of the green parts of the spring onions and mix well.
- Serve in individual bowls, drizzle with the sesame oil and sprinkle the rest of the spring onions on top to garnish.
- Serve the remaining omelette strips on the side.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Do let us know if you make this chicken fried rice recipe as we’d love to know how it turns out for you. You can share your thoughts in the comments below, by email or tag us on social media.
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