I know what you're thinking, does this b*tch eat anything other than rice? The answer is yes but only sometimes, as an individual with a Bangladeshi heritage rice is eaten almost every day. I used to hate eating rice every day when I was younger, now that I have moved out I have found different ways to cook rice and learned to cook a variety of dishes that pair well with rice.
This dish is my special egg fried rice, my mum used to make this for me and my siblings growing up and once I moved out this is the dish I craved the most so I taught myself how to make it, adding my own special little touches. This special fried rice has a lot of protein so you do not need any protein on the side, you can eat the rice on its own. The proteins are eggs, chicken and prawns which is a nice variety. You can also incorporate a lot of veggies in this special fried rice and it is a great way to get your 5 a day in. A lot of the vegetables for this recipe are optional but I love veg so the more the merrier. The seasonings used for the rice are also optional but the seasonings I use give it great flavour, but you can always season to your preference.
So, lets jump in, First you'll need some basmati rice, I used a cup of rice which was enough for two portions, wash your rice until the water runs clear, you can skip this step however, for best results wash the rice. I used a rice cooker to cook the rice because I'm lazy but you can cook the rice on the stove.
Next we can move onto prepping our vegetables, wash all your vegetables then you'll need to dice a medium yellow onion, chop two spring onions, mince two cloves of garlic, this step is optional however I think it lifts the whole dish in terms of flavour, mince some ginger, a small thumb size peace will do. Also this is optional but you can also add a chilli pepper if you want the dish to have a kick, spicy food is good for you so why not. You can set these aside, next you can prep your other veggies you can choose what you'd like to put in the special fried rice, I went in with a handful of button mushrooms, a yellow pepper and some mixed vegetables which consists of peas, sweetcorn, carrots and green beans. Traditionally you'd put peas and carrots in the egg fried rice, but this is my own recipe and the choice is yours about which vegetables to include. I soaked the mixed veg in some warm water to speed up the defrosting process, thinly sliced the mushrooms and chopped the peppers then set aside to cook later.
Next, we can move onto our proteins the eggs, chicken and prawns. I used a pack of large prawns which were frozen but had left them out to defrost. I used one big chicken breast and diced it. I washed the chicken with vinegar and lemon juice before dicing. After you've cleaned your chicken pat it dry so the seasonings stick to the chicken, you can season with whatever you like, I went in with garlic powder, ground ginger, white pepper, chicken seasoning and onion powder, lemon juice and some olive oil. Massage the seasoning into the chicken making sure the meat is coated well with the seasoning, I did not use any salt just because there will be a lot of sodium in the special fried rice and adding salt will only make the chicken too salty. I set the chicken aside to marinate and to let the flavours soak in. Then I took two eggs and beat them with some salt and pepper and scrambled them on a frying pan and set aside on a plate to add into the rice afterwards. The prawns I used were de-shelled and already cooked so I did not have to do anything to them, I just rinsed them through with water and set aside to add into the rice. You can now cook the chicken on the same pan with some olive oil in medium high heat make sure the chicken is browned off on both sides before removing it from the heat, it will not take a long time to cook as the chicken breast would already be diced, be careful not to over cook it as it can make the chicken dry. Once the chicken has cooked through you can set aside with the eggs.
In the same pan that you cooked the chicken add a little more oil and now it is time to cook the onions, spring onions, garlic and ginger. Do not let the onions brown, lower the heat down and you can add the other veggies, the mushroom, peppers and mixed veg, let those cook for a couple of minutes so they can soften, but not too much as we still want a little bit of bite on the veggies. Once the vegetables have started to soften you can then add the eggs, the chicken and the prawns into the pan. By now your rice should be cooked you can add your rice into the pan gradually which will allow you to stir in the protein and vegetables evenly. At this point the rice should be on low heat this is when you can season your rice, I seasoned it with white pepper, garlic powder, ground ginger, all purpose seasoning from Knorr, chicken seasoning, onion powder, soy sauce and some lemon juice. I used about a teaspoon of each seasoning a tablespoon and a half of soy sauce and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Stir in the seasoning well making sure you toss the rice so the rice is seasoned evenly. You can then chop some scallions for garnish and your dish will be ready.
This is a fairly easy dish to prepare and is somewhat healthy and quick to prepare. I hope you enjoyed this blog post of one of my favourite meals. Happy Eating! If you'd like to see how I have made this dish you can follow me on Instagram and TikTok @shefshahira where you can follow the recipe. I'll list the ingredients down below.
Ingredients
-a cup of basmati rice
-1 chicken breast
-a pack of large prawns
-2 eggs
-a medium yellow onion
-2 spring onions
-2 cloves of garlic
-a thumb sized piece of ginger
-a handful of scallions
-a handful of button mushrooms
-a yellow pepper
-1/3 of a cup of mixed vegetables
-1 and a half tbsp of soy sauce
-1 tsp of lemon juice
-1 tsp of Knorr all purpose seasoning
-1 tsp garlic powder/granules
-1 tsp ground ginger
-1 tsp chicken seasoning
-1 tsp of onion powder
-1 tsp of white pepper
-olive oil for frying
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