Classic Fried Rice Recipe

Recipe Information

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 30-45 minutes

Total Time: 75 minutes

Servings: 6-8 large servings

Difficulty: Intermediate

Ingredients

1. Main Ingredients:
   • 4 cups rice
   • 1kg (or more) chicken, turkey or preferred protein
   • Vegetables:
     • 4 large carrots
     • 3 bulbs spring onions
     • 3 bell peppers (green, *yellow and/or *red)
     • 200g green peas
     • 10+ runner beans
     • 3 medium onions
     • 3 Scotch bonnet peppers
     • *2 medium tomatoes
   • Spices & seasoning: bouillon cube, salt, thyme, curry powder, *turmeric powder, *black pepper to taste
2. Sides:
   • *Sausages (1 pack contains 10 or 12 pieces)
   • *500g liver or beef chunks
   • *1 can sweetcorn

Items with an asterisk (*) are optional. While they improve the overall look and flavor of the food, you can do without them or improvise.

Instructions

Preparation

Fried rice is easy to make, the real work is in preparing all the sides and addditions that go into the meal.

• Cut your carrots, spring onions, bell peppers, runner beans, and other veggies into your preferred bite-sized shapes. Try making your carrots, bell peppers and tomatoes into slim slices, or into small cubes, however you prefer.
• You can prepare your protein using any desired method but make sure to keep the broth, e.g. you may choose to boil your chicken, or fry it. If you are using side protein as well (e.g. boiled liver, or fried beef pieces), prepare it and keep the broth. I would recommend seasoning your chicken with:
  • one finely diced onion
  • 2-3 diced peppers
  • ½ tbsp thyme
  • ½ tbsp curry powder
  • 1 bouillon cube
  • Salt & *black pepper to taste.

Cooking

With the bulk of the work out of the way, let's get to actually preparing the dish.

1. Parboil and wash your rice.
2. Add the broth to the rice (ideally it should not cover the rice so it doesn't get too soft, but this depends on the texture of the rice after parboiling and washing). Add 1 tbsp curry powder, *½ tbsp turmeric powder or grated turmeric, one bouillon cube and salt to taste. Let it cook for 10-15 minutes on medium heat, or until the water is almost dried up.

From this point onwards, the food will be made in batches. It takes 4-6 batches to finish the amount of food prepared. You will also need to work quickly.


3. In a large pan, add 2tbsp oil and heat it on medium heat for a minute.
4. Starting with the toughest veggies and working down (i.e. in this order: carrots, runner beans, bell peppers, peas, onions, spring onions, sweetcorn, etc), add a portion to the oil and stir for 45-60 seconds each. Bring down the heat to low and add the sausages & side protein(s) last, if any.
5. Taste the rice, if it needs more salt, you can add salt and black pepper powder to the mix in the pan.
6. Add a portion of the rice to the pan, add the tomato slices if any, and carefully mix the ingredients.
7. Keep repeating steps 3-6 until the rice and all other ingredients are finished.

Tips

Your fried rice is ready! Here's some more info to help you deliver the best fried rice:

• It helps a lot to get a headstart on preparing your ingredients.
• Fried rice pairs well with sides like sausages, plantain, grilled or fried meat.
• Work quickly to prevent the rice from burning.
• Ensure appropriate temperature regulation so that your ingredients are colorful and edible, not burnt.

Your final dish might look like mine:

This recipe has evolved and improved a lot since I first saw this version in 2017. I have made many spin-offs of it as well, including egg fried rice and shrimp fried rice.