Recipe: Lazy Rice Cooker Fried Rice

One of my favorite foods is chicken fried rice, but it can be hard to find good fried rice near me. My absolute favorite fired rice was at Thai Hana in Viera, FL, but now I live a bit far from there. On TikTok I saw a video for how to make fried rice by @chefkeysh, and I absolutely loved how it turned out. But, being the lazy cook that I am, I simplified it to good enough and easy to make. This lazy rice cooker fried rice is great for family dinner or for a midnight meal for one. If you want to make it properly, go check out his video here. He has so many great recipes!

For my simplified version, I start by making my rice in the rice cooker. I always use sushi rice because I like the stickiness, but regular white rice may also be good. For my family of three I use maybe one and a half to two cups of rice max. Once the rice cooks and you add everything together, it really becomes a lot of food. If it's just for me, I make one cup of rice and have plenty of leftovers. The good thing is that it reheats really nicely and tastes great the next day!

While the rice is cooking, I start with the veggies. I usually use carrots, white and/or green onions, and sometimes bean sprouts. Bean sprouts are tricky because they go bad really fast. When I am making fried rice as a midnight snack on a whim, I just use whatever veggies are available in my fridge. When I've planned to make fried rice, I usually buy the nice big carrots, but on a whim I'll use baby carrots and chop them up. My knife skills are terrible, so baby carrots are easier for me to work with. On larger batches, I delegate to literally anyone else to do the chopping. I keep trying, but every time I try to cut up an onion I also cut up my fingers. Because of that, sometimes when I cook for myself I'll just use green onions and leave out the white onions.

I use a really big, deep pan to cook my veggies and eventually throw everything together. I start with the carrots since they take the longest to cook. I throw in some sesame oil, throw the pan on medium to high heat and let it warm up a bit before throwing the carrots in. I just season with salt and pepper. Once the carrots start to soften up, I add the white and/or green onions (just the white parts). Pay attention to the heat. You'll probably have to turn it down to medium or medium/low if the pan has gotten too hot. You don't want burnt veggies. Cook until the onions are nicely browned and the carrots are soft and browned. If I use bean sprouts, I add them in with the onions. You can use any other veggies you like.

Meanwhile, make the scrambled eggs. I usually use an egg per person. I tend to make them the way I always make scrambled eggs, which means cracking them into the pan, adding salt and pepper, and mixing them up with the spatula. As they cook I sort of chop them up into little pieces with the spatula to add into the rice. Is this the ideal way to cook them? Probably not. Scramble your eggs however makes sense to you.

For the chicken, I actually use pre-cooked chicken. My family tends to grill some chicken breasts and freeze them or throw them in the fridge for whenever we just want a quick chicken sandwich or to add chicken to a meal. I take the grilled (and already seasoned with salt and pepper) chicken breasts and throw them into a skillet with some sesame oil to reheat them. In the video, he uses teriyaki sauce for the chicken, which I didn't have, so the first time I made it I actually made my own teriyaki sauce. It came out great, but I had a hard time making it the same way the next time. And it was time consuming. Instead, I add sushi sauce (eel sauce), a little bit of oyster sauce, and a little bit of soy sauce to the chicken. Sushi sauce and oyster sauce are thick, so they stick to the chicken well. Once the chicken is heated and coated in the sauce, I set it to the side.

If you want to use raw chicken, the original video says to marinade then overnight. Or you can season the chicken to preference, cook most of the way in a skillet with sesame oil and a bit of light soy sauce, and then add oyster sauce and sushi sauce (or teriyaki sauce).

If I don't have chicken ready to go or just want something simpler, I sometimes leave out the chicken completely and add a bit of sushi sauce to the egg fried rice just to add that flavor. You can also substitute with other meats, tofu, or I have substituted with shrimp. I cook the shrimp in sesame oil with salt, pepper, sushi sauce, and oyster sauce. Sometimes I'll also add some garlic. Cut the shrimp up into bit sized pieces to make it easier to eat in the rice.

I did say I'm bad a chopping.

Once the rice is done cooking, I add dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and some salt directly into the rice cooker. I used to use light soy sauce and no added salt, but now with the dark soy sauce I feel I need an extra kick of salt to up the flavor of the rice. I try to add the sauces slowly and mix the rice well. I taste test as I go to make sure it is to my liking. Once the flavors are right, I dump the rice into my large pan with the veggies and mix them together. If I am just cooking for myself, I actually add everything into the rice cooker to mix it together. I add in the eggs and chicken, stir, and taste test again to make sure the combination has all the flavor it needs. Garnish with green onions and serve.

Ingredients

All ingredients are to taste. Choose amounts of veggies based on your personal preference. Ingredient amounts based on one to three adult servings.

• 1 - 2 cups sushi rice or white rice

• 1 - 2 large carrots

• 1/2 - 1 white onion

• several green onions

• 1 - 2 cups of bean sprouts (optional)

• 1 egg per serving/person

• 1 - 3 large chicken breasts or alternative meat/cut

• oyster sauce

• sushi sauce (eel sauce)

• dark soy sauce

• light soy sauce

• teriyaki sauce (optional)

• sesame oil

• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Cook one to two cups of sushi rice or white rice in a rice cooker.

2. Dice carrots, white onion, and green onions. Keep the green part of the green onions separate.

3. Heat up a large, deep skillet on medium to high heat with sesame oil. Add the carrots and cook until softening before adding both types of onions and the bean sprouts. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Make scrambled eggs in a separate, smaller skillet per your preference. Use one egg per serving. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Cook or reheat chicken in a separate skillet with sesame oil and light soy sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Once mostly cooked/warmed up, add sushi sauce to coat the chicken and a bit of oyster sauce to taste. You can also use teriyaki sauce instead of both the oyster and sushi sauces.

6. Once the rice is cooked, add dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and salt to taste. Add slowly and mix well, taste testing along the way. Combine the rice with the veggies, eggs, and chicken.