Easy Fried Rice - A Quick Recipe to Use Up Leftovers!
Easy Fried Rice is a one-pot, quick and simple, weeknight dinner recipe using basic ingredients and leftovers including rice, eggs, veggies, and your favorite protein, from diced ham to rotisserie chicken to ground beef and more!
2cupsground/diced/shredded leftover meat (already cooked)such chicken, beef, pork, or ham
Instructions
Coat a large pot set over medium-low heat with 1 tablespoon of sesame oil. Cook garlic and carrots, stirring frequently, until tender. Push carrot mixture to the side of the pan and add another tablespoon of sesame oil. Add eggs in center of oil and cook as you would scrambled eggs.
Mix carrot mixture into eggs and stir in frozen peas, cooked rice, soy sauce, and shredded/chopped meat. Turn heat to low and, stirring frequently, allow the peas and meat to heat through before serving.
Video
Notes
You may use white or brown rice. To make 5 cups of white rice, I cook 1 ½ cups of dry rice in 3 cups of water for 20 minutes, following package directions. The water/rice ratio for brown rice is going to be slightly different and the cooking time will be approximately doubled.
You may use regular or toasted sesame oil. If you don't have it, peanut oil or canola oil would work fine, too.
It's quick and easy to shred carrots in a food processor. Two cups may seem like a lot, but they cook down quite a bit. I find that by shredding them, they are hardly noticeable in the final dish and my kids don't mind eating them. You may also grate your carrots by hand, use packaged grated carrots, or even use frozen diced carrots.
You may use whatever type of meat you have on hand. Shredded rotisserie chicken, leftover ground beef or beef roast, shredded pork, cubed ham...the possibilities are endless!
Vegetarian options include Egg Fried Rice (omit the meat and add an extra egg or two) or Pineapple Fried Rice (add cubed pineapple -- fresh or canned/drained -- in place of the meat).