Zach's Fried Rice

College students often do not know how to cook tasty food for themselves after childhoods of homecooked meals being provided by parents and the eye-catching vastness of dining centers throughout freshman year. This lack of cooking knowledge can result in making food take a very long time or going out to eat for every meal. Time and money are two things that college students never have so proficiency in the kitchen is a major key to saving money, time, and stress. Recipes like fried rice are easy to learn, take minimal time, and cost very little money per serving to make.

Cooking Equipment:

• Wok or deep skillet
• small skillet for eggs
• chopping knife
• spatula
• cutting board
• Rice cooker
• measuring cup
• tablespoons
• small bowl
• fork

Ingredients:

• 3 table spoons Sesame Oil
• 12 OZ bag frozen veggie mix (carrots, green beans, and corn)
• 3 eggs
• tablespoon of butter
• 1 cup jasmine rice
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1/2 white or yellow onion
• green onion
• 8 ounces chicken breast
• Siracha sauce

I prefer to do my grocery shopping HYVEE as they have a wide selection of produce and an Asian section that has all the sauces needed for this recipe, but any grocery store with a decent produce and Asian cooking section should work just fine. **tip** upon arriving it is usually best to start start with the equipment and end with the produce near the checkout!

• Cooking Equipment
  • If missing any of the following cooking equipment needed it can be found between the fresh produce and bakery sections of most HYVEE stores.
    • Wok or 2" or deeper skillet
    • Chopping knife
    • Spatula
    • Cutting Board
    • Measuring cups
    • Measuring spoons (tablespoon)
    • Rice cooker
• Sauces
  • Found in the Asian section of most grocery store
  • Very little of each sauce is needed so they provide several uses
    • Sesame Oil, I personally prefer LEE KUM KEE Pure Black Sesame Oil
    • Soy Sauce, I prefer using HYVEE brand less sodium soy sauce but regular is fine as well
    • Oyster Sauce, I prefer using LEE KUM KEE Oyster Flavored Sauce for the consistency
    • Rice Vinegar, I prefer using Far East Rice Vinegar
    • Siracha sauce
• Proteins
  • 8 oz chicken breasts
    • found at the meat counter or in the proteins section
  • Pack of eggs
    • found near the dairy section
  • Margarine or butter
    • found in the dairy section
• Dry produce
  • Jasmine rice
    • found in the Asian section or with other carbs like noodles
  • Brown sugar
    • found in the baking section
  • Olive oil
    • found in the baking section
  • 12 OZ bag frozen veggie mix (carrots, corn, and green beans)
    • found in the frozen section of vegetables
• Fresh Produce
  • Garlic cloves
  • White or yellow onion either works
  • Green onion

Now after checking out your ready to head to the kitchen and get some prep started!

Preparing to cook before cooking is one of the best ways to reduce the amount of time spent in the kitchen.

• Rice
  
  • Begin by pouring a cup of rice into the rice cooker and adding water
    • water level in the rice cooker: water should sit roughly 1/3 of the length of your thumb above the rice
  • When rice is finished, place in the refrigerator
• Eggs
  • Crack 3 eggs into a small glass mixing bowl disposing of the shells as you go
  • Mix with a fork until smooth consistency is reached
  • Heat the skillet to medium heat and add butter **ensuring to keep hands away from heat source during cooking**
  • Once better begins to melt add eggs
    • Stir constantly until fluffy consistency is reached
  • Wash mixing bowl with dish soap
  • Add eggs to bowl and place with rice in refrigerator
  • Reduce and turn off the burner without cleaning Wok/skillet
• Chop veggies
  • Peel chop 1/2 white onion into pieces **ensuring to keep hands on the dull "push side" of the knife
  • Peel garlic
    • Tip in peeling garlic: place garlic clove on cutting board and lightly smash it causing the skin to crack and begin to peel
  • Chop only the top of the Green onions
  • Leave all veggies on the cutting board with the knife ready to be added later
• Chicken
  • Chop the chicken into cubes (usually about pieces per chicken breasts)**ensuring to keep hands on the dull "push side" of the knife
  • Salt and pepper the chicken lightly and
    • Add a touch of soy sauce before cooking to add some juice if you'd like
• Veggies
  • leave veggies out to defrost
• Wait!
  • you can choose however long you would like to let the meat to marinate and the rice to settle
    • I personally wait about 30 minutes or so and find something to do to keep my time efficient

• Bring the Burner back to about medium high heat and add some olive oil
• As the pan warms up add 1/2 of the onions and stir continuously with spatula
  • Cook onions for about 1 minute before next step
• Add 1/2 of the chopped garlic and stir
  • cook onion and garlic mix about 45 seconds to a minute
• Add the chicken evenly dispersed through the pan and mix into the onions and garlic with spatula
  • **Be sure to add chicken carefully and not splash any oil as it will cause burns!!**
• Add lid to the skillet/wok and shake occasionally
  • cook stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes or until cooked through
    • If unsure of doneness cut a piece in half and check for pinkness
• Clean chicken mixing bowl with dish soap and set aside to dry
  • Vitally important step in not wasting time is cleaning while you cook!
• Reduce heat to medium

• To the same skillet containing the chicken add the rice from the fridge
  • Maintaining the burner on medium heat
  • Stir very thoroughly
• Add the defrosted bag of vegetables to the same chicken and rice mixture
• Add the eggs to the same mixture
• Add remaining onions and garlic and mix everything well

• Add 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• Add 3 tbsp sesame oil
• Add 1/4 cup soy sauce
• Add 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• Add 1 tbsp brown sugar
• Turn burner off
• Mix well and let sit for 5 minutes removed from heat source

Now that the meal is prepared its time to eat! grab a couple plates and dish up a desired portion with a spatula. Sprinkle some green onion on top and Siracha sauce if desired.

Add remaining leftover food to a Tupperware container and store in the fridge for another day.

Make sure to clean all the dishes! There is nothing worse than roommates in college that don't clean up their dishes!

Any of this recipe can be modified to add spice, alternate veggies, or alternate meat to suit your preference