Loaded Fried Rice – Pantry Recipe

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Another recipe from our favorite chef-in-isolation residence.

Welcome back self (or otherwise) isolating buddies. I hope you had a chance to test out the first recipe from the pantry series because you’re going to need them for this next recipe.

Fried rice is probably one of the easiest and more forgiving dishes that can be thrown together with virtually any random shit hiding in the back corners of your refrigerator and/or cupboards, as well as a perfect vessel for leftovers.

Much like instant ramen you can add pretty much anything your heart desires and come out the other side with something delicious…or at the very least edible (can’t win ‘em all). 

This particular recipe will be designed around leftovers specific to our fajita taco recipe. If you didn’t happen to make those no big deal.

You will be able to use this as a rough outline for the process and can hopefully throw together something entirely your own.

Now go grab those fajita leftovers from the back corner of your fridge (come on, I know that’s where they are) and let’s get started.

Loaded Fried Rice Ingredients 

The fajita leftovers I used were:

-Spanish rice

-Fajita Mix (If you want extra veggies, onions, peppers, whatever, this is where you will want to add them.)

-Salsa

-1 Adobo pepper, chopped (add more if you want more heat)

Additional things I added were:

-Neutral cooking oil like corn, peanut, canola, or safflower oil.

-Egg, your preference (If your preference is scrambled you are bad and you should feel bad.)

-Scallions, thinly sliced

-Random ass pork marinade that was who-knows-how-old found in the back of my cupboard.  

-Hot Sauce

Again, not going to list specific measurements here just feel it out and use your best judgement based on your tastes and how many people you’re feeding.

This is also a relatively quick process so you will want to make sure you have everything laid out ready to go before you start.  

LOADED FRIED RICE DIRECTIONS

So, first things first…

1)Grab your largest flat bottom pan, or wok if you have one. Turn to high heat and add roughly 1 tbsp of neutral cooking oil. Let this get very hot, almost smoking. 

2)Once hot add in the fajita mix, give it a quick toss and then just let it sit there. Like when we did the fajita mix itself, we want to give this time to sear and that won’t happen if it’s constantly being stirred.

You are ready to move to the next step once that sear has developed or any additional veggies are cooked to your preferred doneness. Ideally, they would still have a bit of a crunch like traditional fried rice. 

3)Add your adobo peppers, toss, and allow to saute until aromatic.

At this point you are going to need to add more oil. I know ooooooo scary oil and too much is “unhealthy”. You made it this far down in a blog post about FRIED rice, I don’t wanna hear it.

4)Add at least 2 Tbsp more of oil to your pan, and allow to heat back up just a little bit. From there dump in your Spanish rice and break up any large clumps with whatever you’ve been using to stir thus far.

COOKING TIP: It’s very important here to not overcrowd the pan. If the pan is too full you will end up steaming the rice more than frying it.*

A nice even layer that covers the bottom (or just a little more) is perfect. Give everything a good toss and then only toss every minute or so, this will allow the rice to get a nice crispy texture.

If your rice doesn’t seem to be frying feel free to add more oil. Continue to cook until rice is crispy and no longer oily. 

*You may need to work in batches, if so just toss all your batches back together at the very end.

5)Once the rice is crispy we’re going to deglaze the pan and add a little extra flavor.

This step is where you would add the soy sauce in a traditional fried rice recipe.

However, instead of soy sauce I used a Chicken/Pork marinade for mine. You don’t need much here 2-3 tbsp should do the trick (per pan of rice). Add that in and then make sure you toss very well to coat.

6)While the rice is cooking you can work on your eggs. Again, cook these however you prefer (not scrambled). That should allow these to finish at roughly the same time as the rice.

7)Plating: divide the rice evenly between your bowls, add salsa, top with egg and then garnish with the scallions and hot sauce.

Like I said very simple, very quick. This should come together in 15-20 minutes tops.

Let’s Talk Eggs

As for the eggs, my personal opinion is that a fried egg makes the dish as a whole better. You’re able to pop the yolk and allow that golden goodness to ooze all over the rice ultimately improving the overall mouthfeel of the dish. 

With that said, if you insist on a scrambled egg the best way to do that is as follows:

Start by making scrambled eggs as you normally would. Scramble your eggs, get your pan warm, and pour them in.

Here is where things get a bit different. You only want enough egg to just barely cover the bottom of the pan and DO NOT STIR OR MOVE IT. Allow the eggs to cook through in one solid sheet.

Once done remove from pan, allow to cool slightly, roll it up like a fruit roll-up and thinly slice it.

Toss this into your rice at the very last step.   

PIN LOADED FRIED RICE TO PINTEREST