Just to clarify, that opening statement consists of two parts. The first is about marinating the chicken. Chicken fillets are cut into small cubes, mixed with salt, pepper, soy sauce and rice wine, and marinated overnight. That gives the meat a salty-sweet flavor.
The second part about kecap manis and oyster sauce comes during the latter part of the cooking. It is the rice that is flavored with these two seasonings. That gives the rice a salty-sweet flavor too.
This is a dish cooked with leftovers. We had fried chicken wings the other night and, as I was prepping them, I realized that there were chunks of breast meat attached to the little drumsticks. I cut them off and separated them.
The mushrooms were leftovers too. I had six button mushrooms which, by themselves, weren’t enough to make a complete dish. Either they went into a soup or a stir fry. And they would definitely have to combined with other ingredients. So, into our chicken fried rice breakfast they went.
To cook this delicious chicken fried rice, start by sauteeing onion, garlic and carrot. Do this slowly to soften the vegetables. Add the chicken, turn up the heat, and cook until the chicken pieces have almost lost their pinkness.
With the chicken still only partially cooked, add mushrooms and sprinkle with salt and pepper. While the chicken may be perfectly seasoned, the mushrooms aren’t. Unless you season them, they will soak up the seasonings in the chicken and both will turn out bland. So, season the mushrooms.
Cook everything, stirring often, just until the chicken pieces are cooked through. By that time, the mushrooms should be fully cooked.
Pour in beaten eggs so that they cover the surface of the chicken, mushrooms and vegetable mixture. That way, the eggs are evenly distributed.
Immediately after pouring in the eggs, spread the rice on top of everything in the pan. Add the kecap manis and oyster sauce. Drizzle in sesame seed oil. Cook, tossing, until the rice is heated through and the eggs are fully cooked. Optionally, toss in sliced scallions before serving.
Full recipe below
Chicken fried rice
Ingredients
Chicken
- 250 grams chicken breast fillets - cut into ¾-inch cubes
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine - mirin was used here
Fried rice
- 3 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 onion - peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic - peeled and chopped
- 1 small carrot - peeled and cut into ¼-inch cibes
- 6 buttom mushtooms - chopped
- salt
- pepper
- 2 to 4 eggs - beaten
- 2 ½ cups day-old rice
- 2 tablespoons kecap manis - (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- ½ teaspoon sesame seed oil
- sliced scallions
Instructions
- Mix the chicken, salt, pepper, soy sauce and rice wine. Place in a tightly covered bowl and marinate in the fridge overnight.
- Heat the cooking oil in a wok or frying pan.
- With the heat on medium-low, saute the onion, garlic and carrot until softened, about three minutes.
- Turn up the heat, add the chicken and stir fry until the chicken has lost most of its pinkness.
- Add the mushrooms and sprinkle in half a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper.
- Stir fry until the chicken is cooked through.
- Pour in the beaten eggs to cover the surface of the contents of the pan.
- Spread the rice over the eggs.
- Pour in the oyster sauce, kecap manis and sesame seed oil.
- Continue stir frying until the rice is heated through.
- Taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed.
- Stir in scallions and serve.
