By Texas Homesteader ~ 

Chicken Fried Rice makes a whole new meal using leftover meat & rice with healthy vegetables to get supper on the table fast. A delicious yet very flexible recipe for those busy nights.

Leftover Food To Create A New Meal

I’m a big fan of Planned Leftovers. That’s the method of cooking when some of the components of today’s meal were actually prepared for a completely different dish yesterday.

It makes a super-fast meal since some of the ingredients of tonight’s entrée have already been cooked.

You can see all our planned leftovers posts by clicking the button below:

Using Leftovers To Reduce Food Waste

A couple of days ago RancherMan fired up the grill & cooked chicken breast. And we’d enjoyed some of the leftovers as chicken fajitas the next night. 

There was plenty of grilled chicken leftover to use for my chicken fried rice.

This will be perfect – the meat is already cooked and delightfully seasoned. Tonight’s meal will be on the supper table fast, thanks to planned leftover’s cooking.

It’s just one of the shortcuts I utilize to be able to Make Homemade Meals Daily The EASY Way.

Chicken Fried Rice Uses Leftover Meat & Rice 

I bring the cooked Fajita Chicken Meat from the fridge & chop it into cubes. I’ve got about a cup of chopped meat.

I’ve also got about 3 cups of cold, cooked rice in the refrigerator. For chicken fried rice it’s important that the leftover rice be chilled. It just makes it all come together best.

Easy Chicken Fried Rice Ingredients

Making chicken fried rice comes together quickly. So I first gather up my  ingredients:

• • • A cup (or more) of leftover cubed chicken

    • 3 cups leftover cold rice,

    • About a cup of chopped onions,

    • 2 minced garlic cloves,

    • 1 ½ cups frozen peas/carrots,

    • 3 eggs mixed with water,

    • 2 Tablespoons soy sauce.

I’ll also be using the grilled jalapenos from our cookout the other day. It’s not an official part of the recipe, but RancherMan & I like our food spicy!

Now it’s showtime. This meal comes together quickly y’all, so hold on to your hats!

Quick-Cooking Chicken Fried Rice Recipe

Into a 10” cast-iron skillet over medium heat place a little bacon grease, allowing it to heat. 

You can use butter, olive oil or vegetable oil to sauté the onions & garlic if you want. But at our homestead, Bacon Grease is King! 

Sauté the onions & garlic until they’re translucent. Push the cooked onions to one side of the skillet.

Mix 3 eggs with 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Then add the egg mixture into the empty side of the skillet & cook them –  chopping them with the spatula as they cook. 

Add frozen peas & carrots, soy sauce, chopped cooked chicken and 3 cups of cold leftover cooked rice.

Stir to blend & allow to heat thoroughly. Serve hot!

In just a few minutes, all those leftovers were blended into a completely different and delicious meal.

What Vegetables Go With Chicken Fried Rice?

Frozen peas & carrots are traditional & simple to use. But I often change up the vegetables depending upon what I have leftover from previous meals to be used.

I typically like to try to add different colors & textures. I just drain & mix in leftover:

Steamed broccoli,

Carrot coins,

Chopped green beans,

Steamed fresh asparagus,

Roasted Vegetables, etc. 

Sometimes I add fresh veggies from the garden when I’m cooking the onions & garlic.

Bell peppers are a good choice & the color provides a nice presentation as well. Plus I always have red or green bell pepper growing in my garden.

Feel free to experiment with different flavors, colors & textures of other veggies to come up with YOUR family’s fave.

Just shoot for about 1.5 cups of vegetables.

Chicken Fried Rice Serves 4? Or More?

The recipe below is the base recipe I use.

This recipe makes about 4 large servings which is just right for us. We’ll enjoy chicken fried rice for supper one night and often have enough left over for lunch the next day too.

But you can double the recipe if you like to increase the servings if you’re feeding a crowd.

Did you make this Chicken Fried Rice? Please rate the recipe in your comment below!

5 from 1 vote

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Chicken Fried Rice

This delicious chicken fried rice recipe gets supper on the table fast! It takes advantage of planned leftovers, using a cup of leftover meat and 3 cups of leftover rice stir-fried into a quick supper. #TexasHomesteader

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Keyword chicken, easy recipe, fried rice, garlic, leftovers, onions, planned leftovers, rice, soy sauce

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4 people

Author www.TexasHomesteader.com

Ingredients

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked chicken I used cooked chopped fajita chicken – can use ham, beef, etc
• 3 cups chilled leftover cooked white rice – must be cold
• 1 cup chopped onion about 1 medium-sized onion
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 3 eggs, mixed w/3 Tablespoons of water
• 2 Tablespoons butter, olive oil or bacon grease, divided (I used bacon grease)
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 8-oz bag frozen peas and carrots - about 1 ½ cups, thawed

Instructions

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add 1 Tbsp grease in a large skillet over medium heat until melted and skillet is hot.

2. Add 1 cup chopped onion & 2 minced garlic cloves. Sauté until the onion is soft. Add 1 ½ cups of thawed previously-frozen peas and carrots (if using) and mix to blend. Then push the mixture to one side of skillet.

3. In a small bowl, beat 3 eggs with 3 Tablespoons of water. Into the unoccupied area of the skillet add 1 Tablespoon grease. After it's melted add the mixed egg, chopping with spatula & scrambling until cooked. Then blend egg in with onion/vegetable mixture.

4. Add 3 cups cold, cooked rice, 1 cup chopped chicken, 2 Tbsp soy sauce & 1 tsp black pepper. Stir-fry together about 3-5 minutes, stirring until mixture is well combined.

5. Serve hot in wide bowls.

Recipe Notes

Note 1: You can use other kinds of leftover cooked meat if desired such as chopped ham or beef.

Note 2: Instead of a bag of frozen peas & carrots, you can lightly steam fresh veggies of your choice. I like chopped carrots, chopped bell pepper and/or maybe fresh green beans snapped into 3/4" pieces. Lightly steam in your microwave, drain and use in this recipe.

~TxH~

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