#readcookeat recipe : Chicken Fried Rice (A Long Ways From Home)

As I mentioned yesterday when I shared a recipe inspired by his Salmon Casserole, Sgt Windflower, the main character in Mike Martin's novels set in Newfoundland, is a man who loves his food and he is particularly forthcoming with fish-based dishes. I've bookmarked lots of #readcookeat recipes to try from the latest book in the series, A Long Ways From Home (click through to read my review), but this time I was inspired by a more exotic dish, that Sgt Windflower chose from a Chinese takeaway.

p76 Brown went off with his box of Chinese food for the troops. Windflower went into the restaurant and took a quick look at the dinner buffet, but decided to order some take-out from the menu instead. He knew from past experience that simple was always better when it came to ordering any take-out food. He selected #Combo 3 with an egg roll, beef with vegetables and almonds, sweet and sour chicken balls and chicken fried rice. In twenty minutes, he was back in his room with his food and a large tea from Tim Hortons.

That sounded like an awful lot of food for a family of five, let alone one man, so I decided to make one dish from the combo, but I plan on coming back to the others for another day. As I had some leftover chicken from the Sunday roast, I decided that chicken fried rice would be a great way to use it up. In my humble opinion, fried rice should always have peas in it but when I went to get some from the freezer, I found all sorts of veggies - carrots, spinach, broccoli, mixed veg, red cabbage, parsnips, ... but absolutely no peas ! I used leftover roast carrots instead but  peas would definitely give it a lovely splash of colour.

Chicken Fried Rice

ingredients :

drizzle of olive oil

leftover cooked rice (or you could use a pouch of microwaveable rice instead)

1 or 2 cups leftover roast chicken

2 onions

1/2 a red pepper

1/2 cup roast carrots

1 cup frozen peas

3 mushrooms

2 eggs

soy sauce

Heat the oil in a wok or large pan and gently fry the onion. You don't want it to go brown, just soft and translucent.

Add the red peppers and cook for a further five minutes.

Next to go in are the mushrooms. And the frozen peas. Which I'd totally run out of #fail. Cook for a few more minutes.

This is a great dish for using up leftovers after the Sunday roast. I had chicken and carrots but any other meat or veg could be used instead. Add them to the dish and stir fry for a further 3 minutes.

Push the meat and veg to one side and pour the lightly beaten egg into the other side of the pan. 

Scramble the eggs then mix it into the chicken/veg mixture.

Add the cooked rice and pour over soy sauce to taste. I also have a fabulous bottle of kecap manis, an Indonesian sweet soy sauce, which is great for adding extra flavour to any Asian-inspired dishes.

It's frugal, it's tasty, it's quick and simple, it's a great way of using up the leftovers in the fridge and the whole family loved it. Thanks for another great dinner, Sgt Windflower !

If, like me, you love cooking the books, head over to the #readcookeat linky over at Chez Maximka.

Also adding to this month's #KitchenClearout linky as it used up the leftovers in the fridge. This would be a great way of finishing off the Christmas turkey and leftover vegetables too.