Special Fried Rice

Special fried rice. House fried rice. Loaded fried rice. With all kinds of stuff. Crazy delicious fried rice. That’s what this one is all about.

This a fun dish. More of a main course than a side. Could be dinner. There’s enough stuff in it. But I like it as part of a bigger menu. Another flashy dish on the table.

What is special fried rice anyway?

I looked for a definition. I failed. It’s a catch all name. For fried rice with whatever anyone wants to put in.

As long as there’s a bunch of different ingredients it qualifies as special. My guess. It was invented in a Chinese restaurant as a way to charge more.

“We have fried rice with egg. Chicken. Pork. Shrimp. Vegetables.”

“And sometimes we just chuck a bit of everything into the wok and charge an extra five bucks. Profits are up. It’s great.”

Pretty sure that’s how it went down. But I’m just guessing here.

I actually don’t have a clue how it got the name. I just like making up vaguely credible theories. It’s fun. Never take this blog too seriously…

It starts with chicken stock and day old rice

One thing you should take seriously when you make this is the rice. It’s in the name of the dish. That should be a dead giveaway.

Day old rice. That’s what you want. Today’s rice? Not good. Yesterday’s rice? Perfect. And dry is better. I leave mine in the fridge loosely covered. Works great.

This dish also has special in the name. So it needs something special. A little something extra.

That something is chicken stock. Instead of water. To cook the rice. A little bit of wonderful.

Chicken stock is not bouillon cubes. That’s important. They are not the same thing. Although in this case that probably works too. Haven’t tried it so I’m not stating fact.

If you do try bouillon cubes be careful. Leave out the salt. And have a light hand on the bouillon. There’s no fixing too salty.

You get to choose what goes into your special fried rice

There are no rules when it comes to ingredients. Except day old rice. That’s important.

I like char siu. And chicken. And egg. Green onion. Garlic. Soy. And a little bit of sesame oil. That’s a lot of stuff. Makes it pretty special I think.

What I don’t like is peas and carrots. I’m with Uncle Roger on this one. Except I don’t hate vegetables. I just don’t want them in my fried rice.

But it’s your house. Which makes it your house fried rice. Do what works for you. What makes you smile.

Want shrimp and vegetables? Go for it. Can’t get char siu? Leave it out. Cooking is supposed to be fun. Not a chore. So make what you love. And smile.

Technique does matter

There’s no way around it. You want to talk the talk? You need to walk the walk. So you need to stir fry rice.

That sounds obvious. And if you already know it then skip this section. It doesn’t apply to you.

Good fried rice is a little toothy. Not mushy. Not hard but ever so slightly firm to the bite. And the only way you can get that is to stir fry your rice.

It’s not hard. A bit monotonous though. Because you don’t have the firepower of the Chinese takeaway.

So you have to go at it a bit longer. Depends what your stove can do. Anywhere between three and five minutes. Of pretty much constant work.

You want to keep the rice moving in the wok. If you don’t you’ll make soccarat. Good in paella. Bad in fried rice. No crispy brown bits please. That’s not special.

Seems there’s another rule. Stir fry your rice constantly. That’s important too.

Choice of soy

I stock a couple Chinese soy sauces. Three if you count all-purpose. But I don’t use all purpose a lot. I use light. And I use dark.

I also stock two Japanese and a couple Thai soy sauces. I’m a little crazy when it comes to soy.

All soy sauces are not created equal. It’s kind of amazing how different they are. Do a soy tasting some time. You’ll see.

Chinese light soy is the general purpose soy in my kitchen. When I’m cooking Chinese dishes that is.

Dark soy is a little richer. But the big difference is the colour. Dark soy is what gives dishes that deep, dark colour.

I use dark soy for most fried rice dishes. I like the colour. But for this one I like the rice a little less intensely coloured.

No real reason behind this. Personal preference. But I can’t quite make the leap to the colour I get with just light soy.

So I add a few drops of dark. Because I can. Because it looks right to me. If you have dark soy and you like the colour in the pics then use it. Just a little bit.

If you don’t care just leave it out. It really is personal preference. But do yourself a favour. Use a Chinese soy. There’s a difference.

This isn’t just for special occasions

This is serious fried rice. Over the top. Meal in a bowl. Which makes it perfect for dinner on a Tuesday night. Any night really. Special or not.

But it’s also pretty flashy as part of a larger meal. Something that can go head to head with other flashy dishes. Like the char siu ribs I bet you are eyeing in the pictures.

Special fried rice is right for every occasion. You know what they say. Better to be overdressed than underdressed.

Have fun making special fried rice

Bottom line. Have fun with this one. Make it your own. The technique matters. The ingredients matter less.

Just follow your heart. Or your tastebuds. Or what’s in your fridge. What matters is that you make something that makes you happy. Always.

You can do it any day of the week. Seriously. It’s no big deal.

Special fried rice. Feel special on a Tuesday. And again on Thursday. And then with your friends on Saturday.

Special fried rice

Ingredients

Day old special rice

• 1 cup jasmine rice
• 1 1/4 cup no sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt – about half as much table salt. No salt if you are using bouillon

Special fried rice

• the day old rice
• 2 tbsp neutral oil – vegetable, canola etc
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 4 ounces chicken thighs finely diced
• 4 ounces char siu finely sliced – get this at a Chinese grocer
• 1 egg – beaten until the colour is homogenous (that’s a fancy way of saying all the same)
• 1 tsp light soy
• a few drops of dark soy – for colour (optional)
• 1/2 tsp monosodium glutamate
• 2 green onions – thinly sliced. Whites and greens divided
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Instructions

Make the rice

• Combine the rice, stock and salt in a saucepan with a tight fitting lid.
• Bring the contents of the pot to a lively simmer. Turn the heat down to low and cover.
• Cook the rice for 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Ten minutes is better if you can afford the time. Fluff gently.
• Now the hard part. Take that wonderfully fragrant rice and transfer it to a container. Cover loosely and put it in the fridge until tomorrow. Yes, I know that sucks, especially if you’re hungry…

Make special fried rice

• It’s the next day right? Good. Heat your wok over medium high heat until it starts to smoke.
• Add the oil. Swirl it around the wok. Add the diced chicken and stir fry until the chicken is done. If your pieces are small this should take about a minute. Remove the chicken and set aside.
• There should still be a lot of oil in the pan. Add the beaten egg. It should balloon around the edge immediately if you have the heat high enough. Scramble the egg. Try to break it up into little pieces.
• Add the crushed garlic and the white part of the green onions. Stir fry for about 20 seconds then add the char siu and continue to stir for about 10-15 seconds to warm it through.
• Add the rice, soy, the chicken you cooked and MSG. You can leave the MSG out if you want. Won’t be quite the same but do what’s right for you.
• Turn the heat up to max. Stir fry the rice. That means move it around constantly. By constantly I mean constantly. No breaks. Do somewhere between 3 to 5 minutes. The exact time depends on the wok you choose and the output of your stove.
• The rice is done when it is ever so slightly toothy and pretty dry. Like you get at your local Chinese restaurant. Assuming your local Chinese restaurant knows how to fry rice.
• Add the finely chopped green part of the green onions and stir to combine. Serve. Feel special.

Special fried rice

Ingredients

Day old special rice

• 1 cup jasmine rice
• 1 1/4 cup no sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt - about half as much table salt. No salt if you are using bouillon

Special fried rice

• the day old rice
• 2 tbsp neutral oil - vegetable, canola etc
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 4 ounces chicken thighs finely diced
• 4 ounces char siu finely sliced - get this at a Chinese grocer
• 1 egg - beaten until the colour is homogenous (that’s a fancy way of saying all the same)
• 1 tsp light soy
• a few drops of dark soy - for colour (optional)
• 1/2 tsp monosodium glutamate
• 2 green onions - thinly sliced. Whites and greens divided
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Instructions

Make the rice

• Combine the rice, stock and salt in a saucepan with a tight fitting lid.
• Bring the contents of the pot to a lively simmer. Turn the heat down to low and cover.
• Cook the rice for 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Ten minutes is better if you can afford the time. Fluff gently.
• Now the hard part. Take that wonderfully fragrant rice and transfer it to a container. Cover loosely and put it in the fridge until tomorrow. Yes, I know that sucks, especially if you’re hungry…

Make special fried rice

• It’s the next day right? Good. Heat your wok over medium high heat until it starts to smoke.
• Add the oil. Swirl it around the wok. Add the diced chicken and stir fry until the chicken is done. If your pieces are small this should take about a minute. Remove the chicken and set aside.
• There should still be a lot of oil in the pan. Add the beaten egg. It should balloon around the edge immediately if you have the heat high enough. Scramble the egg. Try to break it up into little pieces.
• Add the crushed garlic and the white part of the green onions. Stir fry for about 20 seconds then add the char siu and continue to stir for about 10-15 seconds to warm it through.
• Add the rice, soy, the chicken you cooked and MSG. You can leave the MSG out if you want. Won’t be quite the same but do what’s right for you.
• Turn the heat up to max. Stir fry the rice. That means move it around constantly. By constantly I mean constantly. No breaks. Do somewhere between 3 to 5 minutes. The exact time depends on the wok you choose and the output of your stove.
• The rice is done when it is ever so slightly toothy and pretty dry. Like you get at your local Chinese restaurant. Assuming your local Chinese restaurant knows how to fry rice.
• Add the finely chopped green part of the green onions and stir to combine. Serve. Feel special.

Spaghetti all’amatriciana. Five ingredients. Fifteen minutes from fridge to table. One magical plate of pasta.

Tangy cheese. Crispy cured pork bits. Spaghetti. Pork. Tomato. With a bit of crushed chili to liven things up.

Diabolically simple. Unbelievably delicious. This one is a bit of a weeknight dinner miracle.

The four pastas of Rome

Amatriciana is one of the four great Roman pasta dishes. A group of seriously delicious dishes.

You’ve probably heard of two of them. And probably never heard of the other two. Actually – if you’re here you’ve probably heard of three.

Carbonara is the most famous Roman pasta. Superstar status. Everybody loves carbonara. Including me.

Cacio e pepe is the other famous one. Literally means cheese and pepper. Three ingredients. And one of them is pepper. Minimalism at its finest.

Grigia is one that nobody has ever heard of. Think carbonara without the egg. Or cacio e pepe with porky goodness. Very tasty stuff.

And then there’s amatriciana. It stands alone. Tomato based. Tastes like a deconstructed Neapolitan lasagna.

This one surprised me. It’s becoming my favourite of the four.

Stop and think about that. I’m saying I think I like amatriciana. Over carbonara.

I did not see that one coming…

Five ingredients make one amazing dish

Spaghetti all’amatriciana has five ingredients. And one of them is spaghetti. So ingredients matter. A lot. There is nowhere to hide. Nowhere at all.

Pay attention to what you put into amatriciana. Because what you put in is what you’ll get out.

This is an easy recipe. Almost impossible to screw up. As long as you make the right the choices. Before you start cooking.

Canned tomatoes for the win

Sometimes fresh isn’t better. It’s pretty rare. I agree. But it does happen. This is one of those times.

Amatriciana screams for canned tomatoes. It’s just a thing. Accept it. I did. And I’m better off for it. You will be too.

This is a fast sauce. A quick dinner. No way you can make it in 15 minutes with fresh tomatoes.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Off-season tomatoes suck. Food cooked using off-season tomatoes also sucks. Garbage in. Garbage out.

I like tomatoes from San Marzano here. If you can’t get those there are other great canned tomatoes out there.

Don’t skimp here. Pick a good quality brand. Did I mention there’s nowhere to hide?

The power of vitamin P

Want to really want to understand what this dish is about? Make it with guanciale. There’s a reason why the real deal recipes call for it.

Guanciale is cured pork jowl. It’s fatty. Really fatty. Which is part of the magic. Fry it up and it throws a bunch of rendered pork fat. Lush, delicious pork fat flavour.

And what’s left is wonderful little bits of crispy piggy candy. Crispy and meltingly tender at the same time.

Pancetta is a mediocre substitute for guanciale. It’s not the same. And it’s not as good in this recipe.

Fried guanciale chunks are porky flavour bombs. If you fry pancetta chunks they gets a little chewy. Just not that good.

I have to drive across town to get guanciale. I can walk to buy pancetta. So I drive. Every single time.

If you do need to use pancetta get your deli guy to cut it thin. And chop it up so the pieces disappear into the sauce. That way you get flavour without the chewy thing.

You’ll have to add some extra fat though. A little olive oil or better yet rendered pork lard should fix you up.

It’s time you got to know pecorino romano

Everybody knows parmigiano reggiano. You’d think they only made one cheese in Italy.

Don’t get me wrong. Parmigiano reggiano is a great cheese. I always have a piece in my fridge.

But variety is the spice of life. And pecorino romano is that spice. The rowdy cousin.

Parmigiano is a cow’s milk smooth. Creamy. Lush. Delicate. Balanced. The perfect complement to many Italian dishes.

Pecorino romano is none of those things. It’s brash. Salty. In your face assertive. And that makes it perfect for amatriciana.

Perfect for the other three Roman pastas as well. If you’re into carbonara you absolutely need pecorino romano in your fridge.

Pasta choices matter

All pastas are not created equal. It never ceases to amaze me. People will spend all day making the most beautiful ragu bolognese. And serve it up on crappy pasta.

A whole day in the kitchen to make a $100 pot of sauce. Thrown away because $5 is too much to spend on spaghetti. It hurts my brain.

FWIW not choosing tagliatelle for bolognese also hurts my brain. A lot.

Google is your friend here. Search “best pasta near me”. Or “best pasta brands”.

Look for something bronze cut. A little texture on the surface. Avoid the sauce-repelling super smooth teflon cut brands you see in grocery stores. Just because a pasta claims to be number one in Italy doesn’t mean it’s good…

Please just try good pasta once. Then decide whether the premium is worth the money. I’m guessing you will.

Spaghetti – not bucatini

Those that know will be saying bucatini is the right choice for amatriciana. That it’s bucatini all’amatriciana. And they would be right.

Technically bucatini is the right choice here. I am not suggesting otherwise. If you want the absolute real deal this is the way.

But bucatini is messy. Hard to eat. It has a super power. A single strand of bucatini all’amatriciana can ruin your shirt.

It is possibly the most difficult pasta to eat known to humankind. Trust me. I have the dry cleaning bills to prove it.

So I go with spaghetti. And I am unrepentant. I find the balance of pasta to sauce to be better. And I’m sick of paying my cleaner for my mistakes…

More can be less

Yes. You read that right. More is less. That’s actually the incredible thing about this recipe. Try to add something and it’s a safe bet you’ll take things backwards.

Onion. Garlic. Olive oil. White wine. Red wine. Parmigiano reggiano. They all sound good. And yet none of them are.

The magic that is Amatriciana comes from tomato, pork, the salty tang of pecorino romano with a little chili to wake things up. That’s it.

I tried to “improve” this dish. I failed. Miserably. Don’t do what I did. Keep the faith. You’ll get to the end game way faster than I did.

This could be your new favourite Tuesday night dinner

Amatriciana is a bit of a conundrum. Five ingredients. Fifteen minutes. That’s 11 minutes and 2 more ingredients than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

And yet the flavours are complex. Satisfying. The interplay of the rich pork fat, acidic tomatoes and salty cheese come together to make something far more than the sum of the parts.

This one crept up on me. Worked its way into my short list of favourite pasta dishes. Up there with a good lasagna. Carbonara. Neapolitan ragu.

For me that’s pretty lofty for a dish with five ingredients. One that you can bang together any night of the week.

Try spaghetti all’amatriciana. The same thing might just happen to you.

Spaghetti all’amatriciana

Equipment

• 1 large frying pan – you want something large enough to toss the pasta with the sauce

Ingredients

• 3 oz guanciale one 1/3 inch slice – don’t get too hung up on being precise with the weight
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes
• 14 oz canned tomatoes – go for quality here
• 2 oz pecorino romano – grated. It needs to melt into the sauce. A microplane works really well for this.
• 8 oz spaghetti – again, go for quality
• fresh ground pepper – if that’s your thing. I like it some days. Some days I go without.

Instructions

Get everything ready

• You’re making spaghetti so put a big pot of water on to boil. Add a bunch of salt. You want the water to taste like the sea. It takes more than you think.
• Cut up your guanciale into 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch pieces. You don’t need to be super precise here. This isn’t baking
• Pass your tomatoes through a food mill if you have one. Use your hands to smush them up if you don’t. It’s fun.
• Grate your pecorino.

Make amatriciana

• There are a lot of detailed steps. Don’t let that freak you out. This is basically frying up the guanciale, seasoning with a little crushed chili, simmering some tomatoes, tossing some pasta in the sauce and adding cheese. It really is that easy. Easy weeknight cooking once you get it down.
• Grab a big skillet. You will be tossing your pasta in the sauce so plan ahead.
• Preheat your chosen skillet over medium heat.
• Add the guanciale and cook, stirring frequently until you have beautiful little crispy pork bits. Remove the skillet from the heat.
• Remove the pork bits with a slotted spoon and look at how much fat has rendered. You want about two tablespoons or so in the pan. Depending on how fatty your guanciale is you may have a little more or a lot more. Remove all but two tablespoons. Use a spoon and be careful. You are playing with hot fat in a hot pan. That’s a pretty lethal combination.
• Make sure your pot of water is at a rolling boil. I mean cranked. Salt your water. Now salt it some more. You want your water to taste like the sea.
• Look at your spaghetti package. There will be a recommended cooking time on it. Set a timer for one minute less than the recommended cooking time and add your spaghetti to your pasta pot. As soon as you can get it all submerged start the timer.
• Add the chili flakes and return the pan to the heat. Give the chili flakes a stir and cook for about 20 seconds then add in the tomatoes.
• Scrape up any browned bits in the pan and simmer the sauce for 5 minutes or until your pasta timer goes off.
• Toss the reserved crispy guanciale pork bits into the sauce. You can hold a few bits back to sprinkle over the amatriciana after you plate. Up to you.
• Transfer the almost cooked pasta to the skillet along with about a 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water. Toss to combine the pasta with the sauce and cook for about a minute.
• Don’t worry if it looks a little runny. The pecorino romano will fix that. Have faith.
• Set a bit of cheese aside to garnish. Off heat, add half the pecorino. Toss to combine. Add the other half and toss again.
• You don’t want to wait to serve. Spaghetti all’amatriciana doesn’t get better with age. Get it on the table!
• Serve topped with a bit of pecorino romano and the reserved guanciale bits if you kept them. A little grind of black pepper is a nice touch.

Nutrition