A fancy meal at a strip mall hibachi grill prompts this easy, at-home recipe.

Chicken Stir Fried Rice

How-to video below
Makes about 6-8 servings, (depending how much of a serving you take 🙂

The players:
Chicken, cut into 1-2” pieces (you can use steak or shrimp or all 3 if you’re fancy)

Olive oil

Butter, lots of it

Garlic salt

Soy sauce

Soybean sauce, if you have it. If not, just use soy sauce

Sesame oil, if you have it

White wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar, or lemon juice)

Veggies (your choice), cut into small bite size pieces (not big “I’m starving” bites, but tiny, dainty bites): carrots, asparagus, bell pepper, onion, broccoli, squash, peas, zucchini, mushrooms, whatever you like

1 cup cooked rice (white, brown, wild – your choice)

3-4 eggs, cracked and ready in a bowl

How to cook your rice, my way:

Put 1 Tbs. butter and 2 tsp oil in bottom of small pan over medium high heat. Let melt.

Meanwhile, heat just under 2 cups water or chicken broth to almost boiling in microwave, (about 2 min.).

Pour rice in pan with butter/oil and stir. You want to coat the rice in the butter/oil and toast slightly.

Add in 2 tsp garlic salt or 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp garlic powder.

Stir rice until it is coated and glistening with a buttery sheen (about 2 min.)

Keep it stirred, or it will scorch – and you don’t want that.

Add in liquid and it will begin to bubble immediately. If it doesn’t, don’t panic. Just keep heating it until it does. But if you get your liquid hot before you add it to the rice, this helps keep the rice from getting mushy as it cooks.

Cover with tight-fitting lid and turn to low. 

Let cook 15-20 min. (or however long your rice package says to cook it).

Meanwhile, on another burner, get this happening:

Take a nonstick pan or wok and put a pat of butter (tsp. – ish) in it along with 1 Tbs. sesame or olive oil.

Heat to slight bubbliness on medium-high heat.

Add chicken or steak or shrimp and cook to done, turning to brown evenly. 

Sprinkle on a little sesame oil to get some flavor here, if you have it.

While that cooks, chop your veggies. Or if you really planned ahead and have those already chopped, take a small dance break here.

Remove from pan.

Add another pat of butter.

Reduce heat to medium low.

Put in your toughest veggies first. (Carrots, broccoli, you be the judge)

Let those cook a couple minutes while stirring occasionally and sprinkling on some garlic salt goodness.

Add some more veggies (onions, bell peppers – in large chunks so you don’t accidentally bite into a piece if you hate them like I do, but add them anyway because they do add flavor and your husband loves them).

Cook a couple minutes adding a sprinkle of pepper and maybe more butter or oil if it needs it.

Add more veggies (squash, zucchini).

Cook a couple minutes and add some soybean sauce.

Add last veggies (peas, mushrooms, asparagus).

Cook 1 minute or so and add splash of vinegar or lemon juice to brighten up the flavors.

If your pan is big enough, add your rice to this now. If it will spill over sides, take veggies out and put rice in pan to heat and fry a bit in the butter and oil you that may or may not add. 🙂

Add a little soy sauce and black pepper at this point to flavor the rice even more.

Push rice or rice and veggies to the side and pour your cracked eggs into pan. 

They will begin to cook immediately so start scrambling them. They will spill into your rice, don’t worry. They’ll get cooked.

Keep stirring until eggs are cooked and then mix in to rice. 

Add veggies/meat back in and take off heat. Eat!

The story behind the recipe: 

I am from a small town in Arkansas and so we didn’t come in contact with ethic foods or really, anything other than down home cooking (you know, the good stuff) when I was growing up. If we went to the big city to shop (Fort Smith), we ate at McDonald’s or Bonanza or somewhere that had the “normal” food we picky eaters were used to. My mom was more adventurous, she tried Chinese food once! And liked it! 

Anyway, when I got married and moved to another big city (Hot Springs), my husband took me out with friends to the new hibachi grill that had just taken over a space in a strip mall. It was fancy! It had pillows on the floor (who can eat like that?), and Asian inspired bi-fold doors, and fake bamboo plants. We sat around the big fry surface with a bunch of folks we didn’t know – your typical high-class stuff. So Jason knew I was out of my comfort zone and ordered for me. The soup comes. Not actual soup like tomato or potato, but clear stuff with green onions floating on top. Nope, I wouldn’t even try it. (Update: Now I like it.) The salad arrived with a dressing that was not Ranch or Italian and that blew my mind. That just ain’t right …. but it was pretty good.

The chicken and steak Jason chose for me was being cooked while the veggies took a space next to it (and they seemed to use plenty of butter too, by the way). Then as the cook yelled things I didn’t understand and beat his spatula against the fry-top rim, he did acrobatics with an egg. It was impressive and I worked up an appetite dodging the whirling egg and the flames from the onion tower.

The chef mixed the cooked eggs into some cooked rice and gave us each a helping followed by the veggies and meat. My first bite was taken very daintily – like I was a lady or something. But successive bites were larger and by the end, I actually liked the meal.

So I decided I could make this at home with some modifications (maybe use bacon grease????).

So here is my recipe. It’s easy … you can make this too.

 Did I also try to do egg acrobatics? Yes. Can I do that too? Nope. I would recommend not trying that at home.