HAPPY MEALS

Shrimp & Chicken Fried Rice
The thought never ocurred to me that I could make my own fried rice dish until my mom made it some years ago.  She loves to cook...or she used to love to cook.  Now that me and my sibs are all grown, she reminds us that we should be cooking for her.  Anyway, this is another recipe that I got from my mom, and then put my own spin on it. 

INGREDIENTS:

Olive oil 

1 cup broccoli

1/2 yellow onion (sliced thick)

1 cup of shredded or Julienned carrots

1lb. Shrimp

2 boneless skinless chicken breast

or 4 chicken tenderloins (cut into chucks)

2 unbeaten eggs

1 pk. fried rice seasoning mix (your favorite brand)

2 tbsp. soy sauce (your favorite brand)

2 cups of long grain rice or brown rice
Read more and see step by step...

*Tip 1* - Prepared ingredients in advance to be ready to toss in the wok.  It will save time and prevent over cooking.

Example: crack eggs and place in a bowl. Cook rice several hours or even a day ahead so that it's at least room temperature.  I prefer cold.  The hotter the rice, the mushier your dish will turn out.  That makes for nasty fried rice.  Trust me!

* TIP 2* If you're like me, cooking on a whim after working all day, you won't have time to cook the rice in advance.  Try to cook the rice as soon as possible before starting the other ingredients and then transfer into a chilled stainless steel bowl.  While the rice is cooking, put the bowl in the freezer.

Start by lightly sauteing the shrimp in a tablespoon of olive oil.  If you're using raw shrimp, cook until it turns pink, then remove from pan. 
For fully cooked shrimp, cook lightly in olive oil with salt, pepper and other seasoning as desired, then remove from heat (no more than 3 minutes). You don't want to overcook the shrimp because it has more cooking to do once all the ingredients are mixed.  There's nothing worse than rubbery shrimp. Yucky!

Next saute your chicken until lightly brown.  Add fresh or frozen broccoli florets, carrots and onions.  Stir constantly using medium heat until veggies start to soften, but not to the point of mushiness.

Here's another one of my tricks:  push the chicken/veggie medley against the walls of the the wok to allow all the juices to drain to the bottom.  Again, anything that will make your fried rice mushy - remove it!  Let the juices evaporate, and then add another tablespoon of olive oil over high heat. 

The oil should sizzle before pouring in the unbeaten eggs.  Let the eggs fry a little before stirring to keep from mixing with other ingredients.

Use a fork or whisk to shuffle the eggs around in the circle.  Again, they don't have to be fully cooked, just not runny.

Once the eggs start to separate, add shrimp and toss all ingredients.

Add your 2 cups of rice and toss.  Don't mash - toss and mix!

Add fried rice seasoning mix and soy sauce and toss. Simmer for 5 minutes, monitoring it to prevent sticking.

If all ingredients are prepared in advance, you should be eating in 30 minutes or less! This is  a meal in itself, but an egg roll on the side wouldn't hurt.  JS... :-)