Food & Drink

Quick and easy weekday meal - chicken fried rice

The perfect mid-week dish is the holy grail of cooking. It can be hard to come by, but once you have it, it’ll be in your rotation forever!

First and foremost, a weekday dinner should be quick and easy to make. Between work, school runs (or homeschooling!) and the general chaos of life, the last thing you want is to spend hours cooking during the week. It should also have minimum clean-up and maximum leftovers! Lastly, it should be healthy, delicious and anything-but-boring — especially if you have kids and don’t want to deal with eye-rolls when they ask “what’s for dinner?”

This fried rice recipe ticks all the right boxes! Featuring a grab-and-go rotisserie chicken as source of protein, this mid-night winner takes less than 15 minutes to make. It’s also an excellent way to use up any leftover rice you might have from dinner the night before.

Read on to learn how to make this quick and easy weekday meal the whole family will actually look forward to!

Serves: 4

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 roast chicken
4 cups cooked white rice (ideally from the night before)
3 eggs
3 rindless bacon rashers
1 brown onion, chopped
1 small carrot, sliced finely
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup frozen peas
2 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Remove skin from roast chicken and chop into small pieces, discarding skin and bones (you can preserve these to make stock, if you choose!)
2. Heat a wok or large pan over high heat with vegetable oil, and fry the onion and minced garlic for a minute or until fragrant. Add the bacon and fry for a minute or until cooked
3. Add in the peas, carrots and roast chicken and cook until the carrot is tender
4. Add in the rice and coat in the oil, breaking up clumps with a wooden spoon if needed
5. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce and salt and pepper to taste
6. Once rice softens and begins to toast, move to one side of pan. On the other side, crack the eggs into the pan and cook until they are nearly set. Then, combine with the rice
6. Add the spring onions and toss all ingredients together until crispy!

You can get all the ingredients you need for mid-week dinner recipe from our centre.