What’s so special about ‘special’ fried rice? From what we can tell, not much. That’s why Patrick decided to put the ‘spesh’ back in with this nutritious plate of deliciousness. Pistachios, cashews and sesame all combine to give you a hit of heart-healthy crunch, whilst brown rice provides that wonderful chewiness to leave you feeling utterly satisfied. Mix this with the freshness of beans and pepper, it’s probably the most special rice we’ve ever tasted.
The quantities provided above are averages only.
Boxes and ingredients are packed in facilities that handles Peanut, Nuts, Sesame, Fish, Crustaceans, Milk, Egg, Mustard, Celery, Soya, Gluten and Sulphites. Due to the war in Ukraine, it has been necessary to substitute sunflower oil with rapeseed oil in some products without a label change. The FSA have advised that allergic reactions to rapeseed oil are rare.
2
Brown Basmati Rice
4
Sweet Soy Sauce
(Contains Cereals containing gluten, Soya)
6
British Chicken Thighs
3
Pistachios
(Contains Nuts May contain Sulphites, Sesame, Nuts, Peanut)
2
Yellow Pepper
1
Carrot
2
Green Beans
3
Spring Onion
2
Sesame Oil
(Contains Sesame)
2
Organic Sweetcorn
1
Sesame Seeds
(Contains Sesame)
Boil a large pot of water with ½ tsp of salt and pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees. Add your brown rice and boil for around 20-25 mins. Once it is ready to eat, drain the rice and rinse it under cold water. Tip: Fried rice is much better when you make it with cold rice.
Rub 1 tbsp only of sweet soy sauce across the chicken thighs (keeping back 3 tbsp for later). Place in a baking tray on the top shelf of the oven for 25 mins. 3 mins before you take out the chicken, sprinkle over your pistachios. Tip: Roasting them for 3 mins will bring out their flavour.
Remove the core from the peppers and finely dice them into tiny cubes. Peel and finely dice your carrots and cut the very top and bottom from the green beans. Chop the green beans into 1cm pieces. Finely chop the spring onions into little circles and separate the white parts from the green.
Heat the sesame oil and 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Once hot, add in three quarters of the pepper, the carrot and the green beans. Add ½ tsp of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Cook for 5 mins, stirring/tossing constantly.
Once the rice is cooked, rinsed and thoroughly drained, add it into your pan. Turn the heat up to high and add in the whites of the spring onion. Add the drained sweetcorn and the rest of the sweet soy sauce. Cook for 8 mins, tossing/stirring once in a while.
At this stage, if you have a spare egg in the fridge, you can add this as well. Move all the ingredients to one side of the pan and crack the egg into the space. Once it starts to fry, mix it with a wooden spoon. When it starts to look like scrambled eggs, mix it into the rice.
Chop up the chicken into 50 pence sized pieces and roughly chop the nuts. Mix these into the rice along with half the sesame seeds. Mix in the green parts of the spring onion and the remaining quarter of raw green pepper.
Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if you need to. Serve with a scattering of the remaining sesame seeds. Tip: Best served with a spoon, or a pair of chopsticks if you fancy a challenge!