Chinese fried rice is a dish that is known all over the world, although most nations have their own version of the dish. Nigerian fried rice is the favourite dinner for millions of Nigerians. Find out how to make fried rice step by step!
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1. Fried rice ingredients
Perhaps, the most popular fried rice recipe around the world is the egg fried rice. However, the Nigerian version of the recipe doesn’t use any eggs. In fact, the fried rice ingredients list from Nigerian cooks is very different to the one you’d encounter elsewhere.
So what are the ingredients for fried rice? Here is what you’ll need:
- Long grain parboiled rice – 500g
- Whole chicken or 6 chicken drumsticks
- Carrots – 3
- Onions – 3
- Green beans – 1/2 cup
- Peas – 1/2 cup
- Nigerian curry powder – 1tbsp
- Stock cubes – 3
- Thyme – 1tbsp
- Salt – to taste
- Vegetable oil
This way of fried rice preparation calls for uncooked parboiled rice. However, you can also use leftover rice you’ve made the day before. Just make sure there is enough to feed everyone you expect for dinner!
2. How to prepare fried rice
Now that you have all the ingredients for Nigerian fried rice ready, here is how to prepare fried rice and chicken:
- If you are making rice from scratch, rinse the rice several times and set aside.
- Cut your whole chicken into portions or use drumsticks. Cook the chicken in water flavoured with 2 chopped onions, thyme, and stock cubes.
- When the chicken is fully cooked, take it out of the water, pat it dry, and deep fry the chicken to give it a mouthwatering golden brown look. Alternatively, you can grill it.
- Sieve the chicken stock to remove the onions, thyme, and anything else left there after cooking the chicken. Pour the stock into a pot and bring to a boil. There should be enough stock to cover the rice, so if there isn’t enough, you can add some plain water.
- Once the stock is boiling, add salt to taste and the curry powder. Add the rice, stir well, and cook on medium heat until the water has evaporated and the rice is cooked but not overcooked.
- Transfer the rice to a baking tray or large casserole dish and spread out to make it cool down faster.
- Wash and peel the carrots and one remaining onion. Chop both into tiny cubes <1cm. Cut the green beans. Prepare the peas. Mix the carrots, beans, and peas in a bowl and divide into several parts. Since the rice will be cooked in batches, there should be between 3 and 4 equal portions of the vegetables for each batch.
- Heat up some vegetable oil in a frying pan. Fry one portion of the onions for about 10 seconds, add a portion of other vegetables and cook for another 10 minutes. Add a batch of rice, stir well, and cook until the rice is hot. You can add more salt and curry powder if you want.
- Transfer the cooked rice to a dry pot and repeat with the remaining rice and vegetables. Serve your fried rice with chicken, moi moi, coleslaw, or other popular side dishes.
This is how to make fried rice with chicken. This guide for fried rice ingredients and procedure can be easily adapted for other proteins. For example, you can make some delicious shrimp fried rice and cook the rice in seasoned water instead of chicken stock.
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