Thai fried rice

Plain fried rice seasoned only with fish sauce, finished with lime and prik nam pla at the table.

Chicken, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, fish sauce.

Ingredients

• 800 g cold cooked jasmine rice
• 300 g chicken, in small pieces
• 3 eggs
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, in wedges
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 0.5 teaspoon white pepper
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 2 limes, in wedges
• 1 cucumber, sliced

Method

1. SEASONED WITH FISH SAUCE AND ALMOST NOTHING ELSE. No soy, no oyster sauce, no paste. The khao khluk kapi on this site is the one built on shrimp paste and served with its garnishes separate; this is the plain everyday one and its restraint is the point.
2. THE LIME AND THE CHILLI FISH SAUCE ARE PART OF THE DISH, not garnishes. It is deliberately under-seasoned in the pan because it is finished at the table.
3. Cold rice, a day old, grains separated under the fingers. Warm rice steams and clumps.
4. Hot pan, oil, garlic 15 seconds, chicken 3 minutes until cooked through.
5. Onion in, 1 minute. Push everything to one side.
6. Eggs broken into the space, left 20 seconds to set underneath, then broken up roughly.
7. Rice in all at once. PRESS IT FLAT AND LEAVE IT 30 SECONDS, then turn. Repeat for 4 minutes. Constant stirring steams it; pressing and leaving fries it.
8. Fish sauce down the side of the pan, sugar and white pepper through it.
9. Tomatoes in for the last 30 seconds only, so they warm without collapsing.
10. Spring onion off the heat. Serve with lime wedges, cucumber, and a dish of fish sauce with sliced bird's eye chillies in it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes