Fried Rice (cha han)

Last night I made a rice dish with lime and tumeric and it was sooo good! It also made me remember that I had forgotten to post about some fried rice I made a while ago. Fried rice in Japanese is called cha han. So I started out with the following:

Some mirin (rice wine vinegar), soy sauce, snow peas, bell papers, chicken, rice, garlic, and some red pepper flakes.

Considering I usually only have one clean plate and one clean knife, I chopped the peas and the bell pepper up first. I used a handfull of snow peas and one small bell pepper. For the bell pepper, cut the top off and then slice it in half. Then, clean out all the seeds and the core, and throw those away. I chopped everything into tiny bits and then set it to the side. Then I got my chicken and I cubed it as usual. I'm pretty sure I used the whole chicken breast for this. After chopping up the chicken, I tossed the peppers and peas into a pan with a bit of oil and let them cook until they were nice and brown. I like my peppers blackened somewhat, so maybe you won't want to cook yours quite as long as I cooked mine :) After they are done cooking, take them out and set them to the side. Unless you don't cook yours that much, I would take them out so they won't burn while the chicken cooks. So now it's time to add the rice. I buy my rice in a one serving pack, already cooked. Rice in Japan is expensive and I don't have the patience to wait for rice to cook. My food moods change too quickly. So if you have some cold pre-cooked rice, I would pop it in the microwave for a minute before adding it. It will help the rice break up more easily in the pan. So after I added the rice to the chicken, I added the rice wine, soy sauce, garlic, peas, peppers, and pepper flakes to the mix. Make sure you turn the heat down once you add the rice or everything will stick to the bottom and burn. How much rice wine and soy sauce you add is a judgement call. Rice wine can be very sweet and soy sauce is really salty. I would go easy at first and add less than you think you need. After stirring it all together and tasting it, you can decide if you need to add more. So after stirring it all together for about a minute or two it should be finished! Grab a bowl and serve some up. This meal is great if you want something hot and filling. I think you could make this a side dish if you take out half the chicken and cut the remaining chicken a lot smaller, but I like it as a main dish. The red pepper flakes gives it some flare because they don't make the whole dish spicey. Instead they release their heat when you chew them. I will admit though, if you add a lot of ingredients to your fried rice, like mushrooms and onions, etc, the chopping can be tedious. All in all a good meal.