My newest, absolutely amazing creation is kimchi fried rice. It was the side dish of choice for Kevin and I to bring to our friend, Court’s home for a relaxing Saturday evening of food and games. She asked us to bring a side dish to share with our friends and I ended up making a batch of kimchi fried rice to share. I wasn’t sure if our friends would be into kimchi fried rice, but to my delightful surprise, they absolutely loved it. Kimchi is one of my favorite side dishes to eat at traditional Korean restaurants. Most of the traditional Korean restaurants I’ve eaten at growing up in Brooklyn always serve a side of kimchi as one of many appetizers before the main course. Kimchi makes for a great appetizer because of its spicy, sour, and salty flavor profile. It always seems to wake up my taste buds in anticipation of the main course (usually bulgogi, bibimbap, or seafood soup for me). On Friday, when I went grocery shopping for the week, I spotted a jar of kimchi in the supermarket aisle where the prepared vegan foods were. I had initially thought about bringing my tried and true tomato basil pasta salad to the food and games night at Court’s on Saturday, but the jar of kimchi looked too good to pass up. Plus, I was starving by the time I got to the supermarket (which is never a good time to go shopping for groceries). Luckily, I had enough restraint to keep me from picking up too many snacks at the junk food aisle. When I got home, I put away the groceries and made a note to whip up a batch of kimchi fried rice the next day for the food and games night. On Saturday, I started preparing the kimchi fried rice early in the afternoon. I did spend the morning testing out a new scone recipe. More to come on this new creation in a later post. I reserved the afternoon to make a large batch of kimchi fried rice. Kimchi is wonderful to eat on its own, but it does make for a great addition to fried rice. The cooking process starts with preparing some jasmine rice and letting it cool. I usually like to use overnight cooked and cooled jasmine rice to make fried rice, but I forgot about this step the evening before. I started by making about two cups of jasmine rice with about the same amount of water. As the rice was cooking, I prepared the marinade for the chicken by combining soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and sugar in a bowl. I diced two chicken breasts into small pieces, tossed the diced chicken breasts into the sauce mixture, and set aside the chicken. Then, I thoroughly washed my hands before thinly slicing the scallions, and roughly chopping the kimchi. Once the rice was done cooking, about 15-20 minutes later, I removed it from the stove and set it aside to cool. When it came time to make the fried rice, I heated a skillet to medium heat, tossed in the diced chicken, and let the diced chicken cook for about a minute on each side. I added the white parts of the scallions and swirled the chicken and white parts of the scallions around to let the aromas release from the scallions. Next came the jasmine rice, kimchi, freshly cracked black pepper, white pepper powder, crushed red chili flakes, and most of the green parts of the scallions. I tossed the fried rice around for about 3 more minutes, poured some of the rice into a large bowl, topped with the remaining scallions, and finished the rice off with a drizzle of sriracha. I packed the remaining fried rice in a casserole dish to bring to Court’s later in the evening. The fried rice was absolutely amazing and made for the perfect potluck side dish for the evening. Kevin and I both did serve ourselves some fried rice for lunch before reserving the rest to bring as a side dish to Court’s. The kimchi and chicken fried rice had all of the flavors and textures of my favorite fried rice. It was sweet, spicy, salty, savory, crunchy, filling, and just pure delicious. I can’t think of a simpler, yet satisfying dish to bring for a potluck.
For the kimchi and chicken fried rice:
· 2 cups jasmine rice
· 2 cups water
· 1 tablespoon soy sauce
· 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
· 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
· 2 chicken breasts, diced into small cubes
· 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
· ½ (14 ounce) jar of kimchi
· ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· ¼ teaspoon white pepper powder
· ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
· 6 stalks scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal, white and green parts separated
Directions:
1) Wash and rinse the jasmine rice. Heat a pot on medium-low heat. Add the jasmine rice and water. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, until rice is cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. If you have the time, prepare the jasmine rice the evening before and cool it in the refrigerator to use for the fried rice.
2) In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and sugar. Add the diced chicken breasts. Toss to coat the chicken in the sauce mixture. Set aside to marinate for about 10 minutes.
3) Heat a skillet on medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Toss in the marinated chicken. Cook the chicken for about a minute per side, until the chicken is cooked through. Add the white parts of the scallions. Cook for another minute. Fold in the jasmine rice and toss to coat the rice with the chicken and white parts of the scallions. Add the kimchi, black pepper, white pepper, crushed red pepper flakes (if adding), and most of the green parts of the scallions. Quickly stir the rice around to cook for about 3 more minutes. Turn off the heat and remove the fried rice from the stove.
4) To serve, top with the remaining green parts of the scallions. Drizzle on some sriracha to add an additional spicy kick to the fried rice.
Takeaways: I typically like to use overnight cooked and cooled jasmine rice for fried rice. For the sake of time (and because I forgot to prepare jasmine rice the evening before), I cooked and cooled the rice a bit before using for the kimchi and chicken fried rice. This fried rice is extremely versatile. You can feel free to add in some diced carrots, green peas, diced onion, or other mild vegetables if you like. You can also omit the chicken for a vegan kimchi fried rice.