I love Chinese food. Fried rice is one of my favorite things ever, but I try not to eat it very often. I’m not a big fan of white rice, I would much rather eat brown. I’m sure it’s fairly common and most of you have had it somewhere, sometime, but Jim and I haven’t ever had fried rice made with brown rice. There shouldn’t be much difference, right? Other than brown rice taking a ridiculously long time to cook, that is.
We’ve made fried rice many times before, usually with some form of chicken as the protein. We were chickened-out, so we decided to go with shrimp this time around. Shrimp is actually much easier to work with than chicken because it cooks so quickly. If you already have the cooked brown rice then this recipe takes less than 15 minutes to make. Perfect for a weeknight meal.
I actually couldn’t tell a difference between white and brown rice in the finished product. There’s enough flavor added that you can’t taste a difference, and having the rice cold from the fridge makes the texture different pretty unnoticeable. If you’re making fried rice at home then I believe fried brown rice is definitely the way to go.
- 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/2 C onion, diced
- 1/4 C carrot sticks, or diced carrots
- 1/2 C broccoli, chopped
- 3 tbsp canola oil (you can use olive oil as well)
- 2 C brown rice, cooked and refrigerated overnight
- 3-4 dried chiles (optional)
- 1/2 tbsp sriracha
- salt to taste
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- Heat wok over high heat until smoking.
- Add oil, chiles, and shrimp. Cook until shrimp are almost done, about 2 minutes. Remove shrimp and chiles.
- Add veggies, garlic, and ginger. Cook 2 minutes, or until onions are soft.
- Add rice, soy sauce, sriracha, salt. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add shrimp & chiles and cook for 2 more minutes.
- Serve immediately.
- This is a really flexible stir fry and can use any combination of veggies that you want.
After making this fried rice I have no desire to do Chinese take out again! I think one of the reasons I feel so yuck after eating out Chinese food is because of the high sodium content. Making my own is a much better and healthier way to go. Not to mention it was absolutely delicious!