Fresh Fried Rice with Jerky and Potato Chips

Fried Rice made with fresh rice, not chilled, is so easy to make. Made with jerky and potato chips, this fried rice may not be traditional but it sure is good!

I don’t know about you, but when I’m searching for a recipe or creating one, finding a new technique and keeping it simple and full of flavor, is high on my list. Fried rice is something I always enjoy, but way too often I don’t have the chilled rice on hand to make it. That seems to be a prerequisite for fried rice, which is a great way for you and the Chinese restaurants to use up all that leftover rice. Planning ahead is not always my virtue, so when I saw this recipe tucked away in the sidebar of the latest Bon Appetit, I pounced on it.

Here is a fried rice recipe that uses freshly steamed rice. No planning ahead and no need for take outs-fried rice is mine. Now I must admit that one other ingredient caught my eye. Yes, if something calls for potato chips as an ingredient in a recipe, well I’m all over it. As an ingredient potato chips are no longer junk food, don’t you know? I’ve made tortillas espanola with potato chips. I’ve made jian bing with potato chips. I’ve put potato chips on sandwiches. But I’ve never made fried rice with potato chips. SO. This dish doesn’t require cold rice, but it does require potato chips. Well, truth is it really doesn’t, but it called for potato chips and usually when I make a recipe for the first time I try to do what is specified. So now I found out that potato chips are kind of cool, but bean sprouts work well, too, if you need some crunch!

Before I found this technique, my go to fried rice recipe was from an old cookbook of mine. It is a classic for Chinese food and I believe I bought it in college. Yes Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee and “The Chinese Cookbook”, still rock. It is there that I discovered oyster sauce. Oyster sauce gives fried rice a sweetish taste which is needed to balance the salty. It calls for peas, scallions, Chinese sausages (though I always used fresh ground pork), and baby shrimps. It is a good one, too but it still calls for cold, cooked rice. Now I know. Cold cooked rice is so 70’s!

I have always wanted to eat at Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco, but right now this fried rice is about as close as I’m getting. I love Danny’s use of fresh rice and his use of potato chips and jerky, but I was so missing the oyster sauce. Well, that is until I added it. Call me old fashioned, but I like my fried rice with oyster sauce! However, no more cold rice for me. This will be my go to method from this day forward, forever more. And the best part is, I don’t have to plan ahead!