This wonderful Maylay fried rice is a quick and easy dinner.
Warm Spicy And Easy
This Malay rice is not only quick and easy, it’s great tasting too.
This is a complete meal too because it’s chock full of veggies. The chicken is essentially a condiment in this dish, as it is in many Asian meals.
The chicken cooks quickly and uses the drop-of-honey trick so it browns and doesn’t overcook.
This Malay rice is also a great meal for the budget conscious since it will feed quite a few people using only a small amount of pricier ingredients.
I can’t vouch for the authenticity of this because I understand that Malaysians use special spices. The recipe is adapted from Mary Berry’s one and those are the spices she used. I figure it must be pretty close because Ms. Berry’s husband lived in Malaysia and ate this regularly and gave it a thumbs-up!
Leftover Rice Is Best
When making any fried rice, cold rice is necessary to achieve separation and crispiness.
Because of this, leftover rice is perfect for this recipe. I usually have this on hand if I’ve ordered Chinese take-out earlier in the week. Since I hate throwing it out–and often forget about it so I end up doing just that–I used that here.
If you don’t have anything left over, then you can cook the rice a day before you plan to make this recipe. Just put it in a covered container and store it in the fridge.
As for the peas, Mary Berry cooked them with the rice. I felt this would overcook them somewhat when you cook the dish so I just ran them under hot water to wash off the frost then let them drain.
Curry Powder?
I knew I would like this Malay rice when I saw the spices.
One thing I found out years ago–by mistake I might add–was that curry powder is an excellent seasoning for chicken regardless of what you are doing with it. I used it in the seasoned flour I dredged plain old chicken cutlets in. Tasted fantastic so I knew it’d be perfect in this.
The Recipe
- 2 chicken breasts cut into strips
- 2 tbs vegetable oil
- 1 tbs honey
- Salt and pepper to season chicken
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 cup red bell pepper, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced or put through a press
- 8 oz (250 g) small button mushroom sliced
- ½ tsp mild chilli power
- 1 tbs curry power
- 1 cup (250 g)chilled cooked rice
- ⅔ cup (100 g) frozen peas
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- Rinse peas under hot water to remove frost; drain.
- Heat oil in a large, deep skillet over high heat.Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken to the pan and drizzle with the honey. Stir chicken constantly until it starts to get golden. Remove from pan and keep warm.
- Add a large chopped onion into the pan, chop red pepper and crush three cloves of garlic. Fry all these ingredients for 5 minutes in the same skillet as the chicken and then add the chopped button mushrooms.
- Add the chili & curry powder and stir well.
- Stir in cooked rice and peas. Then add 4 tbsp of soy sauce and fry on a high heat. Stir in your chicken and heat through.
*Adapted from Mary Berry Yum
Good Evening Dear Judith,
Very delicious recipe, but takes 40 min only:).
May be 10 min starting from ‘fry on a high heat’.
But you presented a very wonderful and easy to do recipe.
Thanks, regards and blessings.
Uma
You don’t mention how much red pepper to add in the list of ingredients. Is it a whole pepper or half? It does sound delicious!
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll correct it–it’s a cup but it’s one of those ingredients where you can use more or less depending on your taste.
Thanks, Judith, this sounds delicious! How much red pepper did you use? Didn’t see it in the ingredient list.
Thanks so much for letting me know. Like I said to Gail it’s 1 cup but you can really use any amount you want–to your taste.
This is a good alternative to the usual Chinese ones I order for takeout. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
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