kimchi fried rice

making fried rice is the perfect way to salvage whatever leftovers are in the fridge. having said that, we bought a whole roast duck last night, which, we surprisingly couldn’t finish. maybe having three other dishes on the table didn’t help either. but we’re happy that we didn’t devour the whole duck because now we can toss it in with the leftover rice. stir fry everything with a healthy dose of kimchi and a generous scoop of gochujang and you got yourself one mighty tasty dish.

if you don’t have leftover meat, that’s ok. just cook whatever protein you like, such as pork, chicken, spam! yes spam is a protein… sort of. or leave it altogether and add bean sprouts for a vegetarian twist. but of course, no kimchi fried rice is complete without its trusty companion, the sunny side up egg.

in general, overnight rice is best used for any sort of fried rice. refrigerated rice allows the moisture to dissipate and the grains to be individually separated. otherwise, using freshly cooked rice will result in mushy fried rice, and that is not yummo!

overnight cooked rice 2 cups
kimchi 1 cup
korean red chili paste, gochujang, 1 tbsp (add more if you like it spicy)
soy sauce 2 tsp
any leftover meat 1/2 cup
oil 2 tbsp

heat 2 tbsp of oil in a nonstick pan on high heat
toss in all the rice and stir fry to lightly crisp the surface, separating any lumps, about 3-4 minutes
toss in the meat and kimchi (we chopped the kimchi since some pieces were a bit large)
add the gochujang and soy sauce, mix evenly
cook for another few minutes

stir fry the overnight rice and get it warm and crispy

add the kimchi and meat, chop the kimchi if the pieces are too big

mix evenly with the gochujang and soy sauce

serve with a fried egg and extra kimchi on the side

commentaries

jun:

if you like crispy rice, spread the rice evenly on the pan and do not toss, this allows the bottom to get crispy… kind of like paella. allow it to cook for about a min before flipping the rice to get the other side crispy.
gochujang can stain white countertops or chopping blocks, so be careful. we learned the hard way 😦