Creating a meal from leftovers; Chicken fried rice

Yesterday, I told my daughter I was going to make chicken pot pie for todays dinner. I still had leftover chicken breasts from the meal I’d prepared for her this past Sunday, and I thought that placing the breasts in a crust, along with some veggies, would make a great dinner.

Today in Maryland, the temperature was over 70 F, and so I changed my plans. I decided to make something much lighter; chicken fried rice (and for myself vegetable fried rice).

The cooked chicken breasts were chopped into small chunks, and set aside.

A bit of olive oil was added to a heated skillet.

Two eggs, and some seasonings, were added.

Next, chopped green onions were included, along with coarsely chopped broccoli.

Cooked brown rice was added, and I stirred everything for a few minutes. I then included the chopped chicken breast, and the sweet corn. I sauteed the chicken and corn for a bit longer, and set aside my newly created meal from leftovers.

Besides the eggs, green onions, seasonings,  and oil everything else was leftovers, but together they made a great meal! Of course, I made a vegan version for myself; vegetable fried rice.

Should I have done something differently? Well, I love garlic, and it would have complimented this dish. Also for a bit more color (and added sweetness), I could have added slivers of carrot and red bell pepper.

However, even without these additions, I was pleased with how it turned out, and the fact that a lot of the chicken fried rice was eaten, was a great indicator that my daughter and father enjoyed their meal. I loved my veggie fried rice too, unfortunately I ate my dish before I remembered that I was supposed to take a photo. Whoops!

My mother is still out of town, and so I’ve been preparing my fathers meals. When it comes to cooking, he’s the stereotypical old school American dad. He doesn’t really cook that much. Which is fine, my mother loves to cook, and so do I. Cook for my dad, whenever mom’s away? Sure, no problem!

Inspiration for this dish came from the wonderful blogger, Suituapui. A few days ago he’d made a fried noodle dish. Reading his post, I realized I hadn’t made a fried dish in a while. Since my daughter and I love fried rice dishes… I thought that was the next best thing.

Do you want to know what’s hilarious? Right after I made this dish I logged onto his site, and he had made a fried rice dish too, but not the same thing, his fried rice dish has fermented shrimp (first time hearing about them — but sounds fascinating) and he added other delicious ingredients.