Foodie Friday #2: Fried Rice and Egg Rolls

One thing I absolutely love is cooking. I love being able to spend some time in my kitchen (even though it is SUPER tiny) and create dishes for my family to enjoy. My dad seems to really enjoy my fried rice lately. I knew he liked the egg rolls, but he actually asked for the fried rice twice in one week. To me, that screams WINNER!!!

This is a super easy dinner to make and really yummy.
What you will need is:

For the Egg Rolls:

• 3/4 to 1 pound ground beef
• 1 bag Broccoli Slaw (12 oz)
• Egg Roll Wrappers  (I prefer Nasoya)
• salt and pepper to taste

For the Fried Rice:

• 1 cup uncooked rice (I used white, but brown would work also)
• 2 cups liquid-- sometimes I will use chicken broth, other time water
• 1 chicken breast-- diced
• 2 eggs + a dash of milk
• soy sauce
• Sweet and Sour Sauce (I bought mine at Aldi)
• pepper to taste

The first thing  I do is start cooking the rice since it will take the most time.

Then I  cook the broccoli slaw. I wilt it down a little bit not to much because I want it to have a bit of a bite before I put the egg rolls in the deep fryer. (These can be baked, but  I LOVE crispy egg rolls.) Once the broccoli slaw is finished,  I scoop it into a bowl to wait for whatever protein I chose to use to cook. Most of the time I do chicken egg rolls, but the last time was ground beef-- My family LOVED them.

Next step was cooking the ground beef through. I wasn't too concerned if some of the meat wasn't completely cooked because I knew they would cook some more in the deep fryer. When the beef was ready I added it to the broccoli slaw and combined it. 

Fry the egg rolls in batches of three for about 5 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with a little salt. This recipe will make 9 nice sized egg rolls and you'll have some leftover mix for another meal.

 (Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the egg rolls after I fried them.)

While waiting for the rice to finish cooking, go ahead and brown the diced chicken breast adding a little bit of sweet and sour sauce and a tiny pinch of salt and pepper. (Don't use too much salt because the soy sauce in the rice is salty.) When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, set it aside to add to the fried rice a little later.

Once the rice is ready, I can go ahead and start  scrambling my egg in the frying pan.(I use the same pan that I used for the meat and slaw to save on clean up and add a little extra flavor to the rice.) I start my scrambled egg in a bowl mixed with a little bit of milk. I stir it with a fork to make sure the yolk is completely broken and incorporated with the white so the egg looks like a creamy yellow mix. I put the frying pan on medium high heat and continually stir it with a wooden spoon to get the eggs nice and fluffy. When the egg is fluffy, add the rice and soy sauce and mix everything together. Shortly before plating everything, add the chicken to the rice and combine.

This dish is super easy and really delicious. From start to finish it probably takes about 45 minutes to cook, and that may be an over estimation. The longest cooking item is the rice, but if you use rice from a previous meal that will cut your cooking time down even more. Enjoy!