The One with the Dance of Seduction and West Coast Chicken Fried Rice
Welcome to Friends with Food Episode #14! Listen here. Our friend Colin Johnson joins us this episode! Colin is a multi-hyphenate production maniac, artistic director, filmmaker, showrunner, puppy daddy and arts instructor based in San Francisco.
In this episode we cover Friends Season 5 Episode 14, The One where Everybody Finds Out. This episode originally aired on February 11th, 1999. Monica is back on top of the charts this week with Angel of Mine. The top movie at the box office was Message in a Bottle.
A lot of creeping through windows in this one.
The strange and rare animal that is a Phoebe-Chandler episode!
west coast chicken fried rice
In the beginning of the episode, Chandler eats chicken fried rice from a takeout box as he stares at an unsuspecting naked man though the window. Here’s my white-girl, totally non-authentic, west coast-style fried rice complete with brown rice, green veggies, and fresh herbs. Get in there!
NOTES: Rice that is a day or two old is ideal for fried rice, as it is drier than freshly cooked rice. If you make fresh rice for this, spread it out on a sheetpan (lined with parchment paper if you like) to let it cool quickly and air-dry a bit. I use long grain brown rice, but any rice will do. This recipe calls for cooked chicken, but if you have raw chicken you can dice it and cook it in the pan in a little oil, then remove from the pan and continue with recipe. Alternately, you can roast chicken thighs or breasts in the oven with a little oil, salt and pepper, until cooked through, then let cool and shred. I use green beans here, but any tender green veggie like asparagus, broccoli, or brussels sprouts would be great here as well.
west coast chicken fried rice
4 tbsp vegetable oil, plus more as needed
4 cups cooked and cooled brown rice, preferably a day or two old
1 ½ cups shredded cooked chicken, preferably thigh meat
2 cups green beans chopped into bite sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3 eggs
Salt
pepper
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
Pinch red pepper flakes
Dash sriracha
2 scallions thinly sliced
¼ c chopped fresh cilantro
Your weapons of choice are a very large pan and a good spatula.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in your largest pan over medium to medium high heat. Add your cooked rice and spread around the pan in an even layer. Let the rice fry up a bit on it’s own, then add the chicken and green beans. Stir the meat and veg into the rice and let them fry together for couple minutes. Scoot the rice mixture to one side of the pan, leaving an empty spot on the other side. Add a tablespoon of oil to the empty spot and throw the garlic and ginger into the hot oil. Let them sizzle a bit and become fragrant, then mix them into the rice. Let the mixture fry for a couple of minutes. Move the mixture to the side again, add another tablespoon of oil to the empty patch, and crack your eggs into the hot oil. Season the eggs with salt and pepper, then scramble the eggs roughly with your spatula. After a minute go ahead and mix the eggs into the rice, don’t worry if they aren’t fully cooked through. Give everything a good solid mix. Now you are going to build your crispy fried bits. Move rice to one side of pan, add a tablespoon of oil, and spread the rice back over the oil. Repeat on the other side. Let the mixture sit without stirring for a bit to let the rice form a crispy crust. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, a pinch of pepper flakes, and a dash of sriracha. Stir the mixture up, scraping the bottom to release the magical crispy bits. If the rice is still a bit pale and drab let it fry a bit longer, adding more oil if needed to achieve crispy bits (don’t be shy with the oil! Fried things need oil). When you’re done, the beans and eggs will be cooked, the chicken hot, and the rice will be golden with plenty of crispies. Turn off heat and taste for seasoning, adding salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, or sriracha to taste. Mix half the scallions through the rice and sprinkle the rest on top along with the cilantro. Enjoy immediately, while spying on your neighbors.
