As promised, here is another of our favorite uses of leftover pork, Asian style. We adapted the recipe from “The Best 30-Minute Recipe” cookbook (which we can’t recommend highly enough), but the dish is pretty flexible in terms of both ingredients and sauce. This version is what we prefer, but you can always put your own spin on it, which is one of the many reasons we like this recipe. We also appreciate that it’s a quick, easy and delicious use of leftovers.
The ingredients include leftover pork, rice, eggs, green onions, garlic, red bell pepper, mushrooms and bean sprouts. Instead of pork, you could also use chicken, shrimp or beef. And you could add whatever veggies you like — carrots or peas maybe (although I don’t know why you would want to ruin this dish with disgusting peas) — or subtract the ones you don’t like. The sauce ingredients include soy sauce, sriracha, black bean paste and oyster sauce. The original recipe simply calls for soy and oyster sauce, but we decided to add black bean paste for a little richness and sriracha for a little spice. If you like your sauce more on the sweet side, you could add some hoisin. See how flexible?
The key to successful homemade fried rice is to use rice that has been previously cooked, then chilled. If the rice is hot or even warm when you add it to the dish, the finished product will be mushy. So cook the rice at least several hours before you plan to make the fried rice (we usually cook ours that morning), so it has time to chill. This is also a good use of leftover white rice from takeout Chinese.
Chop up all the ingredients ahead of time because the recipe comes together pretty quickly and none of the ingredients cook for very long. We cut the red bell pepper into small strips and thinly sliced the mushrooms. We also chopped up the white parts of the green onions and minced some garlic.
The only potentially tricky part of this dish is figuring out which ingredients should go into the wok when. For example, the red bell peppers and mushrooms need to cook a little longer than the green onion tops and the bean sprouts. It helps to group the prepped ingredients according to the desired cook-time for each.
Cut the pork or whatever protein you’re using into small pieces.
Then mix up the sauce, taste, and adjust the flavors to your liking.
Lightly beat 2 eggs and set aside.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers.
Add the eggs to the wok and cook, without stirring, until just beginning to set and thicken — about a minute. Tilt the wok to different angles during this process so that the egg forms a thin “pancake” shape and cooks quickly and evenly. Once the eggs are almost set, stir the eggs (sort of like making scrambled eggs, but not quite as scrambl-ey) until they are cooked through and chopped up — about 1 more minute.
Remove the eggs to a plate or bowl and set aside.
Add more oil to the wok and heat on high until barely smoking. Next add the veggies that you want to cook the longest (red bell pepper, mushrooms, onion and garlic) and cook, stirring often, for about 2-3 minutes.
Next add the sauce and the chopped up pork and mix well so that everything is uniformly coated in the sauce. Cook for about a minute to heat the pork.
Stir in the rice and cook for another minute or two, breaking up any clumps and incorporating the rice in with the veggies, pork and sauce.
Then add the eggs, bean sprouts and the green parts of the green onions. Stir everything together and cook until heated through — about 1 minute.
Garnish with a little more green onion and serve. We love the combination of flavors and textures that are brought together by the sauce, rice and bits of egg in every bite. We also like how you can create a slightly different version whenever you cook this dish — depending on your mood and the ingredients you have on hand. Plus, it’s super easy and fast for a weeknight — once all of the prep chopping is done (which doesn’t take very long), the fried rice only takes about 10 minutes total to cook — faster than most Chinese food delivery!
Pork Fried Rice (with leftover pork)
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 2 eggs
- 1-2 cups chopped cooked pork
- 2-3 cups cooked rice, chilled
- 1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
- 1 cup sliced red bell pepper
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 3-5 green onions, white parts chopped and green parts sliced diagonally
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 & ½ tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 & ½ tablespoons black bean paste
- 1 teaspoon sriracha
Directions:
- Prep all the ingredients that need to be chopped or sliced and group them according to how long they will need to cook.
- Combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, black bean paste and sriracha and mix well.
- Lightly beat the eggs and set aside. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers. Add the eggs to the wok and cook, without stirring, until just beginning to set and thicken — about 1 minute. Tilt the wok to different angles during this process so that the egg forms a thin “pancake” shape and cooks quickly and evenly. Once the eggs are almost set, stir the eggs until they are cooked through and chopped up — about 1 more minute. Remove the eggs to a plate or bowl and set aside.
- Add another tablespoon of oil to the wok and heat over high heat until the oil is barely smoking. Add the red bell pepper, mushrooms, onions and garlic to the oil and cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the sauce and the pork to the wok and mix everything together well. Cook for about 1 minute.
- Stir in the rice, breaking up any clumps, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the eggs, green onion tops and bean sprouts and cook, stirring often, until everything is heated through — about 1 minute.
- Garnish with additional sliced green onion and serve.