No Wok, No Problem: Rice Cooker Fried Rice

During the holidays we seem to never leave the kitchen. The time between the Thanksgiving Day feast and Christmas dinner seems like seconds, maybe even milliseconds. While cooking and eating tons of delicious food is part of what makes the holiday season great, it’s also somewhat (by somewhat I mean very) exhausting. We all need a little break from the kitchen now and then and you know what that means – takeout.

My family always orders takeout the night before Christmas. We know we’ll be cooking and baking all day on the 25th and so we take the 24th to kick our feet up and let someone else do the cooking. We have our favorite pizza restaurant (Delvecchio’s, you are so very near and dear to my heart) and our favorite Chinese takeout spot (I’m dialing the number in my head right now) and we rotate between the two each year.

This year we had already planned to fill the table with moo shupork and egg drop soup. But while I hate to cheat on my tried and true Golden Fortune, making your favorite Chinese takeout dishes at home is easy. The Test Kitchen has experimented making no-hassle takeout favorites in the slow cooker, like our Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki and Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken, but we can’t forget about the fried rice. Using this rice cooker recipe, you can put “fried” rice on the table without dirtying too many dishes and without paying a delivery fee.

Using the Hamilton Beach® 4-16 Cup Capacity Digital Rice Cooker, you can easily mimic “fried” rice thanks to its saute function. That’s right, you can saute directly in the rice cooker cooking pot.

In the cooking pot, saute 2 large eggs. Once the eggs are cooked remove them from the rice cooker and set aside. Next, heat sesame oil in the cooking pot and saute carrots, onions, and garlic until the onions are translucent. Then add mushrooms, green onions, salt, and black pepper and saute for about two minutes. Leave the cooked ingredients in the rice cooker then add rice, chicken broth, and soy sauce and stir well. Cover and switch from SAUTE to the WHITE RICE setting. Once the rice cooker switches to warm add it your cooked eggs and frozen peas and dinner is served. It’s that easy.

You can customize your fried rice by adding cooked chicken, water chestnuts, baby corn, or even chili sauce or sriracha for added heat. Skip the takeout this holiday season and instead of letting someone else do the cooking, let your rice cookers and slow cookers help out.

Rice Cooker Fried Rice

Yield: Serves 8
Author: Hamilton Beach Test Kitchen

Ingredients

2 teaspoons peanut oil
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup sliced green onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon gound black pepper
2 rice measuring cups long grain white rice
2 1/4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cup frozen peas

Instructions

In a medium skillet, over medium-high, heat the peanut oil. Add eggs. Cook until eggs are set, lifting the edge of the eggs to allow uncooked eggs to move under the cooked eggs, about 3 minutes. Transfer eggs to a cutting board and chop into 1/2-inch pieces. Set aside.
Heat sesame oil in the skillet. Add carrots, onions and garlic, cooking until onions are translucent, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms, green onions, salt and black pepper and cook an additional 2 minutes. Remove to the rice cooker cooking pot.
Add the rice, chicken broth and soy sauce to the cooking pot. Stir well.
Cover and set the rice cooker on the WHITE RICE setting.
When rice cooker switches to WARM, stir in the eggs and frozen peas. Wait 5 minutes before serving.