Chinese recipe Archives

I love eating fried rice, especially in Hawaii where my favorite is local flavor fried rice. It uses some of the popular meats of Hawaii: Spam, Portuguese sausage, and kalua pork. I developed this recipe so we could make Chinese takeout style meals at home. Try this with sweet and sour chicken or general chicken.

You will need a large skillet (or wok), cutting board, knife, and cooking spoon or spatula.

Microwave the mixed vegetables until they are not frozen. I do not add water. The volume of cooked vegetables should be about 1 cup.

Cut slices of Spam, Portuguese sausage, and roast pork. I used ½ of a Portuguese sausage, and slices of the other meats. Tip: You can make this meatless or add chicken, ham, or Chinese sausage.

Place the skillet over high heat with 1 tbsp of water. When the water boils away, add the meats. Cook until the sausage is done. Set meats aside.

Cut the meats into small bite size cubes.

Whisk the egg in a small container with a small whisk or fork.

Place the skillet over high heat with 1 tbsp of water. When the water boils away, add olive oil and vegetables. Quickly stir and scrape up bits from meat.

Push the vegetables to one side and add the egg. Stir as it cooks to make bite sized bits of scrambled egg.

Stir the vegetables and egg together. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I use Penzey’s Singapore spice.

Add meat and stir.

Tip: I cook brown rice in larger batches (1 cup rice to 3 cups water, ~20 minutes) and place 1 cup cooked rice in a quart freezer reclosable storage bag. These will freeze flat in the freezer and can be reheated easily in the microwave.

Add the brown rice to the skillet. Pour over toasted sesame oil and coconut aminos. Stir and toss. You should see a subtle color change when the rice is ready. Tip: You can use low sodium soy sauce instead of coconut aminos if desired.

Serves two.

Easy fried rice at home Hawaiian-style local flavor gets flavor from meats and toasted sesame oil. Use brown rice and coconut aminos for clean eating.

Nutrition for fried rice

1 whole recipe of Hawaiian local flavor fried rice is about 1431 calories. 1 serving is about 715 calories. Nutrition facts are approximations.

Resource links

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodasian.html#friedrice
- History of fried rice from Food Timeline
https://www.thespruceeats.com/types-of-sausage-4064593
- Types of Sausage from The Spruce Eats
http://www.cookinghawaiianstyle.com/hawaiian-recipes/recipe-category
- Recipes from Cooking Hawaiian Style

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Sweet and sour chicken is an old style American takeout Chinese dish that is not difficult to make at home. I wanted to update my old recipe to make it healthier. The biggest change is taking out the fried crispy coating on the chicken. I went for crunch by using ground toasted almonds and baking the chicken before adding it to the zingy sweet and sour sauce.

You will need a baking pan, saucepan, cutting board, knife, measuring spoons, 3 small pans or bowls for dredging, and immersion blender with chopper (or food processor).

Use a food processor or small chopper to chop the almonds into a coarse flour.

Place in a dredging pan, add panko crumbs and salt and pepper mix and mix thoroughly. You may do this with all almonds, just take into account the calories (1/2 cup almonds 360 cal, 1/2 cup panko 120 cal.)

Cover the baking pan with a silicone baking mat. Or cover with aluminum foil, shiny side down. Spray with cooking spray.

Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line up dredging pans near the baking pan. Place cornstarch in first, pineapple juice in second, and almond-panko mixture in the third. Dredge the chicken chunks in cornstarch, juice, and almond mixture and place on baking pan. Spray with cooking spray.

Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and use tongs to flip chicken pieces. Bake for up to an additional 10 minutes, if necessary. Check for doneness (175 degrees) and add additional oven minutes if needed.

While the chicken is baking, place pineapple juice, vinegar, liquid aminos, and marmalade in the saucepan.

Stir the sauce over medium high heat until hot.

Add carrots to pan, heat until they begin to be soft.

Add peppers to pan, heat until they begin to be soft.

Add arrowroot 1 teaspoon at a time until the sauce thickens enough to stick to the spoon. Remove from heat if the chicken is not ready.

Add the cooked chicken and pineapple to the sauce and heat on low until warm.

Serve with cooked brown rice. Makes 4 servings.

Clean eating tip: You can use gluten-free panko, arrowroot instead of cornstarch, lime juice or water with chicken bouillon instead of pineapple juice, organic raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar, and coconut aminos.

Healthy sweet and sour chicken gets flavor from marmalade and vinegar. Chicken is baked with an almond coating. Pineapples, peppers, and carrots round out the dish.

Nutrition for healthy sweet and sour chicken

1 whole recipe of healthy sweet and sour chicken with brown rice is about 2911 calories. 1 serving is about 728 calories. Nutrition facts are approximations.