We made this dish on Saturday. It was great. I paired it with fried rice and a fruit platter . The family enjoyed the leftovers today. The chicken marinade was perfect and the fried rice was the perfect addition to this meal.
Hawaiian BBQ Feast as seen on The Best Recipes EVAR
The Meat and Marinade
·
Boneless skinless
Chicken Thighs, beef short ribs, or any kind of meat you want to use.
·
1 C. packed light
brown sugar
·
1 C. soy sauce (I
use the Aloha Shoyu Soy Sauce)
·
4-5 cloves of garlic
chopped
1 1/2 T. fresh ginger
root chopped
·
1/4-1/2 large onion
sliced
Marinade Directions
1.
In a bowl, mix the
brown sugar and soy suace together. Keep mixing until almost all the sugar is
dissolved in the soy sauce.
2.
Add in the garlic,
ginger and onion and mix.
3.
Let the mixture sit
for a few minutes.
4.
Put meat into a zip
lock bag and pour mixture over it. (You can freeze the meat in the marinade at this point and when it is thawed the marinating time is over)
Depending on how much meat you have you may
need to make more marinade and split this into 2 different bags. Let this
marinade for at least 4 hours.
For the Grill
·
1 stick of butter
(trust me this makes the chicken so much better..however this recipe is great without it)
·
4-5 green onions
sliced small
Grilling Directions
1.
Place Pyrex dish on
the hot grill if you have room otherwise you can put it in the oven.
2.
Add the butter to the
Pyrex so it starts to melt.
3.
Add the meat to the
grill and cook to perfection.
4.
When the pieces of
meat are done place them in the Pyrex to let swim in buttery goodness until all
are done and add the green onions.
For the Fried Rice
Fried
rice made in a frying pan
For
1 to 2 portions
1
to 1 1/2 cups cooked plain rice
1
cup chopped green onion
1
cup chopped vegetables of your choice (see notes below)
1/2
to 1 cup chopped roast pork or ham
2
medium eggs
salt
pepper
(white pepper is more traditional here, but black pepper is fine)
2
tsp. to 1 Tbsp. soy sauce I prefer Aloha Shoyu soy sauce as it is not as strong
for our taste
cooking
oil
optional:
sesame oil
Equipment
needed: A large frying pan (at least 28cm / 11” in diameter), spatula
Before
you start cooking fried rice, you need to have everything ready to go.
First,
the aromatic vegetables - the vegetables that add lots of flavor and
umami
to your food. Here I have kept it simple and just used green onion (about
1
stalk), chopped up. You could also use regular onion, a little fresh ginger
and/or
chopped garlic. If you want spicy fried rice, use a little chopped hot
red
chili pepper, or dried chili pepper flakes or powder.
Next
are the non-aromatic vegetables. I like to add at least a cup’s worth per
1-
1 1/2 cups of cooked rice. You can use any vegetables you like that are not too
watery. Here I have used peas and carrots but
sweet bell pepper and zucchini work well too.
I
also use some chopped precooked meat, which adds to the flavor - about 1/2 a cup’s
worth per 1 to 1 1/2 cups of rice. Roast pork is nice, as are tiny whole shrimps
or chopped shrimp, chicken, turkey, - anything you have. I’ve used some leftover
roast ham here.
Eggs
are a must-have in fried rice for me. Two medium or small eggs or 1 large to
extra-large egg is enough. Beat it lightly with a pinch of salt added.
You’ll
need some precooked rice of course. 1 to 1.5 cups will serve 1 person (or 2
people with small appetites) as the main dish of a meal. Leftover plain rice is
great for fried rice, but make sure it’s hot or at least warm, not ice cold straight
out of the fridge, which will cool down the pan and make the rice go greasy.
The
easiest way to warm it up is to pop it in the microwave for a minute or
two. If you don’t have a microwave, pour some boiling water over the rice and then
drain it off very well before using.
If
you are cooking rice fresh for the purpose of making fried rice, use a little
less water than you might normally do, to have cooked through but firm and
separate grains.
Finally,
some seasonings and things: oil for cooking, salt, pepper and soy sauce.
You could add other things here but let’s keep it simple.
Once
all the components are ready, it’s time to start cooking. The cooking will go
quite fast! Heat up the large frying pan - over high heat if you are using an electric
heat source, medium to medium-high if you’re using gas. (If you have a very
high heat output induction cooker, adjust the heat accordingly; the food should
cook fast but not burn as soon as you add it to the pan!) Spread a little bit
of oil on the bottom of the pan. The pan is hot enough when you drizzle a little
bit of the beaten egg in it and it cooks right away, Pour in the beaten egg and
spread it around the bottom of the pan, as if you were making an omelette.
Break
up the egg rapidly to make scrambled eggs.
When
the eggs are nearly set but a bit runny, take them out of the pan, clean
off
the pan if needed with the end of your spatula or a wadded up paper towel, and
add a little fresh oil. Put the pan back on the heat and add the non-aromatic
vegetables and cut up meat. Let cook for a couple of minutes, stirring
gently.
Add
the green onion and/or other aromatic vegetables you’re using. Stir around a couple
more minutes, using the whole surface of the pan. Season with a sprinkle of
salt and pepper. It should smell very good now.
Add
the warm rice and spread it thinly over the bottom of the pan. Break up any clumps
with the end of the spatula. When the rice is sizzling on the bottom, stir it
up - but let the heat of the pan do it s work before you stir like crazy. If
the rice gets stuck to the pan a bit, scrape it off as you go along.(I prefer
not to add more oil at this point, since it makes the rice greasy.)
Re-add
the scrambled egg and stir.
Clear
a space on the bottom of the pan. Pour the soy sauce directly on that hot spot
on the pan - it will sizzle. Immediately mix the soy sauce into the rice. This
method ensures that the soy sauce flavor gets distributed more evenly instead
of getting absorbed by the rice grains in one spot, and also adds a bit of
toasty flavor to the whole thing.
Taste,
and season with pepper and additional salt if needed. If you prefer, you can
add a few drops of sesame oil at this point. Serve immediately while piping hot.
(Cold fried rice is fine, but hot fried rice is much, much better.)
key
points to making fried rice in a frying pan:
The
most important rule: Do not overcrowd the pan! That is the sure way to make sticky,
greasy fried rice. For a large 11 to 12 inch (28-30cm) frying pan 3 cups of
rice worth of fried rice is probably the maximum you can do successfully at one
time.
Have
everything cut up and ready to go before you start cooking.
Warm
up the rice before using it. Don’t use ice cold rice
If
using an electric heat source, use the highest setting you can achieve. If using
gas, use medium-high heat. Make sure your frying pan is hot, and that you use
the entire bottom surface of the pan.
Cook
the eggs first, then take them out of the pan, to have soft eggs rather than
hard little egg-bullets.Cook the vegetables and meat/shrimp through and season
before adding the rice. If the rice gets a bit stuck to the pan, just scrape it
off; adding more oil to the rice will make it greasy.
“Sizzle”
the soy sauce on the bare surface of the frying pan, rather than pouring
soy sauce onto the rice. Variations You can vary fried rice by using different
aromatic vegetables, different protein, and so on. As I said above, fried rice
is a great way to use up leftovers! Here are some ideas:
Use
about 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger instead of the green onion.
Finely
slice 2-3 cloves of garlic, and fry them until soft. Remove the garlic and
cook the rice in the garlic-scented oil. Add the garlic back at the end.
Use
finely chopped white onion and sauté it in butter instead of oil. Omit the soy
sauce and just season with salt and pepper. Add some grated Parmesan cheese and
dry oregano at the end.
Precooked,
finely diced bamboo shoots, water chestnuts are great crunchy additions to
fried rice.
