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Trader Joe’s frozen vegetable fried rice is a cooking hack I found several years ago that replaced my homemade recipe upon the first bite. Each bag contains 16 ounces of the highest quality fried rice that has julienne carrots, finely diced red peppers, edamame, corn, peas and onions. The $2.99 price tag was well worth not having to make rice a day ahead! If you don’t use cold, day-old rice when making homemade fried rice, you’ll be left with a gummy mess. If you know you know.
Trader Joe’s also makes a frozen chicken fried rice. So you’re probably asking, “why not just use the one with chicken already in it?” I did at first and I’m here to tell you, the extra dollar per bag is not worth the quality of chicken. You’re much better off buying the vegetable version and adding your own chicken, which is exactly what this recipe calls for. For every bag of frozen fried rice you’ll need one pound of boneless chicken thighs. The recipe calls for two bags of frozen fried rice and two pounds of chicken. I have to double that for my family of six.
To prepare the chicken, season with Good Season’s Italian dressing mix and bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes. The chicken comes out incredibly delicious. The dressing mix has the perfect blend of seasoning and spices for the chicken. It’s the only way I season chicken thighs no matter if I’m serving on their own or in another dish. The ratio is one packet to one pound of chicken. Actually, it’s 1:1:1 – one pound of chicken, one packet of dressing mix and one bag of frozen fried rice. Easy to remember!
You’ll need a wok for this recipe. The cooking instructions are based on preparing the rice in a wok. Every kitchen should have one! Once your chicken is prepped, you’ll need to have everything on-hand as this comes together quickly. I like to make my eggs in advance so there are large hunks of egg rather than the egg disintegrating into the rice. You’ll also want your garlic and onion powder measured out along with your low-sodium soy sauce. When cooking on high heat for an extended period of time, you need to babysit your dish. That’s why it’s good to have everything ready to go as opposed to measuring while your rice is cooking.
Cooking on high heat allows the rice to caramelize and get crispy. The nutty notes of flavor remind me of a hibachi restaurant. That’s what inspired me to cook the rice in butter rather than oil. The hibachi restaurant we frequent has always used oil for the meat and vegetables but when it came to the rice they cooked it in butter and that makes such a difference. Additional seasoning of garlic powder, onion powder and low-sodium soy sauce doctor up the frozen fried rice to restaurant quality.
If you work outside of the home and need things to be quick and easy at dinnertime during the week, you can prepare the chicken and eggs 1-2 days before, over a weekend. Store both in the refrigerator in an airtight container and then remove from the refrigerator when you’re ready to make the rice. Your actual cooking time will only be about 10 minutes.
Easy Chicken Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 2 16 oz bags Trader Joe's frozen vegetable fried rice
- 4 tbsp salted butter
- 2.5 tsp garlic powder
- 2.5 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 c low sodium soy sauce
- 2 large eggs
Chicken Thighs
- 2 lb chicken thighs
- 2 packets Good Season's Italian dressing mix
- olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Trim excess fat off chicken thighs.
- Place thighs in a bowl with the seasoning mix and a drizzle of olive oil. Toss until everything is coated.
- Place thighs on a brimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and cut into bite size pieces. Set aside.
- Preheat a wok over high heat. Melt butter.
- Add bags of frozen fried rice. Cook rice on high heat for 7 minutes. Stirring occassionally. If you are cooking more than 2 bags, this will take longer.
- The rice should get crispy in some places and be caramelized. Once you see this throughout the batch, add your seasoning, cooked eggs and diced chicken. Stir well.
- Pour in your low sodium soy sauce, stir and allow to cook a few more minutes.
- Serve hot.