Chicken Fried Rice

My husband and I love to indulge in dinner at Benihana on special occasions.  One of my favorite things is their chicken fried rice.  After some trial and error, I feel like the below recipe is pretty darn close (with some healthy upgrades!).  I love this meal because I can use up a lot of veggies in the fridge and then rice and chicken which I always have in the freezer.  It is one of my quicker meals to prepare, and we love it!  I usually make a double batch, and then we eat leftovers for a couple lunches.

Chicken Fried Rice

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 eggs, scrambled (preferably from pastured chickens)
3 tablespoons butter (preferably from grass-fed cows)
2 cloves garlic, minced/smashed
1 large carrot, peeled and finely diced
1/4 large onion, finely diced (you could certainly do more onion if desired)
2 stalks green onions, diced
1/2 cup frozen peas , thawed
4 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup cooked, diced chicken (preferably pastured - can use mix of dark and white meat)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (San-J Tamari Soy Sauce is a good, naturally-fermented brand)

2 teaspoons sesame seeds
salt
pepper

Directions:

Cook scrambled eggs in separate pan, splitting into small bits.  Set aside.  Melt butter in a large skillet.  Sauté garlic, carrot, onion, and green onion until crisp-tender.  Add peas, brown rice, chicken, eggs, soy sauce, sesame seeds, and salt/pepper to taste.  Stir and fry until thoroughly golden and heated.  Serve and enjoy, preferably with chopsticks!

Helpful hint: This is worth writing a whole separate post for, but until then, I just thought I'd note that we buy about a dozen whole pastured chickens at a time to store in our freezer.  About once a month, I cook one up in the crock pot.  We eat some of the white meat that night, then I take all of the remaining white and dark meat off the bones and freeze in 1/2 cup portions in ziplock bags.  Then, whenever I want to make chicken casserole, chicken tacos, fettuccine alfredo, chicken fried rice, etc., I always have high-quality pre-cooked chicken ready.  The texture is completely fine after it's thawed, and it thaws in an instant since I freeze it in such small portions.  I also always return the bones to the crockpot and make stock.  I plan to post more on this later as well.