Today, Michelin-trained chef Eric Huang demonstrates how he cooks quick and easy chicken fried rice. Huang mastered the art of fine dining by training in Michelin-starred restaurants for 10 years before opening Pecking House in NYC, but even top chefs still love the simple dishes easily made at home.
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00:00I have the three-piece working for delivery,
00:01and then what just came in?
00:03Oh, sorry, let me just pop this in the fryer,
00:04and then I will.
00:05Chaotic situations, fryers bubbling away.
00:07We are very much open for business right now,
00:09so we're gonna make this happen, but it's gonna be great.
00:12Hi, I'm Eric Hwang.
00:13I'm the chef and founder of Pecking House
00:14in Brooklyn, New York.
00:15Today, we're going to make my perfect fried rice.
00:18♪♪
00:24I've trained in New York as a chef for the last 12 years.
00:27I was a cook at Gramercy Tavern,
00:29and then, most recently, I was a sous chef
00:30at 11 Madison Park, and then, when the pandemic started,
00:33my family's restaurant got locked down,
00:34so I started frying chicken,
00:36and thus, it has become my life.
00:38The reason fried rice tastes different in a restaurant
00:41than the kind you have at home,
00:43it's usually thanks to these very intense wok burners
00:46that look like rocket fuel, great seasoning,
00:48emulsified rice, every grain is going to be covered
00:50in a light slick of oil, and then high heat.
00:53That's the flavor we're trying to cultivate
00:54by using these really intense woks over here.
00:57So, this is going to be a chicken fried rice,
00:59just like the one that my mom makes in her restaurant,
01:01the one I grew up in, and the first step
01:03is to marinate the chicken
01:05with a technique we call velveting.
01:06♪♪
01:08Velveting is a technique to prepare proteins
01:10for stir-fries. It really improves their texture,
01:13keeps them really moist, and gives them
01:14a nice, bouncy texture.
01:15So, egg whites obviously have protein,
01:18and they are slightly alkaline,
01:19and that alkaline texture is actually going to tenderize
01:23the protein a little bit, and that's what gives
01:26those stir-fry ingredients you get in your Chinese takeout
01:28that unique texture.
01:30Okay.
01:34Señor, ¿tienes un chili sandwich con hígado,
01:36un sandwich picante con hígado?
01:37Necesito un papo frito y aleta.
01:40¿El sandwich chili está listo?
01:42Okay.
01:43So, we're going to cut this into very thin strips.
01:45This is chicken breast, boneless, skinless.
01:47You can use chicken thigh.
01:48You can use whatever you want.
01:48We're aiming for a kind of like noodle-y consistency.
01:51Not quite spaghetti, but maybe a little thicker than that.
01:53What should we say?
01:54Pucatini?
01:56So, normally in a Chinese restaurant,
01:58at least how we would do it at my mom's place,
01:59we would freeze these, slice them on a deli slicer,
02:03and then cut them into strips.
02:04It's a little harder to do with fresh chicken.
02:06Why is Chinese cuisine such thin portions of meat,
02:09whereas a lot of Western cooking is this giant roast
02:11and such like that?
02:12I learned recently, it's because China is considered
02:14quite poor in fuel, as in like wood and combustible fuel.
02:20So, they generally prepare things to be cooked
02:22as quickly as possible, whereas there were a great deal
02:24of forests in Europe, and that's why you can create
02:26these big fires and bake bread and such and such.
02:29My mom would probably tell me to cut these thinner,
02:31but you know, this is what we're doing here.
02:33It'll cook very quickly.
02:34So, we have our chicken strips.
02:36We're gonna add a little salt, some cornstarch.
02:38Cornstarch is going to allow the protein to hold on
02:42to a little bit of moisture by hydrating,
02:45and then we're gonna add a little baking soda.
02:46Again, alkalinity is going to tenderize proteins
02:48a little bit.
02:49This is going to give it the texture
02:51of that great Chinese-American dish, chicken and broccoli.
02:54That really nice, slippery, and bouncy texture
02:57of a thinly sliced piece of chicken.
02:59That is not achievable unless you do this step.
03:02Okay, so we have our chicken velveted.
03:03We're gonna put this away for a second,
03:04and then we're gonna address the rice.
03:08So, day-old rice is the key to fried rice.
03:10It's the history.
03:11You know, using leftover rice,
03:12how would you bring it back to life
03:14and make it something delicious?
03:15It is crystallized.
03:16The starches in it have made it hard,
03:17but it makes it great for stir-frying,
03:20because it's going to be really loose and fluffy.
03:22It's going to hold on to fat for a little bit,
03:23and that's what gives great fried rice
03:25this awesome texture.
03:26So, this would be rice that is drying out overnight.
03:30We got racks and racks and racks of it,
03:32and as you see, after we fluff it,
03:33we pack it in these containers,
03:34and then we get ready to fry rice during service.
03:36At home, since you're doing a small quantity,
03:38I wouldn't worry about it too much if you got it.
03:40That white takeout carton,
03:41you just didn't finish your rice
03:42from your takeout meal the night before,
03:44it'll be totally fine, ready to fry the next day.
03:47We use jasmine rice in the restaurant.
03:48All varieties of rice contain a measure of amylopectin.
03:51It's ultra-exaggerated in risotto rice
03:54that makes it really sticky and creamy,
03:55and then there's less of it in long grain rice,
03:58which is why it's nice and drier and fluffy
04:00and in individual grains.
04:02This is very much a really important step,
04:03fluffing the rice,
04:04cooking your rice the day before at least,
04:06then taking the time the next day
04:08to run through it, massage it,
04:09all into these beautiful little fluffy grains.
04:11So, if you're making fried rice at home,
04:14and you see that it has become a congealed,
04:17clumpy mass, unappetizing,
04:19it is because you have skipped this step,
04:21and your ancestors would be disappointed.
04:24Yeah, you run out of rice, what do you do?
04:26Oh, man, you're screwed, dude.
04:28You're fucked.
04:29My mom's gonna yell at you.
04:31Uh, you can use fresh rice.
04:34What you could do is you could use slightly less water
04:38when you're cooking your rice.
04:39That will prevent it from being super sticky,
04:41so you would get something that's a little closer
04:43to the ideal texture of fried rice.
04:45So, our rice is fluffed lovingly.
04:48I'm gonna put this in a separate container.
04:50If I was really slick, I would do the parchment slide,
04:53but I don't trust myself on camera.
04:54Let's see.
04:56Please hold.
04:58Yeah.
05:02So, we're gonna prep the rest of our ingredients.
05:04It's really important when making fried rice,
05:06any sort of stir fry,
05:07that everything is as close to ready as possible.
05:10Most things that cook and walk,
05:12they only take about 45 seconds to a minute.
05:14It happens really fast.
05:15So, it's really important that you have everything ready,
05:17you're well-prepared, and then you're off to the races.
05:19All right, we're gonna make our eggs.
05:21We're gonna scramble them up,
05:22and it's a very inexpensive and easy way
05:25to add protein to the dish.
05:27It just has a wonderful texture to it.
05:29Obviously, they're not gonna be creamy scrambled.
05:31They're gonna be kind of firmly set,
05:32but it eats really well with all the fluffy rice
05:34that we're gonna make.
05:35I said fluffy how many times today?
05:37So, we're gonna beat them all up, whisk them nicely,
05:39and get them ready for our fried rice.
05:40Some would say I should use chopsticks.
05:42Believe it or not, I don't have chopsticks
05:44in this restaurant.
05:46Great dishonor and shame.
05:47We're going to dice some onion up.
05:49When you're stir frying vegetables, even for fried rice,
05:51you don't want them to be too soft.
05:53We want a texture that it still has a little bit of bite.
05:57It's not too mushy, so it can't be too small.
05:59Kenji Lopez calls it tender crisp.
06:01I think that's a great term.
06:02I don't add garlic to fried rice.
06:04I think it's a little much.
06:05Everyone thinks, like, anytime you cook something Chinese,
06:08it has to have garlic, ginger, and scallions in it.
06:10That's not true.
06:10Then we're gonna do our scallions.
06:12We're gonna separate them into the dark green,
06:14and then the light green and the white
06:15are gonna go together.
06:16We're gonna cook these first.
06:17They're a little bit more pungent,
06:18but they're gonna add a really nice foundation
06:19of savoriness to it, and then we're just gonna finish
06:22with the dark green part.
06:23So, it has color, it has pungency, it has aroma.
06:25My mom has a Chinese restaurant on Long Island.
06:28Her original restaurant was in Queens.
06:30It was called Peking House.
06:31Her and my father were servers there.
06:33The owners sold it to my parents.
06:36I grew up taking phone calls, takeout orders,
06:38reservations, bussing tables.
06:40Learned a lot about life.
06:42Also going in this thing, we got peas and carrots.
06:45Very classic for Chinese takeout restaurants,
06:48and adds a really nice bit of color and texture.
06:50We're gonna add soy sauce to our fried rice
06:52to add salinity, to add umami, savoriness.
06:55You're going to add the soy sauce around the edge,
06:58just so it cooks down a little bit,
06:59reduces just very slightly.
07:01You don't want it to be too wet,
07:02but you do also wanna add all that color,
07:04aroma, and salinity.
07:05There's a very specific technique
07:06when you're stir-frying things.
07:07You're adding your seasonings, your liquid seasonings,
07:09along the edge of the pan.
07:10The only other seasonings besides soy sauce,
07:12salt, and MSG.
07:14You can't have great fried rice
07:15without some degree of MSG.
07:16It is simply a salt.
07:18It is glutamates.
07:19It's what activates in your tongue and your brain
07:21to develop that flavor of savoriness,
07:23what Japanese people call umami,
07:24and you should have in your home.
07:26It's very useful.
07:27We like to add a little butter to our fried rice.
07:29Not traditional, but rice and butter are great friends.
07:32It works really well.
07:33You just need a little bit.
07:34Kind of brings the whole party together.
07:36Ties the room together, if you will.
07:37Okay, we got everything ready to go here.
07:39Again, this has come together really quickly,
07:41and we're gonna make some fried rice.
07:44All right, we got our chicken velveted here.
07:46I'm going to do a pass-through.
07:48The idea here is to set the texture,
07:50cook the chicken through, obviously,
07:51before we stir-fry everything.
07:52So we have everything ready beforehand,
07:54then the rice comes together very quickly.
07:55It's called a pass-through
07:56just because you're cooking it very quickly.
07:58Usually, we just pass it through hot oil
08:01because you have this almost paper-thin slice of protein.
08:03It cooks in like 30 seconds.
08:04We can also do it in water.
08:05It just changes the fat content
08:06of where you're trying to cook.
08:08If you're stir-frying something,
08:09you might want that oil,
08:10but since fried rice, we're going to add oil,
08:12and we can just use water.
08:13Unlike in Western cooking,
08:14you're not trying to get a fond
08:15by searing chicken in a wok or a pan or anything like that.
08:18You just want everything cooked ahead of time.
08:20You get all the color and the flavor
08:21from the soy sauce and the other seasonings.
08:22If you didn't velvet your chicken,
08:24you don't need to do a pass-through.
08:25You could cook it in the pan beforehand.
08:27That's totally fine.
08:28We are cooking this in a wok,
08:30as it would be done in a Chinese restaurant.
08:31A very thin sheet of either cast iron or carbon steel,
08:35and it doesn't retain heat very long
08:36because it's very thin,
08:38but it does transfer very quickly,
08:39which is why we have these massive jet burners.
08:41We're looking for something called wok hei.
08:44The Cantonese term literally translates
08:45to breath of the wok.
08:47It's that really intense heat,
08:48that almost char flavor that you have
08:50to a lot of great Chinese cuisine
08:51that's difficult to replicate at home.
08:53It's from the intense heat that's combusting the fats
08:56in your fried rice and your stir-fries.
08:58All oils have a smoke point,
09:00and you can achieve that very quickly
09:01by tossing food through the fire of a wok burner.
09:04It's lightly smoky.
09:05It's lightly charred,
09:07and it tastes like intense heat,
09:09if you believe it or not.
09:10If you have a gas burner,
09:11you can be tossing your food through the gas burner,
09:13as we'll see in the stir-fry technique,
09:15but if failing that,
09:17you could also use a blowtorch.
09:19All right, we have a two-ring Cantonese burner here
09:21for this big wok here.
09:22We need this wok super hot.
09:24We want the oil to be smoking the second it hits the pan.
09:27As you can see, it's already starting to smoke.
09:30Going on onions, little bit of egg.
09:34You want to add the eggs first
09:36so that they set.
09:37You don't want to add them on top of the rice,
09:37because then it emulsifies with the rice.
09:39It's an entirely different product.
09:40Everything happens really quickly.
09:41We set the eggs first,
09:42and then everything comes together.
09:44All right, we're going on rice.
09:53We're rocking it against the sides
09:55so that we're cradling it
09:59against the flame as much as we can.
10:02Enough oil so that the fried rice has a bit of a shine.
10:05All right, we're tossing it over the flame,
10:07over the gas burner.
10:12Noisy affair.
10:13All right, then we're going to go in
10:14with our other seasonings.
10:16I'm going to park it for one second.
10:18I'm going to do some peas and carrots,
10:22scallions, salt, and a little bit of MSG.
10:26Fire it up again.
10:31You always want it to be in motion.
10:35Otherwise, it's going to burn a little bit.
10:38That's not what you want.
10:39You want charred flavor,
10:41but you don't want to burn your ingredients.
10:43Soy sauce.
10:45Again, we're adding it around the side of the pan.
10:48So it caramelizes immediately.
10:50You want it to reduce just ever so slightly
10:53as you're making it.
10:54Just as we're almost finishing,
10:55I'm just going to add the smallest bit of butter.
10:58It's going to give it a little shine.
11:00Just my personal touch.
11:03You can kind of learn by experience
11:04with the texture and how it falls.
11:05The grains are no longer hard.
11:06They're not bouncing around the wok.
11:08They're almost moving with it in a wave motion.
11:10That's kind of how you know that it's ready.
11:13All right, this is how you want to be in your fried rice
11:15when it's hot, steaming, almost going to burn your mouth.
11:17Nice individual grains, no clumps.
11:19Everything's kind of the same size.
11:20You eat it with one bite.
11:22That's good.
11:23Ooh, hot.
11:24It has that really lovely texture.
11:26Individual grains, light,
11:28but still has like a light slick of oil to everything.
11:31Peas are nice.
11:31Onions still have a little texture.
11:33Chicken is really silky and bouncy at the same time.
11:36To me, it has just the right amount of salt and MSG.
11:39It does have that kind of like lightly smoky aroma.
11:41That's really important.
11:42Otherwise, fried rice is just kind of sad
11:44and lacking character without it.
11:46It's going to be difficult to replicate exactly
11:48the super intense heat and the cooking vessel,
11:50but as long as you get your seasoning right,
11:53you treat your rice right by cooking it the day before
11:56and coating it with oil and soy sauce
11:58or whatever seasonings you want to use,
12:00it's still going to be a great fried rice.
12:01I don't believe in the idea of perfection,
12:03but it is pretty good.
12:04I think my mom would say it's pretty good.
12:06Some classic Asian-American childhood.
12:08It's like, I guess it's all right.
12:10You could always do better.