chiuchow inspired fried rice with chicken scraps 潮州氣味炒飯

When I bought a chicken to make Taiwanese three cups chicken 三杯鷄 I made a vow that I would use all that came with the chicken. It came with a paper bag of chicken scraps, which included the liver, the gizzard, and the neck. I saved the liver and the gizzard, and use the neck to extract a chicken stock with the bones. Today I set out to cook the liver and the gizzard.

I considered using the chicken liver and gizzard to make a vegetable stir fry, but decided the liver would be too rich. By spreading the liver in a big bowl of fired rice and with addition of other ingredients I knew I would result in a delicious and yet mild tasting fried rice dish.

I started to formulate the rough recipe of a Chiuchow inspired fried rice with chicken scraps 潮州氣味炒飯 in my head.

trimming off the tough lining of the gizzard; the tough lining went in with the bones and neck to extract the chicken stock

the gizzard of an American chicken with augmented breasts is tiny; the liver on the left

while shopping today, I checked out these dried shrimps 蝦米 that are USA; and I decided to buy 1/2 pound of the small ones in the middle

this batch has to be the best dried shrimps 蝦米 that I have ever bought in this country, and being bulk I could taste one before buying more than I normally would; I think I would go back and buy more

these on-the-way-out Chinese celery would be sacrilege to throw out

trimmed out the badly wilted leaves and I use these for the fried rice

one of the highlight ingredients is the preserved radish 菜脯 and I now know I only need very little

I used less the the half piece above by cutting it into three thin slices, then diced them into small bits

I recently found out Chiuchow people uses laver seaweed (nori) 紫菜 or 海苔 in fried rice, so I soak this sheet nori in hot water to separate into small pieces. The one harvested on their coast are sold like a round cake and are loose rather than pressed into a nori sheet like this.

typical laver seaweed from the region looks like this and is easier to use for dish like this; 紫菜 means purple vegetable

I believe the black bits in the dish were laver seaweed (nori) 紫菜

In addition to the chicken gizzard and liver I have one big scallop and five medium size Gulf shrimps. I reckoned these should provide enough protein and flavors to the fried rice in addition to the eggs and vegetables. The scallop and shrimps were cut into small pieces.

all the ingredients ready; the black stuff on top of the rice is laver seaweed (nori) 紫菜; the orange bits are chopped up dried shrimps 蝦米

once the ingredients were prepared the frying of the fried rice is done easily; the general rule of making fried rice is never us soy sauce but salt instead

I can do fried rice very well consistently now; always fluffy and light; the rice grains has a hint of chewiness of glutinous rice even with the leftovers

the first bowl of sensible serving

if I was served this bowl in a Chiuchow restaurant I would be utterly impressed

so good - so a second serving