Easy Ham Fried Rice is one of our favorite quick and easy dinners. It’s fun to make and I love adding lots of veggies, ham and eggs to turn it into a well rounded meal.
I’ve learned a few tricks over the years that make it easier to make. One is cooking the eggs in the microwave. I crack them into a one quart glass bowl that I can easily use to microwave them after I beat them. Only one dish to clean, YAY! ***see recipe for how, and how long, to cook the eggs in the microwave.
Another trick, if you want to call it that, is that I grate or use the food processor to finely chop a zucchini to add in the mix. I saute it with the onion and carrot. If I use the food processor I just throw the onion, zucchini and carrots all in it to make them tiny. The kids never even know the zucchini is there, and I get to feel good about adding one more veggie to their diet.
The great thing about making fried rice is you can get away with adding or leaving out almost anything. It is very adaptable and is almost impossible to screw up. It is also a “fun” dinner that kids like to eat, makes them feel like they are eating Chinese food. I have one kid who cries and turns his nose up anytime I serve peas, but for some reason when I make Ham fried Rice, he eats them without complaint..??? Weird, but I’ll take it.
I use whatever type of ham I have on hand. Sometimes it is leftover Holiday Ham, lunch meat ham, turkey ham, or sometimes I have even used kielbasa, because that is what I had around.
Easy Ham Fried Rice is a great way to use up leftover rice, but I usually cook fresh rice in my rice cooker because we rarely have very much leftover rice, remember I raising four “crazy for rice” people over here.
I also use my biggest skillet when I make this so it is easier to stir everything around without making a huge mess. If you don’t have a large skillet you could saute the veggies and meat in a regular skillet and then put the rice (make sure it is warm if you do it this way,) egg, and soy sauce in a big mixing bowl and then add in the sauteed veggies.
One more little thing to say; Everyone has different tastes when it comes to soy sauce. My favorite to use is LaChoy. I like the flavor it gives more than Kikoman in this kind of recipe.
- 6-8 cups of cooked rice
- 6 eggs
- ½ lb of ham cut into small cubes
- ½-1 cup onion, finely chopped
- 3 medium carrots, finely chopped
- 1 zucchini, finely chopped or grated, optional
- 1-1½ cups frozen peas
- 3-5 tbsp soy sauce, depending on personal taste
- 1 tbsp canola, or vegetable oil
- I start my rice cooking in the rice cooker before I start anything else. Leftover rice works great if you have it)
- In a large skillet, add oil and saute ham pieces, onion, carrots and zucchini (if using) until veggies are tender.
- While veggies and ham are sauteing, steam frozen peas or cover them with water and cook in microwave for 4-6 minutes and then drain, set aside.
- In a one quart glass bowl crack six eggs, add a splash of milk and salt and pepper. Whisk until well beaten. Place in microwave for 90 seconds, stir, microwave again for 60 seconds, stir, microwave for 60 seconds. At this point eggs should be almost fully cooked, if they are not, continue to cook in 20-30 second increments until there is no more liquid and eggs are fluffy.Use a fork to break large pieces if needed.
- Add the cooked rice and soy sauce to the cooked veggies and ham. Stir well, add peas and scrambled eggs last and mix until just combined.
- Serve with soy sauce in case anyone wants to add a little more to their personal bowl.
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