Cantonese Salted Fish & Chicken Fried Rice 🇨🇳

When I last visited my sister in San Francisco, she took me to a Cantonese restaurant in Chinatown where I was delighted to find on the menu a favourite dish going back to my childhood years in Hong Kong.  This delicious fried rice can be made easily at home but not without the infamous Chinese salted fish - a rather pungent, suspicious looking specimen to the uninitiated.  Preserved with salt and hung up to dry in the sun, it is a staple food in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.  Used sparingly, it enhances the flavour of dishes with an almost additive savoury kick.  Think of perfectly cooked grains of rice intermingling with bits of intense saltiness, tasty chicken bites and crunchy shredded lettuce in this instance.  Packaged portions of salted fish are available from Asian grocery stores. Slice off what you need and keep the rest in the fridge in a ziplock bag for another recipe.

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

• 380g / 13½oz cooked long grain rice, cooled to room temperature*
• 20g / ¾oz Chinese salted fish
• 180g / 6⅓oz chicken breast
• 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons cornflour
• 2 teaspoons water
• 2 slices thumb sized fresh ginger, sliced into thin strips
• a few tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 1 egg, beaten
• 100g / 3½oz iceberg or cos lettuce, shredded
• 1-2 spring onions, chopped
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce

METHOD

1. Cut the chicken into thick strips, then across into 1cm / ½" cubes.  Place in a bowl and mix with oyster sauce, cornflour and water.
2. Cut salted fish into 5mm / ¼" thick strips, then across into pea sized pieces.
3. Heat a wok on high, then add 1 teaspoon oil.  Add the egg and scramble for 20-30 seconds until just cooked.  Remove and set aside.
4. Add another teaspoon oil to the wok.  Add the chicken and stir fry on medium high heat for 1 minute or so until just cooked and browned on the edges.  Remove and set aside.
5. Reduce heat slightly to medium high.  Add 2 teaspoons oil to the wok.  Add the ginger and salted fish and stir fry for about 1 minute until fragrant.
6. Add the rice.  Use the edge of the wok spatula to quickly break up large clumps, then toss them around for 1-2 minutes to coat each grain in oil.
7. Return the chicken and the egg to the wok.  Continue to stir fry for 1 minute to mix ingredients together.
8. Have a taste of the rice.  Season with fish sauce.  Add more or less as preferred.   
9. Toss in the lettuce and the spring onions.  Stir fry for 1 more minute until the lettuce begins to wilt.  Remove from heat.  Serve hot.

*Instructions for cooking rice by absorption method is here.