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Looking for an easy, quick meal at home or the campsite? This ham fried rice recipe is easy to prepare, cook, and will taste great after a long day at work, or on the trail.
In this recipe, I use a Cast Iron Wok that I purchased from Backcountry Iron, which is a Utah based company. However, if you don’t have a wok, any large cooking pan you have at home or in your camping gear will work.
The Base Ham Fried Rice Ingredients:
The base ingredients for this ham fried rice recipe are cooking oil / butter, rice, cubed ham, eggs, and soy sauce.
Vegetables:
The vegetable part of this recipe is where you can get creative and change it to fit your needs and taste. I have seen ham fried rice recipes that include all sorts of vegetables, such as, broccoli, leeks, corn, peas, carrots, and even bell pepper. In this recipe, I use yellow onion, green onion, celery, carrots, and my favorite mushrooms.
Prepare Your Vegetables:
Whatever vegetables you decide to use, the first step is to chop them up into small pieces.
Saute the Vegetables:
In a preheated wok or cooking pan, coat the pan with cooking oil, or butter. Place the diced onion in the pan and saute until the onion becomes translucent. Continue to add the remaining vegetables to the pan, allowing each one to saute for a minute, before adding the next. Make sure you are stirring the mixture frequently.
Meat Choices:
Although this recipe calls for ham, there are several other types of proteins that can be added to fried rice. These meats include chicken, beef, sausage, turkey, and shrimp.
Once the vegetables are tender, the next step is to add your meat.
Cold Pre-Cooked Rice:
This is one of the most important parts of any fried rice recipe. You must pre-cook the rice, and then place it in the refrigerator overnight. Cold rice helps with the frying process, and decreases the chance of your rice becoming soggy and sticking together.
Add the cold pre-cooked rice to your vegetables and meat.
Egg:
Once the rice is blended nicely into the vegetables and meat, it’s time to add the beaten eggs. Make sure you stir frequently to avoid the egg from scorching in the pan.
Soy Sauce:
The final step is to add the soy sauce to the mixture. Remember, soy sauce is high in sodium, so the recommendation for this recipe is about 2 tablespoons. If you’re like me add a little more if you wish.
Salt and Pepper to Taste:
Add salt and pepper to taste. I personally don’t add additional salt to this dish due to the high sodium content in the soy sauce.
How can fried rice be cooked outdoors?
Just because your camping, doesn’t mean you have to eat like crap. As mentioned above, this recipe is perfect for the outdoors. As you can see in this video, I actually cooked this recipe in a Cast Iron Wok on a Camp Chef outdoor two burning cooking stove. Simply prepare all of your vegetables, meat, and rice at home. Place the ingredients in small bowls or zip lock bags and put in your cooler. Most likely you will be bringing eggs for breakfast, and the soy sauce and butter can also be placed in small containers as well. Once you’re ready to cook the ham fried rice, follow the same cooking instructions.
Basic Ham Fried Rice Recipe:
1 Tablespoon of Cooking oil / butter - enough to coat the wok or cooking pan
1/2 Cup onions, chopped
2 Cups cold pre-cooked rice
2 eggs, beaten
2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 Cup of each vegetable chopped (Carrots, celery, peas, etc.)
The recipe above is a basic recipe that can be doubled or tweaked as you see fit.
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