This one was not really about dinner. We were boondocking in Wisconsin and about to run two travel days back to back with an overnight stop in between, so Fabiola cooked once and covered dinner that night, lunch the next day, and probably Sunday too.
That is the argument for fried rice on a griddle. A 17 inch surface holds more than any pan in the rig, and having food already made is the thing that stops a tired travel day from ending at a drive-through.
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Blackstone fried rice recipe
Makes: about three meals for two people
Cooks on: a 17 inch Blackstone tabletop griddle
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
- Cooked rice, several cups, made ahead and cooled
- Broccoli, chopped small
- Corn
- 3 to 4 eggs
- Salt and garlic, for the eggs
- Cooking oil
Steps
- Cut the chicken into small pieces with kitchen scissors, straight over the bowl.
- Fry the chicken on its own in oil on the hot griddle until it actually browns. Don't mix anything into it yet.
- Add the broccoli and corn once the chicken has color, and let them cook down against the steel.
- Add the cooked, cooled rice and fold it through. If the griddle still looks like mostly chicken and vegetables, add more rice.
- Season the eggs with salt and garlic and cook them separately in the low corner of the griddle, then mix them in.
- Fold it all together and pack it into containers while it's warm.
The longer version of each step, including the mistake we made with the chicken, is below.
Where these numbers come from
Estimated from what fills the griddle on camera, not from anything said. The chicken, broccoli, corn, egg, salt and garlic are all named or clearly visible. No amount is.
Cut the chicken with scissors
Fabiola picked this up from Nathan and it changed how she preps. Kitchen scissors straight into the raw chicken over the bowl, no cutting board, no knife. Her reaction the first time she saw it was "what is this American dude doing," and then, roughly ten seconds later, that it was practical and fast enough to adopt permanently.
In a rig, the real win is that it is one tool to wash instead of a board and a knife, and there is no raw-chicken cutting board to find counter space for.
The order, and the one mistake
1. Chicken first, on its own, and let it actually fry. This is the part we got wrong and talked about on camera. The chicken needs to fry properly before anything gets mixed into it. Start combining too early and you end up steaming raw meat in among the vegetables instead of browning it.
2. Vegetables next. Broccoli and corn go in once the chicken has color, and they cook down against the hot steel.
3. Rice, and more rice than you think. Cooked and cooled rice goes on and gets folded through. There is a moment on camera where the whole griddle looks like chicken and vegetables with a token amount of rice in it, and the fix is simply to add more. Rice that is already a little dried out and crisped in spots is a feature here, not a problem.
4. Eggs in the low corner. Seasoned with salt and garlic and cooked separately before being mixed in. Our table sat very slightly tilted toward the back, which was good for draining grease and bad for eggs, so they need to go somewhere you can catch them.
5. Fold it all together and pack it warm. Straight into containers for the next two days.
Cooking on a windy site
We were out in the open with no hookups and it was blowing hard enough that we spent the first few minutes watching to see whether the burner would even stay lit. It did. If you are cooking on an exposed site, the lid is what protects the flame, and putting the griddle on the leeward side of the rig helps more than anything else.
Blackstone fried rice questions
Can you make fried rice on a Blackstone griddle?
Yes, and it's one of the better things to cook on one. A 17 inch griddle holds more than any pan in our rig, which is why we use it to cook several meals at once.
Should the rice be cooked ahead of time?
Yes. We use rice that was cooked ahead and cooled. Rice that is already a little dried out and crisps in spots is a feature here, not a problem.
What order do the ingredients go on the griddle?
Chicken first, on its own, until it actually fries. Then the broccoli and corn, then the rice, then the eggs, cooked separately and mixed in last. Mixing too early steams the chicken instead of browning it.
How long does Blackstone fried rice keep?
We cooked one batch for dinner that night, lunch the next day and probably the day after. Pack it into containers while it's still warm.
Gear
Ours is the Blackstone 17 inch tabletop griddle, on Amazon. For fried rice the two useful tools are a pair of stiff spatulas, because folding a full griddle of rice takes two hands, and the squeeze bottles for oil and water. Both are in the Blackstone Pro tool kit. It travels in this carry bag and cooks on a folding aluminum table.
The rest of the kitchen is on our camp kitchen page, and how we run a site with no hookups at all is in our boondocking setup.
The cook, and how the rest of that boondocking week went, is in the Wisconsin video.