Last night was Jollibee-style dinner aboard the boat: fried chicken, rice, gravy, and a crew that absolutely demolished it.
But the next morning we still had some chicken and rice left over.
Perfect.
Instead of throwing together another boring plate of leftovers, we turned the rice into a simple Japanese-style chahan — fried rice — added sausage, egg, onion, garlic and green onion, reheated a piece of leftover fried chicken, and used the last of the vegetables for a quick tomato-and-cucumber salad.
Nothing fancy.
Just real food, real leftovers, and boat-galley cooking.
Japanese Chahan Brunch — Pirate’s Cookbook Style
Leftovers make the best meals.
This recipe came together from what we already had on board: leftover rice, fried chicken, a little sausage, eggs, onion, garlic, green onion, tomato and cucumber.
Use safely stored leftovers
Use rice and chicken that were refrigerated promptly in shallow containers and kept cold. Discard cooked food left at room temperature for more than two hours. Use refrigerated leftovers within two to three days.
Reheat the fried rice and the chicken to 74°C (165°F), checking with a food thermometer. See Health Canada’s leftover food guidance.
Ingredients
For the chahan
- Leftover cooked rice
- Breakfast sausage, cut into bite-size pieces
- Red onion, chopped
- Minced garlic
- 2 eggs, beaten
- Green onion / scallion, chopped
- Peanut oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Soy sauce or other seasoning to taste
On the side
- Leftover fried chicken
- Cucumber
- Tomato
- Green onion
- Greek feta-and-oregano dressing
Step 1 — Prep everything first
Fried rice moves quickly once the pan is hot, so get everything ready before you start cooking.
Chop the red onion.
Cut the sausage into small pieces.
Get the minced garlic ready.
Beat the two eggs.
Slice the green onion.
Keep the leftover rice close by.
Step 2 — Heat the pan
Add a little peanut oil to a hot frying pan.
You only need enough oil to get everything moving and prevent sticking.
Step 3 — Cook the onion, sausage and garlic
Add the chopped onion and sausage to the hot pan.
Stir in the minced garlic and cook until the onion softens and the sausage is cooked through. Check raw pork, beef or lamb sausage reaches 71°C (160°F); raw poultry sausage needs 74°C (165°F). Use a food thermometer rather than color alone. See Health Canada’s safe cooking temperatures.
This is where the kitchen starts smelling like brunch.
Step 4 — Add the eggs
Pour in the beaten eggs.
Let them start to cook, then break them up through the sausage and onion mixture so you get little pieces of egg throughout the rice.
Step 5 — Add the leftover rice
Add the cooked rice to the pan.
Break up any clumps and mix everything together so the rice picks up the sausage, onion, garlic and egg.
Step 6 — Finish with green onion and seasoning
Throw in the chopped green onion near the end.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, soy sauce, or whatever works with the ingredients you have on board.
Keep it simple.
The quick tomato and cucumber salad
We were getting pretty damn low on vegetables, so this was a straight-up use-what-you-have salad.
Slice the cucumber.
Cut the tomato into wedges.
Add a little chopped green onion.
Toss with Greek feta-and-oregano dressing.
Done.
Fresh, cold, and crunchy beside the hot fried rice.
Plate it
Pack the chahan into a small bowl, then flip it onto the plate to make a neat fried-rice mound.
Add cucumber and tomato on the side.
Finish the plate with one piece of leftover fried chicken reheated to 74°C (165°F).
Simple as hell, but it looks like a proper restaurant plate.
The Pirate’s Cookbook rule
Leftovers aren’t leftovers until you run out of imagination.
One dinner became another meal.
That is boat-galley cooking:
Use what you have. Waste less. Make it taste good. Get back to work.
Brunch was finished just in time.
Then it was back outside to move hats.
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What’s the best meal you’ve ever made from leftovers?
