Default Dinner Diaries, episode twelve
15-Minute Street Corn Fried Rice
The one I make when it’s 5:15, there’s no plan, and everybody wants to eat in fifteen minutes.
Jump to recipeI think a lot of us got sold this idea that a from-scratch dinner on a weeknight is the goal, and honestly it is just not. Not when I log off at 5, I’m at daycare pickup by 5:15, and everyone in this house wants to eat by 5:30.
The thing that is always in my pantry is microwave rice. I only buy Lundberg Organic 90-Second Cilantro Lime Rice because it’s organic and the back of the pouch is literally three ingredients, and 90 seconds versus standing over a pot for 25 minutes is not a conversation we’re having.
This one takes fifteen minutes and both of my kids ate it.
The short version: street corn fried rice takes 15 minutes because you skip the two steps that normally make fried rice slow. You use a 90-second microwave rice pouch instead of cooking and cooling rice, and you use pre-seasoned cilantro lime rice so there’s no sauce to build. Scramble the eggs, char frozen corn, add rotisserie chicken and the rice, then press it flat and leave it two minutes so the bottom crisps. Makes 4 servings with about 30g of protein each.
Street Corn Fried Rice
High protein, one pan, no sauce to make
Rice comes in whole pouches, so round up.
Ingredients
- 1 pouch Lundberg Organic 90-Second Cilantro Lime Rice already seasoned, so you’re not making a sauce at 5:25
- 2 cups rotisserie chicken, shredded
- 1 cup frozen fire-roasted corn straight from the freezer, do not thaw
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup feta or cotija
- 1/3 cup Greek yogurt, plus a big squeeze of lime, stirred together
- Tajín, to taste
- Olive oil or butter, for the pan
Instructions
- Scramble the eggs in a hot pan and get them out. Set aside.
- Corn straight from the freezer into the hot pan for 3 minutes. Let it char a little. Don’t thaw it.
- Add the shredded chicken and stir to warm through.
- Microwave the rice for 90 seconds and dump it straight in.
- Press everything flat with the spatula and leave it alone for two minutes. Don’t stir. You want a crispy layer on the bottom, then scrape it up and mix it through. This is the step that makes it.
- Eggs back in. Top with feta, the lime yogurt drizzled over, and Tajín on the adult bowls only.
Notes
The cilantro lime rice is doing the seasoning work here, which is why there’s no sauce step.
My 3.5-year-old ate the entire thing. My 21-month-old ate everything except the corn, which he removed one by one and lined up on his tray like evidence.
Skip the Tajín on the kids’ bowls.
Questions I get about this one
Can you make fried rice without day-old rice?
Yes. Day-old rice is traditional because it’s drier and separated, but a 90-second microwave pouch works straight out of the package. You don’t have to plan ahead or cook rice the night before.
How do you get crispy fried rice at home?
Press everything flat against a hot pan and leave it alone for a full two minutes without stirring. Stirring is what keeps it from crisping. Then scrape the crust up and mix it through.
Is this a high protein dinner?
Yes. Rotisserie chicken, eggs and Greek yogurt put this around 30g of protein per serving across 4 servings, without adding a protein powder or a separate side.
Can you make it dairy free or gluten free?
The rice is gluten free on its own. For dairy free, skip the feta and use a dairy-free yogurt for the lime drizzle. Everything else in the recipe is already both.
What can you use instead of rotisserie chicken?
Any cooked protein you already have. Leftover shredded chicken, ground turkey, frozen cooked shrimp, or black beans if you want it meat free.
Will toddlers eat it?
Mine did, with the Tajín left off their bowls. The corn is the piece most likely to get picked out, so chop it smaller or leave it off a kid’s portion.
The goal was never an impressive dinner, it’s dinner happening at all. I’d so much rather be sitting at that table with them for those twenty minutes than standing at the stove with my back turned.
This post is sponsored by Lundberg Family Farms. Some links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.
