My husband and I have a favorite restaurant in Eugene, OR, called Shoji’s.  You know, one of those Japanese restaurants that performs a show as they cook your food for you.  Everytime we’d go, we’d get the fishbowl drink to start and share and get a wee bit tipsy just in time for the show to begin.  The cook would show off his mad skills and toss up the best tepanyaki we’ve ever had.  We went there so much, on special occasions, that I started to quiz the different chefs that we encountered on how they made it and then I took that information, perfected it, and came up with my own.  This is best cooked if you have a wok.  Not that you cannot use a large skillet, mind you; however, with the wok, it really saves your flinging rice all over your kitchen walls.

Serves 2-4 (depending on how hungry you are)
Cooking/Prep time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
2 cups long grain white rice (Do not use Minute Rice.  If you do, you’ll be sorry as it’s too wet for this recipe.)
4 cups water
kosher salt
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp. margarine
Sunflower Cooking oil
2 chicken breasts, diced
teriyaki sauce (any old brand will do, I like Kikkoman, myself)
Wok Oil blend

Bring the water with a dash of kosher salt to a boil and add rice.  Turn to low and cover for 20 minutes.  Next, in your wok or skillet, heat the butter till melted and add in eggs and scramble.  As the eggs are almost done, with your spatula chop them as finely as you can.  This will save time when you add it to the rice later.  Set the eggs aside, covered.  Next, spin the wok oil twice around the pan and heat your skillet/wok back up again.  Toss in your chicken and cook until almost done.  At the end, throw in about 1 cup of teriyaki sauce and cook for another 5 minutes, allowing the teriyaki to somewhat reduce and very slightly carmelize. Set aside, covered. 

About now, your rice should be getting done.  Once complete, take a fork and fluff.  Add the eggs into the rice.  In your wok/skillet, pour in roughly a cup to a cup and 1/2 of sunflower oil and bring to a simmer.  Throw in your green onions and cook for 2 minutes.  Immediately dump in your rice/egg mixture and toss until the onions get fully encorporated and the rice looks to be covered in the oil.  Here’s where it gets tricky and you really have to watch things, otherwise you’ll either get really greasy rice or burn it.  What you do is take your spatula or favorite tool and press the rice upside the walls of the skillet or wok to the best you can.  Let it sit for a few minutes until you see steam rising from it, then flip the rice.  Everyone’s wok/skillet cooks differently and you may have to play with it a bit till you have it down pat.  You’ll want to repeat this a bit till the rice just barely begins to fry…then you will need to add in about a half a cup of teriyaki.  Toss to encorporate and then repeat the press/flip method until the rice begins to get a light golden brown.  Immediately remove from the heat at this point and cover and you’re done.

Now you could always fancy this up with some chopsticks, tea, and saki and let everyone pile the food on your plate at will.  I will sometimes bake up some marinated tofu to go with this instead of chicken, since I used to be vegetarian and I’ll also add a step before the frying of the rice, and stir fry some of my favorite veggies (onions, mushrooms, zucchini, squash) and set that aside to serve with the rice as well.  My husband is a total meat/potatoes carnivore, though, and so that usually gets skipped. 

Have fun and enjoy!