Kimchi Fried Rice with Spam

• servings: 4 servings
• active time: 15 minutes
• total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

3 cups rice (cold, leftover rice, *see notes)

1 cup spam (chopped into ¼ inch cubes, *see notes for substitutions)

2 cloves garlic (finely minced, approx. 1 ½ tablespoon)

1/3 cup onion (diced)

1 cup kimchi

2-3 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons sesame oil (mixed it at the very end after the rice is done cooking)

(optional) egg (To make a sunny side-up fried egg on top)

1/4 cup kimchi liquid (squeezed from the kimchi)

1 tablespoon gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)

1 tablespoon fish sauce (or soy sauce)

toasted sesame seeds

green onions

Directions

Prepare the Ingredients

Gently break up the leftover cold rice by hand into small pieces.

Measure out the kimchi and place it in bowl. Squeeze as much of the liquid out of the kimchi as you can into a separate bowl. Chop the kimchi into small 1/4 pieces and set it aside for later

Remove the spam from the can and chop it into small 1/4 inch cubes. Set it aside for later

Peel and dice an onion and set it aside for later

Peel and finely mince the garlic and set it aside for later

If you are using green onions as a garnish, finely chop it and set it aside for the very end.

Mix the Sauce

Make sure you have enough reserved liquid for the recipe. If you don't have enough kimchi liquid, you can mix 2½ teaspoons of gochujang with 2 tablespoons of water to make up for the remainder of the kimchi liquid. (You can double it, if you need more than 2 tablespoons of liquid)

Once you have enough kimchi liquid, mix it with the fish sauce and gochujang until it forms a sauce.

(Optional) Fry a Sunny Side-Up Egg

If you are serving it with a fried egg, pan-fry a sunny side-up egg and place it on a plate, and set it aside for the very end.

Making the Kimchi Fried Rice

Set the stove to medium-high heat and melt the butter with 1-2 tablespoons of oil

Once the butter has melted, add in the spam. Toast the spam until it turns a toasty dark pink color (approximately 3-4 minutes)

Reduce the heat on the stove to medium heat

Add in the onions and garlic and cook it for 2 minutes

Add in the kimchi and cook it for 3-4 minutes until there is very little to no liquid in the frying pan

Add the cooked rice and cook it for 1-2 minutes.

Add the sauce and mix everything together for about 1 minute until everything is mixed together evenly. If there are any lumps in the rice, wait until it has warmed up from the heat and use your utensil to press on it to break it down into individual grains of rice. Make sure to coat all the rice with the sauce so that you see no white rice.

Do a taste test. If it needs more salt, add in more salt or soy sauce until it is flavored the way you like.

Turn off the heat, and mix in the sesame oil and garnish with toppings of your choice! If you made a fried egg, place it on top of your fried rice and enjoy with the runny yolk!

Enjoy hot as a meal or a side dish!

Notes

Only Jonathan liked with the spam kids said to make it with chicken.

Nutrition

• Calories: 774 kcal
• Total Fat: 24 g
• Saturated Fat: 10 g
• Unsaturated Fat: 13 g
• Trans Fat: 1 g
• Cholesterol: 57 mg
• Sodium: 1246 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 117 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2 g
• Total Sugars: 1 g
• Protein: 18 g