Fancy a Chinese this weekend? Well make this instead of ordering out or picking up a ping meal! Trust me, this is so, so nice and a regular on a Saturday night in my house!

Ok, I do fry the chicken and yes the sauce contains some sugar, but why not! It tastes amazing and is still probably far better for you than your local takeaway.

I also have given a recipe to cook the perfect rice. I used to find rice rather hard to cook, but once I learnt how to get amazing rice, I now cook fool-proof fluffy rice every time.

This does take a little bit of prep, but trust me, it’s worth it!

Recipe (serves 2)

2 tsp oil

150g rice (I just use basmati but long grain rice is fine)

2 chicken breasts

3 tbsp corn flour

salt and pepper

500ml vegetable oil (or enough to fill a sauce pan a third up)

1 carrot, peeled and cut into think matchsticks

1 onion, sliced

1 inch root ginger, grated

2 fat cloves of garlic, crushed

1 red chilli, seeds in and sliced

250ml sweet chilli sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

100ml water

3 large spring onions, sliced

2 eggs

Start by cooking your rice. You need the rice to be very cold when you get to fry this, so if your super organised, cook the day before, or if you’re like me, cook it in the afternoon and leave to go cold, then leave in the fridge until needed.

To cook the rice, heat a saucepan which has a tight fitting lid and add the 2 tsp oil. Add the rice and stir fry for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Add enough boiling water to cover the rice by over 1cm above, cover the pan with a piece of kitchen roll and pop on the lid. Put on the lowest heat you can and set an alarm for 20 minutes. DO NOT REMOVE THE LID. once the time is up, turn off the heat and leave, LID ON, for another 15 minutes. You can now fork through the rice and this would be ready to serve if you are wanting plain rice, but for this, pour it out flat onto a plate and leave to cool. Once cool, pop into the fridge until needed.

So for the chicken. Thinly slice your chicken into long-ish slithers. Pour the corn flour and some salt and pepper into a bowl and toss through the chicken until well coated all over.

Heat up the vegetable oil in a large saucepan (for frying) until hot (around 180, you can test by flicking in a sprinkle of corn flour and if it sizzles, it’s ready). Put around half of the chicken into the oil (DON’T over fill the pan! If using more chicken, do more batches) and stir to separate. Let this cook until brown and very crispy. Once cooked, spoon the chicken out with a slotted spoon, drain on kitchen paper and then put onto a baking tray. Repeat until all the chicken is cooked. Leave the chicken on the baking tray and leave in a moderate oven to keep warm until needed.

For the sauce, heat a little of the frying oil in a pan. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and stir fry for a minute. Add in the carrot and onion and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add in the sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce and water and let bubble. This is now done, leave on a low heat or re-heat it until needed.

For the egg fried rice, heat up a frying pan and add 1 tbsp of the frying oil. When hot, add the cold rice, trying to break up the clumped pieces of rice with a wooden spoon. Let it cook, stiring regularly. Push the rice to one side of the pan and crack in the eggs to the other side, giving it a thorough stir to scramble them. Once you have scrambled eggs, stir through the rice to combine. Add in 2 of the chopped spring onions and season with salt.

I like to serve the dishes like the Chinese do, by having plates of the dishes to share with everyone and serving some to eat in your own little bowl.

Take the chicken out the oven and tip onto a plate or large bowl. Pour over the chilli sauce and vegetables and top with the last spring onion as a garnish. Serve the egg fried rice in a large bowl and serve! YUMMMM.