My Chef's Hat - Brown Fried Rice with Chicken & Veggies

I'm sure I've talked about this before, but I'm really trying to incorporate more brown rice into my diet.  I'm a huge fan of rice, but for the longest time I would never make or eat white rice because it's too mealey for my tastes.  Over the past couple of years I'll order it when I go to Asian restaurants, and it always tastes really good and is fluffy, very much like white rice.  These days when I cook rice at home I'll do a 50/50 mix of white and brown.  Not 100% the healthiest option, but a good compromise in my book.

A while back I was looking for a new recipe for rice and chicken.  There's a million ways you can cook it, and I was a little bored with the current recipes that I had.  Of course, off to Pinterest I went and found Brown Fried Rice with Chicken & Vegetables. 

Here is the official recipe version:

And here's my version:

Yes, I realize it doesn't look anything like the picture.  But I've decided that I can't stress too much about that, at least not right now.

I've learned something very important from making this and the kale fried rice a couple months ago: toasted sesame oil has an extremely strong flavor, and using just that oil is ridiculously overpowering.  I now use 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil to make any dish, regardless of how much they say to use.  I just substitute olive oil for the remainder.   I bought some pure sesame oil, and am hoping that it's much more mild so I can use a little more.

Aside from the sesame oil, the dish itself is really delicious!  I had to add some more soy sauce once the dish was cooked to dilute some of the sesame oil flavor.  This was a great one-dish meal, and I liked that it's so easy to substitute veggies you have on hand.  I really think this is the first time I've cooked with edamame. The key is to not overcook them, because then they're mushy and gross.  Thankfully I didn't do that.

Will I make this again?  Of course, with the pure sesame oil.  I'm sure different veggies will lend different flavors, and I'm looking forward to trying them out.

Recipe found on The Lemon Bowl