Weathering With You-Inspired Potato Chip Beef Fried Rice Recipe

Potato chips may seem like an unusual add-in for a fried rice recipe, but as the title indicates, this is something that developer Rika Hoffman spotted in the anime "Weathering With You." In one scene, which is set during inclement weather, a young woman prepares fried rice made with seaweed-flavored chips, microgreens, and raw egg yolk. Hoffman describes the dish as "quick and comforting ... the perfect meal for a rainy day and a sweet moment of calm amid the storm."

Hoffman's recipe is more along the lines of the fried rice we're familiar with from countless Chinese-American takeout meals as it omits the microgreens and scrambles the egg before stirring it into a mixture of rice, peas, carrots, corn, and scallions. She retains the potato chips, however, which are the real star of the show. Hoffman tells us, "The salty crunch of crushed chips provides variability of texture in every bite," and adds that you can even serve whole chips on the side and use these to spoon up the rice for some extra flavor and crunch.

The main ingredients of this fried rice dish are eggs, steak, cooked rice, scallions, and mixed vegetables — you can choose whichever ones you like, but Hoffman opts for carrots, corn, and peas. You're also going to need garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, and pepper for seasoning, oil for cooking, and of course, some potato chips to stir in or sprinkle on top once the fried rice has finished cooking. Hoffman says she uses the plain salted kind of ripple chips, but thinks that any kind will do. "Sour cream and onion or black pepper potato chips," she feels, "would be especially delicious."

Warm up a frying pan over a burner set to medium. Once it's getting hot, pour in a teaspoon of oil along with the eggs and scramble them until they're cooked. Once the eggs are set, take them out of the pan and wipe it out.

Fry the beef over medium heat until it is browned all over and you can't see any more pink. Take it out of the pan and put it to one side. "Cook[ing the meat] separately before adding it to the fried rice," Hoffman tells us, "gives you the opportunity to discard some of the excess grease if that's your preference."

Pour the rest of the cooking oil into the pan and stir in the garlic and scallion whites. Add the rice, as well. Hoffman points out, "Refrigerated rice tends to clump together," so she advises crushing or crumbling it to break it up into individual grains. Stir-fry the rice until it's all warmed up.

The vegetables, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and pepper all get added to the pan at this point. Stir-fry the fried rice until the vegetables are cooked and all of the rice is covered in the sauce. 

When the vegetables are cooked, add the meat and eggs to the mixture, then taste it and add as much salt as you feel it needs. As for the potato chips, you have a choice as to how to use them. You can either stir them into the fried rice or, to keep them crisper for longer, scatter them over the top. Garnish the dish with the scallion greens, then dig in.

Should you not be anticipating eating all of the fried rice in a single sitting, it can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for as long as you like, but Hoffman advises holding off on adding the potato chips until right before you eat. This, she says, will "maintain their freshness and crunch."