Big Mac Fried Rice

Yes, you read that right. Big Mac Fried Rice. The junkiest, best, dribble-down-your-chin cheeseburger as rice, at home. Let me break it down: iceberg lettuce cups filled with sticky sushi rice mixed with browned ground beef cooked with beef stock cubes, pickles, tomatoes and white onion, topped with shitty, Kraft-singles-style cheese and a classic, more-is-better, lick-your-fingers burger sauce. It’s one of the most exciting things to hit quarantine 2020, in this house at least, and we’re eating it weekly.

The original recipe, from @AnnaBarnettCooks via @SohoHouse, calls for pan-fried tortillas with sesame seeds as an Asian-inspired bun-substitute, but we found them unnecessary and time consuming. The rest of it, though, is pretty much by the letter. It’s such a great recipe, so easy to make, and really, honestly tastes like a Big Mac.

BIG MAC FRIED RICE

This recipe is adapted from an Instagram Live by @AnnaBarnettCooks, who was working with @SohoHouse to recreate one of their dishes. It was all purely sponsored content, but I lapped it right up. And now you can, too! Serves 4 - 6 but here’s a friendly PSA: the beef fried rice is AMAZING reheated the next day with some fried eggs on top, so go ahead and make the full amount.

Beef Fried Rice

500 grams (2.5 cups) sushi rice

1 kg (2.2 lbs) minced beef

1 white onion, finely diced

5 - 7 dill pickles, finely diced

10 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 beef stock cubes

soy sauce

Burger Sauce

1/2 cup (100 grams) mayonnaise

1/2 cup (100 grams) ketchup

1/4 cup (50 grams) American ballpark mustard

sprinkle of cayenne pepper

some diced pickle

glug of pickle juice (this is essential!)

Garnish

iceberg lettuce (1 - 2 big leaves per plate)

6 slices American cheese (or cheddar if you must, but I really think it makes a difference)

some diced pickle

some diced white onion

Cook the sushi rice: as per instructions…for 500 grams rice, add rice to 700 ml of cold water in a pot and bring to a boil, simmer covered for 10 minutes then turn off heat and leave alone for 15 more minutes, not removing the cover until 15 minutes has passed.

Cook the beef: In a large pan or small pot, brown the beef mince in a little oil over high heat until browning. Once the beef is really browning, add in most of the diced onion (keep aside a bit for garnish), all the halved cherry tomatoes, and the pickles (keep some of these aside for the burger sauce and garnish). After a few minutes, add in the beef stock cubes and mush them up. Add in a splash of water if it’s too dry and add soy sauce to taste. When sushi rice is cooked, add it to the pot and stir to combine for a few seconds. Turn off heat and set aside.

While the meat and the rice cook, chop your pickles, tomatoes and onions and prepare the burger sauce.

Make the burger sauce by mixing everything in a medium-sized bowl, then set aside.

To plate: place a full iceberg lettuce leaf like a cup in the middle of the plate. Spoon the hot beef-rice mixture to fill, top with a single slice of American cheese, some diced pickles and onions, then drizzle some burger sauce on top. Repeat for the remaining plates. Serve with extra burger sauce on the side.