Arroz Chaufa (Peruvian Chinese Fried Rice with Chicken)

Lima’s Chifa fried rice: chicken, red pepper, ginger, garlic and scallions tossed over high heat with day-old rice, soy and a surprising amount of cumin.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Rice section’s regional pages and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons neutral oil, such as grapeseed
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste
• 1 medium red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and roughly chopped
• ½ pound (225 g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into ½-inch cubes
• 1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced, whites and greens kept separate
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper, plus more to taste
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon MSG (optional)
• 2 cups cooked white rice, cooled
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari, plus more to taste
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Directions

Key ingredients

Black Pepper · Salt · Soy Sauce

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat until it shimmers. Add the eggs with a pinch of salt and cook, flipping once, about 2 minutes. Chop them and set aside.
2. Add 1 tablespoon more oil. Cook the bell pepper with a pinch of salt, stirring, until lightly charred and softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove it.
3. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and cook the chicken with a pinch of salt until golden and cooked through, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the ginger, garlic and scallion whites and cook 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in the cumin, white pepper, sugar and MSG.
5. Break up the cold rice with your hands and add it, stirring until every grain is coated. Pour the soy sauce and sesame oil around the edge of the pan and toss. Cook, stirring, until some of the rice crisps, 5 to 8 minutes.
6. Add back the eggs and pepper with the scallion greens, cook 1 minute more, adjust with salt, soy and white pepper, and serve at once.

Notes

Source Adapted from Ham El-Waylly, “Arroz Chaufa (Fried Rice With Chicken and Bell Pepper),” NYT Cooking (2023). The quantities are his and are internally consistent. The tablespoon of cumin is his choice rather than a fixed feature of chaufa; other versions, his headnote says, might use sliced hot dogs, shrimp or strips of meat.

Heat and batches His headnote’s key point is keeping the pan hot, which at home means small batches. To feed more people, multiply the recipe but fry the rice in batches, holding finished batches under foil in a warm oven.

The dish Chinese laborers arrived in Peru from the mid-1800s, and the Chinese-Peruvian cooking that grew from it is called Chifa; chaufa comes from Cantonese 炒飯, “fried rice”. The Rice section’s Spain and Latin America page (/rice/spain-and-latin-america/) places it beside Mexican fried rice.

The photo The photograph shows a plate of arroz chaufa, not this exact recipe.