Prep Time: 15 min (not including rice cooking time) // Cook Time: 4 min // Total: 19 min // Serving: 5

This crispy kale rice patty recipe is inspired by my love for Korean foods, especially a rice dish called stone bowl bibimpap. These rice patties are crispy, delicious, and are easy and fast to make in less than 30 minutes. Three important things for making this recipe are 1: use medium grain rice such as Calrose rice, or aka sushi rice 2: use hot rice. The heat from the rice will help the rice to stick together. The rice patty will fall apart if the rice is cold. Yes, you can use your leftover rice. Just make sure the rice is hot after you reheat it in the microwave. 3: pan fry the rice patties in a pan on the stove, and do not flip the rice patties until the bottoms are firm. Otherwise, the rice patties can fall apart. You can tell if the patties are ready to flip by gently touching the bottom with a spatula. If you feel the rice is firm on the bottom, it is okay to flip it. It takes two minutes on my stove, but do use your spatula to guide you. This recipe is versatile. Even though I used canned chicken, you can use fresh cooked chicken meat, store-bought rotisserie chicken or left-over chicken. Other proteins like eggs, fish or ground meats will work nicely as well. Serve these crispy rice patties with extra vegetables or proteins on the side. The crispiness of these rice patties reminds me of the Korean stone bibimpap dish that I love to eat at the Korean restaurants.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked Calrose rice, aka sushi rice (any medium grain rice)

• 1 can 12.5 oz canned chicken (1 cup chicken meat)

• ¼ teaspoon rice vinegar

• 4 cups raw kale, blench and chop into small pieces

• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

• 2 teaspoons minced garlic

• 1/8 teaspoons salt

• 1 teaspoon sriracha sauce

• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

• 2 tablespoons sesame oil (for pan frying)

Instructions:

1. Prepare 2 cups of cooked Calrose rice (about 1 cup raw rice)

2. Blanch 4 cups of kale for 1 minute

3. Drain the blanched kale and squeeze the water out

4. Place drained kale in an ice water bath for 30 second then chop kale into small pieces

5. Drain the liquid from the canned chicken and break into small pieces

6. Place cooked rice into a bowl

7. Combine rice vinegar, ginger, garlic salt, kale chicken, sesame seed and sriracha sauce into the rice bowl and mix well with the rice

8. Divide the kale rice mixture into 5 equal portions

9. Place a portion of kale rice mixture in wet hands and roll it firmly into a ball then flatten into a disk with the palm of your hand

10. Pour 2 tablespoons sesame oil in a nonstick frying pan on medium high heat

11. Place the flattened rice balls in the frying pan for 2 minutes or until the bottom of the rice ball turn light golden brown then carefully flip them and pan fry for another 2 minutes

12. Serve immediately