Chahan is the fried rice you'll find sizzling away behind the counter at almost every Japanese diner and izakaya, usually served alongside a bowl of ramen or gyoza. It's lighter and a little more delicate than Chinese-style fried rice, seasoned simply with soy sauce, a touch of sesame oil and plenty of white pepper, so the rice itself gets to shine rather than being drowned in sauce.
This is proper leftover-rice cooking - the kind of dish Japanese home cooks whip up on a weeknight using whatever's in the fridge. Bacon or ham, a scattering of frozen peas or corn, a couple of eggs and yesterday's rice is really all you need. The trick to getting that classic loose, slightly toasted texture is using cold, day-old rice and a screaming hot pan.
Once you've got the technique down - egg first, rice in, keep it moving - you'll find yourself making chahan whenever you've got cooked rice going spare. It's fast, forgiving and endlessly good.
