The Favorite Ingredient Bobby Flay Says Shouldn't Be Taken For Granted

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Don't sleep on side dishes. With the right preparation, what are often considered simply throwaway elements can steal the limelight, as celebrity chef Bobby Flay has made abundantly clear with his well-documented love of rice. In fact, the Food Network star even credits his crispy coconut scallion rice recipe for his winning streak on the reality show "Beat Bobby Flay," proudly confirming that the dish has garnered plenty of adoring fans in his own home too. Naturally, this super popular recipe is in Flay's cookbook "Bobby at Home: Fearless Flavors from My Kitchen." 

Though browning the base of crispy rice may seem like an amateur move, the intentional crisping of rice kernels can actually give new life to yesterday's dinner, transforming a basic bowl of basmati into a near transcendent culinary experience. Likewise, the crunch of rice cooked in oil combined with a fluffy, tender bite makes for the kind of recipe that can easily become the star of the night's meal. 

According to Bobby Flay, restaurant-quality crispy rice can be seasoned with a wide variety of flavors to please different crowds. The beloved celebrity chef is known to skip rinsing rice before cooking, instead heading straight to the pan. Once long-grain rice has been cooked with coconut milk, salt, pepper, and water, Flay layers the cool, fluffed rice into a cast-iron pan with heated oil until the bottom of the rice turns golden and crispy. 

Pressing the rice down lightly with a spatula can help the bottom brown before the mass is flipped over to cook for another four or five minutes, until the other side turns to crispy perfection too. Once the rice is crispy and golden, servings can be crowned with chopped scallions. Crispy rice recipes can be further customized and modified with different finishing oils, herbs, and garnishes — truly, the only limit is your own imagination.

While Flay's crispy-coconut scallion rice is delicious enough to eat on its own, it can also be paired with your favorite proteins. You can add scrambled eggs, chopped bacon, or air-fried tofu. Vegetarians may want to add mushrooms to their dish, and those looking to bring a touch of heat can even finish it off with a drizzle of Calabrian chili oil.