Anyone have some good fried rice recipes?

[MyPaperBleedsInk]

I love eating chicken fried rice, but I just wish I knew some of the best ways to make it. For example I've seen that some people cook it the night before in order to let the rice dry out after cooking. That's really a thing??

Anyway, I'd love to make it myself soon so I'm hoping some people can provide their favorite fried rice recipes.

 

[MyDigitalpoint]

I remember that are many fried rice recipes in my old Chinese cuisine paper book, but this is not at hand to get one from it.

However this is a recipe that I still cook from time to time,

Shrimp Fried Rice
Ingredients
8 oz. small raw shrimp, deveined
1/2 teaspoon kosher sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons cooking oil, divided
3 eggs, beaten
2 stalks green onion, minced
4 cups leftover rice, grains separated well
3/4 cups frozen peas and carrots defrosted
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Instructions:
- In a bowl, toss the shrimp with the salt, pepper and cornstarch. Let marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature.
- Heat a wok or large sauté pan on high heat. When the pan is hot enough for a bead of water to instantly sizzle and evaporate, add just 1 tablespoon of the cooking oil and swirl to coat pan.
- Add the shrimp, quickly spreading out around the cooking surface area so that they are not overlapping. Let fry, untouched for 30 seconds.
- Flip over and let the other side fry for 30 seconds, or until about 80% cooked through.
- Remove the shrimp from the pan onto a plate, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible.
-Turn the heat to medium, let the pan heat up again.
- Add the eggs, stirring in a quick motion to break up and scramble the eggs.
- When the eggs are almost cooked through, dish out of the pan into the same plate as the cooked shrimp.
- Use paper towels to wipe the same wok or sauté pan clean and return to high heat with the remaining 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, swirling to coat.
- When the oil is very hot, add the green onions and fry until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
- Add in the rice and stir well to mix in the green onions throughout.
- Spread the rice all around the wok surface area and let the rice heat up, untouched until you hear the bottoms of the grains sizzle, about 1-2 minutes.
- Use the spatula to toss the rice, again spreading the rice out over the surface of wok.
- Drizzle the soy sauce all around the rice and toss.
- Add the peas and carrots, the cooked eggs, shrimp and sesame oil, tossing to mix the rice evenly with all of the ingredients.
- Let everything heat back up again, until the rice grains are so hot they practically dance!
- Taste and add an additional 1 teaspoon of soy sauce if needed.

 

[OhioTom76]

You don't need to cook the rice the day before, it's helps, but there are work-arounds. If you are in a hurry. just get the pre-cooked rice in cups or pouches. It's already lightly coated in oil so the grains don't stick together, and it only takes 60 seconds to warm up. Or you can make it fresh, but just let it sit out on the counter uncovered for a while until it dries out a bit.

I keep my fried rice simple: Prep some chopped green onions, scramble an egg or two and make sure you have your soy sauce, oil and rice ready to go. For the oil, I use a strong tasting garlic infused oil. I like it because you don't have to worry about burning (or chopping) the garlic, and it tastes much more like fresh garlic than just using garlic powder. Just heat the oil in the pan, toss in the rice and mix it around to coat it, then push it to the side and scramble an egg on the other side of the pan. Toss in the green onions and mix it all together. Then season it with soy sauce and mix it all together and let it fry a bit longer. If you have some fresh ginger, or fish sauce or sesame oil you can add those in too, but I can't stress enough to go easy on the fish sauce, and especially the sesame oil, because it is very very strong - you only need like a 3-4 *drops* of it max.

 

[ReadmeByAmy]

My family loves eating fried rice and we had this recipe that made us full every time we eat........left over rice, scrambled egg strips, chopped garlic, corn kernels, chopped carrots, chopped luncheon meat or ham, chopped onion leeks, (oyster sauce, salt and pepper to taste.)......Prepare the scrambled egg and set aside. Then saute the garlic and luncheon meat and put the rice. Seasoned with oyster sauce, salt and pepper depending on your taste. Finally put the scrambled eggs, carrots, corn kernels and onion leeks and continue to cook the fried rice until done. We love this recipe and its great!

 

[megshoe]

All the recipes above sound really great! The only thing I have to add is that I do personally find it much better to make fried rice with day-old rice. If you don't have time, you can try sticking it in the fridge to let it dry out a bit, otherwise it can become mushy in the pan if you're not careful. Also, don't obsess about making it look like Chinese takeout rice -- real fried rice doesn't get that brown and is much tastier!

 

[Jade]

I agree that it's always better to use dryer rice as newly cooked rice would just steam and it will end up very sticky, which is still good, but it's not traditionally how fried rice is done. As for recipes, my favorite one is the simplest wherein you just need to put in diced ham or chorizo, and mix in eggs at the end. If you prefer, you could also put in some soy sauce to color the rice and give it some extra salty taste since salt sometimes isn't enough to flavor the rice fully. Also, consider putting in some chopped greens like green onions or whatever vegetable you prefer and maybe even some carrots for some extra color as well.