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Any Asian household or restaurant is never complete without fried rice. This dish is pretty much a staple, whether in Chinese restaurants, Korean restaurants, Thai restaurants, and more. While you can get great restaurant-quality fried rice, did you know that you can also make fried rice at home? Yes, you read that right! You don’t have to rush to your nearest restaurant for making fried rice at home is totally quick and easy!
Making fried rice from scratch can not only save you money, you’ll also be certain that its taste is to your absolute preference. Fried rice is a great dish to eat on its own, and it’s highly customizable that you can very well toss in any ingredient that you want with it. You can also eat it as a side dish, or even eat it with a side dish, a stir fry, meat, and so much more.
In this article, we’ll be teaching you this easy to make fried rice that you can definitely cook in a total time of 10 minutes! This easy fried rice dish is so simple and fuss-free to make, we’re sure that a certain uncle who loves fried rice won’t be disappointed with it! If you’ve never made fried rice before, fret not, we promise it’s really simple to do so!
What is the Best for Egg Fried Rice?
Use chilled day-old rice
When it comes to making any kind of fried rice, using day-old rice is always the best thing. For the best fried rice recipe, it will always start with having leftover, refrigerated rice. Trust us when we say that fried rice made with freshly-cooked rice is never a good thing. No matter what recipe you use, a fresh batch of rice doesn’t cook well into fried rice as it will turn sticky and clumpy once it hits the pan.
For days when you’re just craving fried rice and you have no leftover rice, you can cook up a fresh batch, spread it out on a flat pan or a baking sheet, set aside, and let it air for an hour or two. You can also put it in a large pan and chuck it in the fridge for 30 minutes, or around 10-15 minutes in the freezer.
Scramble your eggs
You may prefer your eggs sunny side-up but for an egg fried rice recipe, it’s always best to have your eggs scrambled. Breaking the cooked scrambled eggs before adding them to the fried rice adds color and ensures that every spoonful you take will have a bit of egg in it.
Add vegetables
No fried rice recipe is good and complete without any vegetables! Vegetables not only add more flavor and texture to the egg fried rice, but they also add a splash of color, making the dish even more appetizing. Add bean sprouts, green onions, carrots, corn, bell pepper, anything that you wish! Vegetables are usually diced before adding to the fried rice, making it easy to both cook and eat.
Use toasted sesame oil and oyster sauce
These two ingredients make a whole lot of difference in fried rice! The sweet-salty flavor of oyster sauce layers richness in the egg fried rice. On the other hand, if you add toasted sesame oil as a finishing touch, it gives the rice a dash of nuttiness and a light fragrance. Including oyster sauce and sesame oil in your fried rice makes it even more delectable.
Let the rice brown and be crispy
One great secret of having a great rice dish is to have the rice brown a little on the bottom. We do understand that there may be individuals who don’t like their rice to be brown and crispy, but trust us when we say that one of the greatest things about this dish is having a bit of crisp on the rice! The crispier the rice, the better!
Add more soy sauce
While this fried recipe only calls for 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, it is definitely more than okay to put in extra soy sauce in the end. In this recipe, we used soy sauce that’s low in sodium but of course, you can use any soy sauce that you prefer! Each of us has different tastes and sensitivities when it comes to soy sauce. When cooking with this recipe, definitely use the brand of soy sauce that you like, or more tablespoons at the end if that is what tastes good to you.
What Type of Rice Should I Use for this Recipe?
To make a great egg fried rice, you can use any type of rice that you like! It’s totally up to you whether you want to use jasmine rice, long-grain rice, short-grain, anything. The important thing to note is that for any recipe involving fried rice, you should use cooked rice, preferably one that was made the day before. For a healthier recipe, you can serve delicious fried brown rice! Quinoa is also an option for the health-conscious.
Are There Other Fried Rice Variations?
This is why it’s great to learn how to make your own fried rice at home as there are absolutely a ton of other ways to make fried rice! Egg fried rice is just one thing, and there’s so much more! With rice as the central ingredient, you can switch up the other components of the dish to make a totally new kind of fried grains dish every time. You can add in meats such as chicken, pork, or beef for a great meaty fried recipe. Add in kimchi to make the popular Korean dish of kimchi fried rice and add a fried sunny-side up egg on top of it. For a more traditional Chinese or Thai recipe, you can add in chopped pineapple. The possibilities are endless with fried rice!
Can You Reheat this Rice Dish Recipe?
Absolutely! Just like the rice that we used for this recipe – yesterday’s rice, chilled in the fridge – this rice dish tastes even better on the next day! If you can’t finish your serving or if you made a lot of rice using this recipe, be sure to put it in an airtight container! To reheat the rice, you can do so on a pan with a dash of oil or butter. If you’re not up to using the pan, you can put the rice in the microwave and heat it in a high setting.
Ingredients
Acquiring ingredients for the perfect egg fried rice isn’t difficult at all. In fact, these items may already be sitting in your cupboards or fridge and you just didn’t have the perfect use for them until now. If not, then write down these items in your shopping list so that you don’t forget anything!
Here are all the ingredients that you need to make egg fried rice:
- 4 cups chilled day-old rice
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons of oil (Your choice of peanut oil, vegetable oil, or olive oil)
- 1 ½ to 2 cups of diced vegetables
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Oyster sauce (optional)
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
- Salt and pepper
In this recipe, we used traditional white rice, and one that’s been chilled for a day. We’d like to reiterate that freshly cooked rice will not work that well with this recipe, unless you chuck it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Yesterday’s rice is the best rice for this recipe. Additionally, If you’re opting for a healthier dish, you have the option to use brown rice instead. Quinoa can work well too.
This recipe is good for one. If you’re looking to cook rice for a group of people, be sure to double the ingredients according to how many persons you’ll be serving.
Instructions
A recipe isn’t a recipe without directions on how to make the dish, of course! Don’t worry, we assure you that this egg fried rice recipe is easy to make! It’s so quick and easy, it will only take you 10 minutes total time!
Step 1. Crack your eggs in a bowl and beat them together. Afterward, take a wok and put it on medium-high heat. If you don’t have a wok, a skillet pan works well too. Add 1 tablespoon of oil. You can use peanut oil, vegetable oil, or olive oil, whichever of those you prefer. Add the beaten eggs and scramble them for a couple of minutes, breaking them into smaller pieces as they cook. Transfer them to a dish and set aside once they’re done.
Step 2. Place your pan back on the stove and cook your garlic and vegetables together. Feel free to add any vegetable you’d like, as long as you have them diced. Stir-fry your carrots, onions, peas, and the like, and make sure that they are soft and cooked through. Be sure to season your vegetables with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.
Step 3. Turn your stove up to a high heat. Move your vegetables to one side of the pan, and on the free half, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add your cooked rice to the pan. For this rice recipe, you can use any type of rice grain that you prefer. Jasmine rice, long grain rice, etc. Any type of rice will make a great egg fried rice. Add the soy sauce and if you’re using oyster sauce, add that in as well.
Step 4. Cook the rice for several minutes, occasionally stirring it with the vegetables. Let the rice rest on one side before stirring it once more so that it will crisp up on the pan. Add in your eggs and stir them with the rice and vegetables to combine.
Step 5. Remove from heat. Add half a teaspoon of sesame oil if you wish to do so, and stir once more. Taste your newly-cooked egg fried rice, and if needed, you may add another dash of soy sauce.
Step 6. Serve and dig in! You can also refrigerate the egg fried rice in a sealed container and keep it for up to 3 days.
Congratulations, you’ve successfully made egg fried rice in a total time of 10 minutes! Now that you have this great recipe on hand, you can whip up egg fried rice anytime, any day that you want. You can also make this recipe in double, or triple amounts, and save the cooked rice in the freezer as a meal prep. Versatile, easy to make, easy to eat, and more! That’s the wonder of egg fried rice!
Check out our other rice recipes to see what else you can make!
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