The History
This delicious pork fried rice version is probably what you’re most familiar with, especially if you live in the USA. It’s the way many of your local American Chinese takeout restaurants cook it.
To Make the Perfect Fried Rice
If you get the rice wrong, it’s not fried rice. I know everyone watching this wants to make Chinese takeout fried rice.
Do what the takeout restaurants do. Cook up a batch of rice. By the way Thai Jasmine rice is the gold standard for making Chinese fried rice.
Let the rice cool down by spreading it on a baking sheet. When it is completely cool knock it into the refrigerator to let it dry out.
Stale, dry cooked rice is essential for making the best fried rice at home.
What if I don’t have day old rice?
Cook up a new batch of rice but with a little less water. Lay and spread out the cooked rice on a sheet pan and cool completely. Then put it into a refrigerator for a few hours. Should be dry enough to make awesome fried rice.
The key is your cooked rice shouldn’t have too much moisture. Which results in mushy fried rice.
That’s one of my major pet peeves when I eat fried rice in a restaurant. It makes me channel my inner Gordon Ramsay and fling that plate across the room.
Fried Rice Sauce
A typical Cantonse household doesn’t add this type of sauce to fried rice. If you eat at American Chinese fast food restaurants, adding sauce to fried rice is normal.
It’s part of a fried rice combo meal. Like with fried chicken wings or general tso’s chicken.
It’s the saltiness, sweetness and savoriness in this sauce that keeps, customers coming back. Oh yeah the MSG helps too.
Char Siu
Ever since I got an air fryer I’ve been making char siu at home frequently. Of course you can buy at your local favorite siu yuk po (Chinese Butcher Shop).
Just make sure your char siu is on point and good quality. All the savory and sweet flavors of that char siu transfers into the rice during the fry.
Vegetables and Eggs
A small to medium onion, some bean sprouts and frozen mixed vegetables from a bag, and spring onions is all we need.
There’s no garlic and ginger. Contrary to popular belief we don’t put it in everything.
And it makes sense. This dish is simple flavors, char siu, and rice fried on a pan or wok. That’s it.
Finally two large eggs. For Chinese fried rice a good general rule of thumb is one large egg per 200 grams of rice. I’m using 500 grams of rice for this recipe, so it’s still good enough.
***Final note before cooking***
I’m using a 12.5 inch (32cm) fry pan for this cooking recipe. To be honest it’s small for 500 grams of rice and all the accompanying ingredients.
But I’m a pro cook so I can make do. If you’re new to making fried rice I highly recommend splitting the recipe in half and cook in two batches. Especially if you’ve got a smaller pan.
That’s it. Let’s cook!
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 500g Rice (Day old)
- 300g Roast Pork (Chinese Char Siu)
- 150g Onion Diced
- 1½ Cup Bean Sprouts
- 1 Cup Mixed Vegetables
- 3 Stalks Spring Onions
Fried Rice Sauce
- 1 Teaspoon Pure Sesame Oil
- 2 Teaspoons Chinese Cooking Wine
- 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
- 1 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground White Pepper
- 1/2 Teaspoon MSG
Cooking Instructions
Heat fry pan on medium high heat. When it starts to smoke at 3 tablespoons of oil. When you see the oil shimmering add the diced onions and whites of spring onions.
Right when the onions start to turn translucent add the whisked eggs. Cook until the eggs are almost completely cooked and not runny.
Add the cubed char siu and switch to a high heat now that you have more ingredients in the pan. Stir constantly, the goal is to coax out the flavors and fat from the char siu. About a minute should do it.
Toss in the rice and mix constantly, so the flavors of the onions and char siu incorporate into the rice.
A minute later add the sauce. Try to drop the sauce onto the sides of the pan.
You want that heat to shock the flavors out of the sauce. It’s easier to do it on a wok. So do the best you can.
Add the vegetables and mix for 20 seconds. Than toss in the bean sprouts.
As you can see once you add all the ingredients in it looks like a lot. Rice is just the gift that keeps on giving.
Mix and stir for another minute and and add chopped spring onions.
Enjoy! It’s ready to eat
