Quick and Easy Fried Rice Recipe | Asian Cuisine

Jason usually does the majority of the cooking in our house. Between you and me, I can totally cook – really I can (!) but everyone in the house prefers it when he cooks ;)

Our friends Craig & Julie were over the other day and Craig was talking about how easy it was to make fried rice. I was not convinced, but decided to give it a go.

Jason and I headed to the grocery store (we live in the sticks, so really it was Super Walmart, not a legit grocery store, but they had what we needed).

I like that this dish is an easy way to sneak in vegetables and that we can add cooked chicken, beef, bacon, shrimp (or lots of other things) to make it more robust. When Craig makes it, it only takes him about 20 minutes. I feel like the rice was still a bit fluffy when I made it so I’d probably fry it a bit longer or try something different with the type of rice next time. This did taste a lot fresher than take-out though and I love that!

Now I need to find a main dish to pair with the rice. If you have any ideas, shoot me a message! I’d love to find an easy at-home version of hot braised chicken or orange chicken.

Here’s the scoop
Craig says the key is to start with cooked rice that’s one to two days old. According to various internet sources, if you don’t plan ahead and cook your rice in advance, you CAN use freshly cooked rice, but it needs a bit of time to chill in the fridge.

Next, I add some vegetables. Craig uses carrots, onions, and peas, but you can add lots of other things in if you want. For flavor he uses soy sauce & fish sauce (some people use oyster sauce but my trusty shopping center didn’t have oyster sauce – and Craig says to use fish sauce, and he knows what’s what).

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter (divided)
• 3 eggs (whisked)
• 2 medium carrots (diced)*
• 1 small onion (diced)
• 3 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 cup frozen peas (thawed)*
• 4 cups cooked & chilled rice (long grain or jasmine)
• 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• green onions for garnish*

*you can substitute your favorite veggies and garnishments

Step by Step

I started by grabbing a large skillet and heating 1 tablespoon of butter on Medium High.

Next I added the eggs & scrambled. I removed it from the pan and set it aside. I ended up leaving a few remnants behind and it was just fine.

Then, I tossed in the other pat of butter, some chopped carrots, and a little bit of chopped onion. I let these cook for about 4 minutes on Medium/High.

I stirred in the garlic and fried for another 2 minutes.

Next I dropped in the cold rice and some thawed peas and sautéed for another 4 minutes.

 

Here’s where I feel like the magic happens. I added the eggs back to the pan and stirred in soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. I let this cook for 4 more minutes.

Then I wrapped it up by adding green onions for garnish.

Fried rice isn't as hard or scary as I thought it would be. I'm definitely looking forward to trying different variations.