13 Recipes That Showcase the Versatility of Fried Rice
Serious Eats / Tim ChinAs much as I love bread—baking and eating it—rice is in my soul. I'm not ashamed to say I have no problems plowing through a 25-pound bag by myself. Needless to say, there is almost always leftover cooked rice in my fridge. Often I'll just freshen it up with a quick steam for a salmon rice bowl or bibimbap. Other times, I'll whip up fried rice with whatever I want to use up—roast duck, barbecue pork, or bits and bobs from the produce bin.Making good flavorful fried rice is as much about technique as it is about ingredients. Leftover rice is ideal, but so long as your rice is sufficiently chilled, the freshly cooked variety works just as well. There are also ways to compensate for the lack of high B.T.U.s in home kitchens—such as using a kitchen torch to achieve the smoky aroma and flavor of classic wok hei and cooking the rice in smaller batches to prevent clumping. Whether you're craving restaurant-style shrimp fried rice, omelette-topped Japanese omurice, or flavor-packed nasi goreng we have recipes to turn cooked rice, leftover or fresh, into crave-worthy comfort food you'll make morning, noon, or night.Easy Fried RiceSerious Eats / Eric KleinbergWhether you're using leftover or freshly cooked rice, this foolproof recipe yields vegetable-studded fried rice with individual grains that barely hold together when picked up with chopsticks or a spoon—it's so good you won't want to put either down.Perfect Egg Fried RiceSerious Eats / Amanda SuarezSometimes all you have are eggs and leftover rice, and maybe a scallion or two in your fridge. Kenji shows you three ways to make the most out of these simple ingredients, so whether you're cooking on a gas stove, electric range, or outdoor burner, you can make perfect egg fried rice every time.Shrimp Fried RiceSerious Eats / Tim ChinThe key to making great shrimp fried rice at home is all about doing more with less. This means leaving out the soy sauce, sesame oil, and oyster sauce in favor of a little chicken broth powder. Here, we use a kitchen blowtorch to recreate the smoky aroma of classic wok hei.Fried Rice With Chinese Sausage, Cabbage, and Torch HeiSerious Eats / Vicky WasikChinese sausage is one of those staples I almost always keep in my fridge, along with a bag of frozen peas, so this is the perfect fried rice to make—especially when I'm out of eggs. Cabbage adds a nice crunch but if you don't have it on hand you can substitute with whatever hearty greens you happen to have. We apply the same "torch hei" technique used in the shrimp fried rice recipe above to impart the signature smoky aroma of high-flame stir fry.Thai-Style Crab Fried RiceSerious Eats / J. Kenji López-AltThai khao phat buu—fried rice with crab—is one of the very best ways to spotlight sweet, flaky crab meat. This dish features fragrant jasmine rice lightly seasoned with fish sauce, garlic, and chiles, then tossed with scrambled egg, picked crabmeat, and scallions.Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice)Serious Eats / Qi AiThis is Indonesia's flavor-packed take on fried rice—redolent with kecap manis, the country's ubiquitous sweet soy sauce, and terasi (Indonesian shrimp paste) which adds a potent dose of umami and gives the fried rice its distinct flavor. A fried egg, sliced tomato, and sliced cucumber complete the dish.Kimchi and Spam Fried RiceSerious Eats / J. Kenji López-AltThe winning combination of pungent, spicy, acidic kimchi and salty, fatty Spam is what transforms leftover rice into what Kenji declares the ultimate Korean-American late-night drunk food. Topped with a runny fried egg, it's comfort food you can eat morning, noon, and night—drunk or not.Japanese Pork Fried Rice Omelette With Okonomiyaki Sauce (Omurice)Serious Eats / Qi AiAnyone who has seen viral videos of soft, runny omelette luxuriously cascading over a mound of seasoned Japanese fried rice can't help but be mesmerized by it. With Daniel's version, you don't need to be an omelette expert to make this simple pork fried rice topped with egg and okonomiyaki sauce. Not rolling the eggs into a true omelette shape makes it far easier to drape them over the rice, as the dish is traditionally served. If pork isn't your thing, try his chicken omurice.Nigerian Fried RiceSerious Eats / Maureen CelestineThe light-yellow-hued rice dish strewn with vegetables looks, feels, and eats like a dish that’s a cross between Indian pilau and Chinese fried rice. Using converted rice ensures that the grains stay separate. The fluffy rice is first par-cooked in stock to infuse it with savoriness, then cooked a second time to combine it with vegetables.Fodni Bhaat (Indian Fried Rice)Serious Eats / Fred HardyFodni bhaat is a popular Indian leftover rice dish that's often eaten for breakfast. Garlic gives the dish a nice flavor and bite, while the green chile imparts subtle heat.Fried Rice With Blistered Green Beans and BasilSerious Eats / J. Kenji López-AltCharred, blistered green beans are an excellent accompaniment to rice, and here the beans make up over 50% of the weight of the final dish. To flavor it, Kenji uses garlic, scallions, Thai chiles, and a whole lot of fresh Thai basil.Garlic Fried RiceSerious Eats / Vicky WasikThis Filipino-style garlic rice pairs beautifully with any super-savory, super-saucy main dish, especially chicken adobo. Here, we take the extra step of straining out the fried garlic bits before frying the rice in the garlic-infused oil to prevent the garlic from burning, which can give the rice an unpleasantly bitter taste.Crispy Kimchi Cheese RiceSerious Eats / Vicky WasikThough technically not a "fried rice" in the traditional sense, crispy kimchi cheese rice has the same easy-to-make, easy-to-eat vibes of fried rice. Leftover rice is seasoned thoroughly with flavorful gochujang, soy sauce, and rice vinegar before being layered with kimchi and cheese, and crisped up in a skillet.
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