Fried Rice

For the past couple of weeks, I was craving Chinese takeout fried rice. Being on a healthier eating kick, I opted to forgo the takeout and decided to create my own. I decided to make just basic fried rice instead of adding any meat. Let me tell you that it was absolutely delicious! Trust me when I say that this fried rice tasted even better than takeout. It also tasted cleaner and it felt good to make it knowing exactly what was going in it. If you are anything like me and love Chinese takeout, then you will want to try this recipe for sure. 

This recipe takes 10 minutes or less to make (factoring in that you have precooked your rice and chilled it). I start with either cooked and chilled white rice (you may also use brown). Any plain leftover rice that you may have in your refrigerator is great for this recipe too. I love making fried rice with any leftover rice I may have in my refrigerator. That way, I do not feel like I wasted food and I am able to make a good meal out of it. 

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Fried Rice

Recipe by Recipe Helper

Course: Main, SidesCuisine: Chinese, JapaneseDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons sesame oil

• 1 large egg, beaten

• 3 cups cooked and chilled rice (I use white long grain)

• 1/2 cup frozen peas

• 1/2 cup frozen carrots

• 2 tablespoons garlic powder

• 1 tablespoon onion powder

• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

• black pepper, to taste

Directions

• Over medium-high heat, heat 2 tablespoons of sesame oil in a large cast iron or non-stick skillet. Add the egg and scramble it with a spatula.
• Next, add the frozen peas and carrots and cook for about 30 seconds while stirring with the spatula.
• Add in the cooked rice along with 2 more tablespoons of sesame oil, the garlic powder, onion powder, soy sauce, and black pepper.
• Cook for about 5 minutes while stirring occasionally.
• Remove from the heat, Serve and Enjoy!

Notes

• You may use fresh onion and garlic in place of the powders. I simply used what I had on hand.
• Cooked chicken, shrimp, or pork can be easily added to this dish when you add in the rice.
• This fried rice can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

First, be sure to set the chilled rice aside and scramble up an egg in some sesame oil over medium-high heat. Do not worry if you do not have sesame oil. I personally just love using sesame oil for the distinct taste, but other oils such as vegetable, canola, grapeseed, or avocado oil will work well for this dish. After scrambling the egg, you will want to work rather quickly. Next add in the frozen vegetables. I used peas and carrots. If you have other vegetables that you like, then feel free to add those as well. I let those cook up for a bit, but was careful to watch them closely so they did not get too soft. I cooked them for about a minute or two. Next the cooked rice was added to the skillet with some more sesame oil, low sodium soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper. I did not use any additional salt since the soy sauce was already very salty. 

To avoid making this dish too salty, I would advise you to pre-measure the soy sauce. I pre-measured out the soy sauce to avoid any issues of over pouring that could have ensued if I poured straight from the bottle. I have made this terrible mistake before when using soy sauce when making dishes in the past and I had to toss everything and start over. So now, whenever I use soy sauce, I always like to measure it out beforehand. It saves me a headache in more ways than one. If you find that once you taste this dish that you need to add more soy sauce, then do so, but only a little bit at a time. 

In all, this fried rice came together in just about 9 minutes. It makes A LOT and my family was surely satisfied. They have actually been requesting that I make it again this coming week. I am not at all opposed to making it for them again because it was easy, fun and rather timeless to create. If you love Chinese takeout, then I certainly hope that this dish brings you joy as it did for me and my family. You can have this as a main course or as a side dish with other Chinese staples. However you decide to eat this, I hope you enjoy it and find yourself truly satisfied!