Make any dish more appetizing and flavorful by transforming your day-old rice into traditional Chinese egg fried rice (蛋炒饭). Use your leftover white rice and throw in some vegetables and scrambled eggs. Season it just the way you like it and pair it with fried or soup dishes.
What Is Egg Fried Rice (蛋炒饭)?
One of the most popular Chinese takeouts is egg fried rice. Any Chinese meal won’t be complete without it! It’s like having pizza without the cheese and chicken without gravy or ketchup.
It is super easy to make one yourself, so you don’t have to rely on Chinese takeouts all the time. Don’t eat your day-old rice yet and transform it into egg fried rice with a few pantry-friendly ingredients. Choose your favorite add-ons like vegetables and seasonings and make some scrambled eggs, the most important ingredient I would say.
For my version of egg fried rice, I mixed cooked rice with raw unbeaten egg. Then, I cooked the flavoring ingredients, such as eggs, ham, carrots, green onions, and vegetable leaves. Lastly, I mixed in the cooked rice, seasoned it with salt and light soy sauce, and stir-fried on high heat for the fluffiest texture.
Which Is The Best Rice To Use?
Day Old Rice
The success of your egg fried rice depends on the type of rice you use. As you already know, egg fried rice typically uses leftover ingredients for the best texture. Thus, I recommend at least a day-old rice that is dried out to have a fluffy and well-separated grain of rice.
You don’t want to use fresh rice that is still moist and sticking together. With day old rice, it makes it easier to separate while cooking to even out the ingredients. It gives you fluffy rice that is not too dry or too mushy.
Long Grain White Rice
White rice has always been the traditional type of rice for egg fried rice. You can use long or medium-grain rice, such as jasmine or sinandomeng. I wouldn’t recommend sticky rice; however, using Japanese short-grain rice also works, but it will be chewier.
Alternatives And Suggestions
Although I mentioned freshly cooked rice is not really a good option because of its moist and mushy texture, there are still a few ways to make it better should you decide to use it. If using freshly cooked rice, let it cool and store it in the fridge to give it time to chill and dry out a bit. Make sure to separate the grains before chilling. You can also line it in a baking tray and bake for a few minutes to dehydrate the rice.
If you don’t have cooked rice on hand or don’t have time to cook, I recommend using packaged cooked rice in convenience stores or grocery stores. However, it will be more expensive for you since you have to buy a few packages to make a large serving of egg fried rice. Nevertheless, it is the best option for ready-made rice without the mushy texture.
The Flavoring Ingredients For Egg Fried Rice
To make the best egg fried rice, you will need day-old rice, eggs, diced ham, diced carrots, chopped green onions, light soy sauce, and salt. I share below some tips and suggestions when choosing ingredients. You can customize this dish with alternatives and other optional ingredients to add.
- Eggs: I used 3 eggs for this dish, 1 raw for the rice and 2 for the scrambled eggs. The raw egg is mixed with the cooked rice for flavor and texture. You can skip the raw egg if you prefer. However, it won’t make the egg fried rice yellow anymore. Then, the 2 extra eggs are cooked in the pan to make scrambled eggs. You can use medium or large eggs.
- Ham: Cut the ham into small cubes. Diced ham is better to make sure each bite of the rice has its flavor. Aside from ham, you can use other meat ingredients of your choice, whether freshly cooked or leftovers, such as the following:
- Chinese cured ham or roast pork
- Chinese sausage or lap cheong, take a look at my recipe for Chinese Sausage Fried Rice.
- Chinese cured pork belly or la rou (腊肉)
- Dried scallops and shrimp
- Regular pork and BBQ meats
- Luncheon meat or spam
- Chunks of chicken or duck
- Pork belly, Pork belly char siew, Char siu pork
- Carrots: I also diced the carrots into small pieces to evenly distribute it throughout the rice. For more vegetable or non-meat ingredients for the rice, you can also use peas, green beans, mushrooms, diced onions, green onions, garlic, corn, bell peppers, mixed vegetables, and tofu cubes. For a pop of green, don’t forget to add green leaves from your favorite leafy vegetables.
- Seasonings: Adjust the taste according to your desired seasonings. I used a tablespoon of light soy sauce and a dash of salt. For extra flavor, I recommend incorporating Chinese Five Spice Powder, white pepper, sesame oil, neutral oil or butter, chicken or vegetable bouillon powder, and oyster sauce.
Ingredients And Kitchenware To Prepare
Prepare a mixing bowl to mix and separate the rice grains with your hands. Then, use a non-stick pan or wok to cook the eggs, vegetables, and rice. The ingredients you need are the following:
- 200g of rice
- 1 raw egg for rice mix
- 2 teaspoons oil, I use peanut oil.
- 2 eggs for scrambled eggs
- 50g of diced ham
- 50g of diced carrots
- 5g of green onions
- 5g of chopped vegetable leaves
- 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
- 0.5 tsp of salt
Steps To Make Egg Fried Rice
Follow my 5 easy steps to make the perfect egg fried rice. You can probably finish the recipe in 10 minutes! Watch my recipe tutorial video on Instagram or TikTok for more guidance.
If you loved this recipe, I recommend my other rice dishes, including Yang Chow Fried Rice (Yangzhou Fried Rice 扬州炒饭), One-Pot Taro Rice (Yam Rice) Recipe, and Shrimp Fried Rice (Din Tai Fung Style).
- Place your rice in a bowl and crack an egg on top. Mix the rice and egg with your hands, making sure the rice grains are well-separated and become yellowish throughout.
- Prepare your ingredients. Beat two eggs and chop the meat and vegetables.
- Heat oil in a pan, pour the beaten eggs, and cook until fluffy. Mix in the diced ham and carrots and stir well.
- Combine and stir-fry the rice on high heat and season with chopped green onions, vegetable leaves, light soy sauce, and salt. Cooking on high heat is key to dried and fluffy egg fried rice.
- Continue tossing and stirring on high heat for a minute. Serve this with your favorite Chinese dishes, such as Gluten-Free Dumplings, Wu Gok 芋角, Air Fryer Wontons, or Chinese Beef Chow Fun.
Traditional Chinese Egg Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 200 g of rice
- 1 raw egg for rice mix
- 2 teaspoons oil I use peanut oil.
- 2 eggs for scrambled eggs
- 50 g of diced ham
- 50 g of diced carrots
- 5 g of green onions
- 5 g of chopped vegetable leaves I use bok choy.
- 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
- 0.5 tsp of salt
Instructions
- Place your rice in a bowl and crack an egg on top. Mix the rice and egg with your hands, making sure the rice grains are well-separated and become yellowish throughout.
- Prepare your ingredients. Beat two eggs and chop the meat and vegetables.
- Heat oil in a pan, pour the beaten eggs, and cook until fluffy. Mix in the diced ham and carrots and stir well.
- Combine and stir-fry the rice on high heat and season with chopped green onions, vegetable leaves, light soy sauce, and salt. Cooking on high heat is key to dried and fluffy egg fried rice.
- Continue tossing and stirring on high heat for a minute.
