Easy Chicken Fried Rice
A quick fried rice made with chicken, eggs, vegetables, and cold cooked rice in a savory soy-garlic sauce.
- Measurements grams + cups
- Cuisine Chinese-American
Why You'll Like This Recipe
- Built around leftover rice, which is the whole trick.
- Faster than ordering, and you control what goes in.
- Everything cooks in one pan in stages.
Recipe
Easy Chicken Fried Rice
Chicken fried rice with egg and vegetables in 25 minutes.
Ingredients
Ingredients scaled. The method below still refers to the original quantities.
Instructions
- Step 1. Break up any clumps in the cold rice with your fingers or a fork.
- Step 2. Heat 10 g of the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 5 to 6 minutes until cooked through and 74 C / 165 F. Transfer to a plate.
- Step 3. Add the beaten eggs and scramble for about 1 minute. Transfer them to the plate with the chicken.
- Step 4. Add the remaining oil, onion, peas, and carrots. Cook for 3 minutes until the vegetables are hot and the onion is softened.
- Step 5. Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds.
- Step 6. Add the cold rice and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, tossing frequently, until hot.
- Step 7. Return the chicken and eggs. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, and black pepper. Toss until everything is evenly coated and steaming hot.
- Step 8. Top with green onion and serve immediately.
Notes
- Cold day-old rice works best because it stays separate instead of turning mushy. Fresh rice can be spread on a tray and chilled until cool before using.
- Break up the cold rice with your fingers before it hits the pan. Clumps never separate once they are in there.
- Get the pan properly hot and do not crowd it. If you double this, cook in two batches.
- Soy sauce goes in at the end. Added early it burns onto the pan and the rice tastes acrid.
Easy Chicken Fried Rice — Simple Table Recipes · https://simpletablerecipes.com/recipes/easy-chicken-fried-rice/
Ingredient Notes
- Cold cooked rice
- Chilled overnight is ideal. The grains dry out and firm up so they fry and separate instead of steaming into a clump. This is the single thing that decides whether fried rice works.
- Sesame oil
- Added at the end, off the heat. It is a finishing oil — heated hard it loses most of its aroma and turns slightly bitter.
- Cooking in stages
- Chicken, then egg, then vegetables, then rice. Everything cooked together at once drops the pan temperature and the whole thing steams.
Equipment
- Large skillet or wok
Substitutions
- Chicken
- Prawns, diced pork, or firm tofu pressed and fried separately first.
- Soy sauce
- Gluten-free tamari makes the whole dish gluten free, provided the sesame oil is checked too.
- Peas and carrots
- Any quick-cooking vegetable — sweetcorn, edamame, chopped peppers or bean sprouts.
Storage
Storing: Refrigerate for up to 3 days. Reheat in a hot pan rather than a microwave to bring some texture back.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does fried rice need cold rice?
Freshly cooked rice is soft and full of moisture, so it clumps and steams. Chilled rice has dried and firmed up, which lets the grains separate and fry. Day-old rice from the fridge is ideal.
Can I use fresh rice for fried rice?
Spread it on a tray and chill it in the fridge or freezer for 20 to 30 minutes first. Not as good as overnight, but far better than warm rice.
Why is my fried rice mushy?
Warm rice, a pan that was not hot enough, or too much in the pan at once. All three cause steaming rather than frying.
Should I add soy sauce at the beginning or end?
At the end. Added early it burns onto the hot pan and turns bitter, and it makes the rice soggy while it still needs to fry.
Can I make fried rice gluten free?
Yes — swap the soy sauce for certified gluten-free tamari and check the sesame oil label. Everything else in the recipe is naturally gluten free.
Did you make this?
Let other people know how it went. One tap, nothing to fill in.
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