Fried Rice — Recipes

Instructions

If using day-old rice (see notes), transfer to a medium bowl and break rice up with your hands into individual grains before proceeding. Heat 1/2 tablespoon (7ml) vegetable oil in a wok over high heat until smoking. Add half of rice and cook, stirring and tossing, until rice is pale brown and toasted and has a lightly chewy texture, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl. Repeat with another 1/2 tablespoon oil and remaining rice.
Return rice to wok and press it up the sides, leaving a space in the middle. Add 1/2 tablespoon (7ml) oil to the space. Add onion, carrot, scallions, and garlic and cook, stirring gently, until lightly softened and fragrant, about 1 minute. Toss with rice to combine. Add soy sauce and sesame oil and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.
Push rice to side of wok and add remaining 1/2 tablespoon (7ml) oil. Break egg into oil and season with a little salt. Use a spatula to scramble egg, breaking it up into small bits. Toss egg and rice together.
Add frozen peas and continue to toss and stir until peas are thawed and every grain of rice is separate. Serve immediately.

Notes

Rice choice: almost any white rice works. Jasmine or medium-grain are ideal — separate grains with a chewy-tender bite. Sushi rice is stickier (chewiest result, clumps more); long-grain (basmati, Carolina) falls apart and lacks plumpness — skip it for best texture.

Rice treatment — dryness matters, not staleness. In order of preference:

Fanned (best): spread cooked rice on a tray under a fan ~1 hour → dry but not stale.
Fresh-cooked: spread hot rice on a tray for a few minutes so surface moisture steams off — makes excellent fried rice. Day-old is not required.
Day-old: also great; break up clumps by hand first and fry fast so it doesn't harden. (Counterintuitively, loosely-covered fridge rice at 1–6 hours is the hardest to fry — surface moisture migrates back out before it re-evaporates.)

Rinse raw rice before cooking if you're cooking it specifically for fried rice — a quick cold-water dunk/agitate removes excess surface starch that causes clumping.

Fry hot, in batches. Get the wok rippingly hot (cast-iron or nonstick on electric cooktops); add no more than ~1 cup rice at a time and toss until toasty golden with a tight skin on each grain, then combine all batches at the end. Too much rice at once steams into a mushy clump.

Go easy on sauce and add-ins. ~1 tsp soy + 1 tsp sesame oil is plenty; season with plain salt (it adds no moisture and won't mask the rice). Add-ins are enhancers, not stars — precook any meat (diced ham, shredded chicken) or sear it first. Stir fresh green elements (scallion greens, frozen peas, herbs) in at the very end.

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes