The Simple Guide to the Perfect Fried Rice

Today, we’re going over the 4 key pillars (or plates) that make a good fried rice. If you know all of these things, then you will have all the knowledge you need to make an amazing fried rice at home!

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This is every tip and trick to make a great fried rice that you might be missing out on that I’ve picked up from being a small Asian child who loves fried rice to being a large Asian adult who still loves fried rice. This is not an easy position to get into for a large person. [Music] Now, there are four pillars that I believe hold up a great fried rice. The first of which is rice. Now, if at any point in your life you’ve been watching someone make fried rice or tell you how to make fried rice, I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase day old rice. But personally, in my humble opinion, I think it’s a lie because what people mean when they say day old rice is they just mean they want the rice to be dried out. You don’t want to use fresh rice. Fresh rice has too much moisture. Moisture is the enemy of frying. You’re not going to get a good crisp. You’re not going to get a good fry if your rice is too wet. Plain and simple. So, for me, I believe the sweet spot for day old rice is 2 to 3 days. If you’re planning to use your rice the next day, it helps if you lay it uncovered on a sheet tray in the fridge overnight and then in the morning go ahead and break it all up so that way that bottom layer of rice can also get that air dry treatment in the fridge if that makes sense. And now that you’ve achieved your day rice, it is important before you put it into your walk to break it up because as you can see it is just a big rice clump and you don’t want a rice clump. So I like to just use my hands and crumble it all up. Break up any of those chunks so that way you can get even coverage, even surface area and it cooks nice and even. And if you have a thing about textures, this is definitely something you might want to put a glove on for because it’s weird. And now for the second pillar, fillings. Now, one of the things I love about fried rice is that it truly is a leftovers meal. It doesn’t have to be a thoughtout, prepped out meal. It is truly like what’s left in my fridge, what’s left in my garden, what’s left in my pantry that I need to get rid of because I don’t want it to go bad. For instance, this steak. My wife and I had steaks earlier in the week and so I had this still left in the fridge that I was either going to freeze bag or I was going to just cook up with breakfast. But in this case, fried rice. And it’s important that you know for your protein, it can be whatever you want. Nine times out of 10, if I’m making fried rice, I’m making it with spam because I love spam and I have a lot of spam. But that other one or two out of 10, I’m just using whatever’s left from the week. Leftover teriyaki chicken, leftover pork, leftover bacon, leftover steak, whatever it is that you have, use it. Now, for the steak, I knew ahead of time that I was going to be using it last night. So, I went ahead and salted it both sides and then let it sit uncovered in my fridge overnight. And now I’m just going to cut this into small cubes so that way I can get a nice little bite of steak in each bite of my rice. And don’t feel like you have to add a meat into your rice. Egg fried rice is super common. You can just use eggs or you can not use eggs if you’re not an egg person. You could literally just have fried rice with literally no toppings. It’s one of the pillars and then you take a pillar and then you just have a tripod and then you know, but you could still do it. Like I it it’s not it’s not the end of the world. While I’m cutting this steak up, I’m going to cut away some of these fat chunks so I can use that in my rice later. And now for our produce, which again is the same thing. Same concept. What’s left in your fridge, what’s left in your pantry, what’s left on your countertop, use it. In my case, we have half a sweet onion, two green onions, a singular lone carrot, and don’t feel like you have to have all this or have to have more. The beauty of fried rice is that it’s adaptable. It’s whatever you need it to be in that moment, in that time, and then next week it’s whatever you need it to be then. It’s truly something beautiful. Now, for our sweet onion, I’m just going to roughly dice it up. I like it nice and small, so that way I don’t get a big chunks of onion in my rice. But you’re welcome to cut it however you like. If you want it in julian, you can do it in julian. If you want it in chunks, do it in chunks. The only thing that I’m going to tell you you need to do is make sure that your pieces are roughly the same size and shape so that way they cook evenly. Man, I was so focused on what I was saying that I didn’t even realize that I was giving this completely wrong cut that I wanted to give it. And now I’m over here doing extra work. So, it is what it is. And now that I’ve fixed my mistake, our green onions, which are funny because you’re going to cut these in two different ways. And this is something that you don’t technically have to listen to me on, but I think that it works out better way. And most most people would agree. On your green onion, you have the greens and you have the whites. The whites, you want to cook down a little bit more. But the greens, they’re gentle. They’re fragrant. You want to leave them more or less raw. So, we’re going to cut them up and then split them up. Now, we’ll find roughly where it turns from white to green or green to white. Separate those whites over there. Oops. And move our greens to the side. And now for our carrot. I’m just going to give this a quick peel. I’ll be honest, I don’t like carrots. And the reason I don’t like carrots is cuz I think they’re gross and yucky. But it’s in my fridge and I probably should eat more carrots. At least the people on the internet seem to think so. So, I’m using a carrot. But because I don’t like carrots, I’m just going to cut them into really fine dice. I also don’t like peas, in case you’re wondering, cuz I know peas are very popular in in fried rice. Uh I I don’t like peas. First, we slice them into these oblong discs. And we’re just going to line them up nice and flat like this. This will help us get to a nice julen. And then from the julen, we’ll turn them into dices. And if you like carrots, you could just leave it like this. Like it really doesn’t matter. I just don’t like the taste of carrots. So I want my carrots to be as small as humanly possible. And I really, really want to emphasize this. It’s okay if it’s not perfect. Do not let your fear or someone else telling you that, hey, this needs to be exactly this way prevent you from making this because you should be cooking like everything. You can do it. And you can tell that I don’t like to eat carrots, nor do I cook with carrots often because these are far from uniform. And lastly, we have our garlic. Now, I’m sure you’ve seen people on the internet just take their knife, throw on the back, and smack it down. I do it, too. It works, but it runs the risk of chipping your knife or dulling your blade out or cutting yourself. So, grab a bench scraper, throw on the edge, and it does the same thing with no risk. Or, I guess less risk, cuz I guess there’s still a risk, but I I don’t know. Whatever. We’re just going to crush up our garlic, take off our skin, dehusk, de-kin. I guess it’s not really a husk. Is it a husk? And then we’re just going to roughly chop it up. You can make it as fine or as large as you want. I like to make my garlic spread, so I like to do a little bit finer. And for my final filling, the humble yet delicious and quite unfortunately overpriced egg. Now, you can crack these straight into your walk when you’re cooking. I don’t like to. I like to make sure they’re really scrambled. Some people like their white yolks broken up a little bit more. It’s all preference. If I’m in a hurry, that’s the way I’ll do it, but I’m obviously not in a hurry, so I’m going to do it this way. Add in a little bit of salt. Optionally, you can add in a little bit of milk to give it a little bit more volume. You can add in sesame oil. You can add in soy sauce. I like my eggs to taste just like eggs, so I leave them this way. And now for our third pillar, umami. Now, for fried rice, you’re using soy sauce. And soy sauce already has umami in it, but generally speaking, you’re going to want more umami. And for that, I present to you my three favorite options. The first monos sodium bud MSG. Now, if you have feelings about MSG that are less than positive and you think that they still give you headaches and things like that, I encourage you to do some reading and do some research because it’s wrong. I’m not saying you don’t have a headache. I’m just saying it’s not because you had a sprinkle of MSG in your fried rice from that takeout place last night. MSG is a very easy and cheap way to add in umami into whatever you’re cooking with a very minimal, and I mean minimal amount. I’m talking like a teaspoon. Next up is oyster sauce. One of my personal favorite add-ins, something that I grew up on and my dad used a lot. This adds more than just umami. You’re also going to get that oyster flavor and it’s not a bad oyster flavor. It’s not going to turn your fried rice into some oceany tasty super salty fried rice. Like this adds a little bit of oyster flavor in all the right ways. And if you’d like to try this but you have a shelfus allergy, they do make oyster flavored mushroom sauces that are very very similar. So similar that I have regularly bought them thinking that they’re regular oyster sauce and not realized until I looked at the bottle like six or seven uses in. And finally, for a less common option, but definitely goatated chicken powder. It’s not only going to add umami into your dish, but it’s also adding flavor. It’s adding another depth, another layer, and more flavor is more better. So, today I’m using chicken powder. And for our fourth and final pillar, preparation. That means your whole cooking station, everything you need is ready to go. It is within arms reach, and you don’t have to think about it. But preparation extends beyond that cuz it’s not just the things you have around you, but it’s knowing what you’re going to do. When you’re cooking in a hot walk, fried rice cooks exceptionally fast. So, you need to know what you’re going to do and the order you’re going to do it. So for me, I know I’m starting with my meat, then my veg, then my rice, then my egg, then my green onions. Versus if you have it out there, and yes, it’s here, but you’re not sure what’s coming next. That’s when you start to burn things, and that’s where it starts to go wrong. So for me, being mentally prepared about what you’re about to do and the order you’re going to do it in is just important as having everything physically in front of you. Now, I’m starting by preheating my walk. And let me just say, you don’t need a walk. You don’t need a walk burner. This is an induction walk burner. You don’t need it. You can use your stove. I don’t use that stove because it’s really hard to film over there. As long as you can get your pan hot, you can make fried rice. Now, as far as what you’re cooking it in, it doesn’t have to be a walk. It doesn’t have to be carbon steel. I think it should be carbon steel, but it doesn’t have to be. I would definitely stray away from stainless steel if you’re not super comfortable cooking with stainless steel. I also don’t think stainless steel walks are very good, but that’s just my personal opinion. Carbon steel is great. If not, if you’re not ready for that, if you’re not ready for the maintenance that comes with carbon steel, that’s okay. You can get yourself a nice non-stick walk. It’s okay. And now that my walk is ripping hot and adequately preheated, I’m just going to add in a little bit of neutral oil. This is just going to help me fill in those pores. And I’m just moving it around to make sure I coat the whole pan anywhere the food’s going to touch. Now, like I said before, I’ve got some beef fat here. So, I’m going to toss that in. If you don’t have any beef fat, that’s okay. You can skip this step and just add a little bit more oil. Then, I’m just going to keep moving this around and letting that fat render out as much as I can. And now that I’ve got a good amount of that fat rendered out, I’m just going to get it out of my pan, leaving all that oily goodness inside, and then adding in our steak. I’m just going to flatten it out. Make sure I get as much surface area as possible. I’m going to let it sit and sear. Good. And if you’re just reheating something you’ve already cooked, this is going to go a lot faster because you’re not waiting for it to cook. And now that there’s no more red that’s visible, I’m going to go ahead and add in my veg and just keep it moving and let it cook down. Because remember, there’s garlic inside here and I don’t want any of it to burn. And go ahead and spread that out as much as possible because we want to make sure we get all that moisture out. we don’t trap any of it in there. Because if we do that and we add our rice in, it’s just going to steam. This also can be a problem if you’re using a pan that is too small or isn’t hot enough or you’re going to want to end up doing this part in batches. Cook your meat, take it off, cook your veg, take it off, cook your rice, take it off, such and such. And go all the way through and then add it all in together. Got it? And once those veggies are nice and cooked down, I’m going to go ahead and add in our rice. I’m noticing my rice is sticking a little bit, so I’m just going to add a little bit of oil. And once that rice is starting to get some color, we’re going to go ahead and add in our soy sauce around the edge. Do not add it to the center of the rice because if you add it to the center of the rice, you’re going to end up steaming the rice versus if you add it around the edge, it sears and gets a deeper flavor. Now, we’re just going to add in a little bit of our chicken powder and some fresh black pepper. You can do white pepper, but I’m feeling black pepper today. Now, we’re just going to push all that rice to the side. Add a little bit more oil. Make sure that’s nice and spread. And then we’re going to pour in our eggs. Now they set a little bit. I’m just going to mix them all up. You want them nice and fluffy. Little ribbons. You can break it up because obviously it’s going to be broken up. So don’t worry about keeping it all in one piece. Once it is mostly cooked, I mean like a light scramble. Go ahead and start folding it into your rice. So that way you can keep that nice bright yellow color. And finally our green onions. And then we’ll just move it on to a bowl. And this is fried rice. [Music] Now, I’m not saying I know everything about fried rice. What I am saying is that if you follow these steps, you’ll make a good fried rice. Thank you so much for liking, subscribing, and hitting that bell.