Fried rice has a lot going for it. It's fast, it can be made with just about any set of ingredients, it's cheap to make, and—above all—it's totally delicious when made well. Unfortunately, I find it's not a dish most home cooks spend much time trying to learn. That's too bad, because once you’ve added it to your culinary lexicon, I think you’ll be amazed at its versatility, and you’ll go back to it more often than you could have expected. It’s even, in my opinion, the best way to use up the stuff lingering in your fridge that you otherwise would have thrown into a much more complicated and time consuming quiche, frittata, or casserole (or just let slowly rot in some unseen corner while wondering aloud why the fridge “smells like that”).
As with just about every question of authenticity, the further you zoom in, the less sense the question makes. The more you try to pin it down, the more completely it evades your grasp. Cuisine is a fluid practice. Very few preparations remain completely unchanged through the course of history. So instead of kneeling at the altar of authenticity, I offer you a method for making fried rice that I’ve slowly worked on over my entire cooking career that is, if nothing else, very delicious. Tradition in cooking can be important, sometimes very important, but at the end of the day, what I’m most interested in is results.
This isn’t a proper recipe exactly because the versatility of the method relies on the cook being able to use basically whatever they have on hand, in whatever quantities they may have it. That being said, my mise en place typically falls into 7 categories:
1. Cooking Fat
My most frequently used cooking fat for fried rice is a high heat neutral flavored cooking oil. For me, this means peanut or rice bran oil, but canola, vegetable, grapeseed, avocado, etc. will all work just as well. However, my favorite cooking fat for fried rice is rendered pork lard. It has a lovely rich mouthfeel, and neutral flavor perfect for elevating this simple dish. This method is done over high heat, so ideally avoid fats that tend to break down or burn at lower temps like extra virgin olive oil or butter, but even these will work in a pinch.
2. Protein
To be honest, using a protein in fried rice is totally optional. I’ve made countless delicious vegetarian renditions, but the majority of the time I’m using an animal protein of one sort or another. My most common choice is some form of fatty pork (bacon, roast shoulder), but anything really works here: shrimp, steak, chicken breast, you name it. The one consideration is that you want whatever you choose to be able to cook pretty quickly, so if you’re using a cut of meat that normally takes a while to cook—like chicken thigh or pork shoulder—you’ll want to have cooked it in advance so all you’re doing in the pan is reheating.
3. Rice
Again, really any type of rice will work here. I almost always use medium grain white rice, or jasmine rice, but that just because that’s what I most commonly have leftover from other meals. The conventional wisdom is that the rice for fried rice must be cooked and completely chilled, ideally overnight, in the fridge in order to be good for fried rice. While this does make an excellent product, and is a great way to bring your cold-hardened leftover takeout rice back to life, it isn’t strictly necessary to use cold rice. You can use just cooked rice, basically right out of the pot, though I recommend laying it out on a sheet tray for at least a few minutes to help it firm up a bit so it doesn’t turn to mush in the pan.
4. Aromatic Vegetables
In my opinion, you really can’t have too many aromatics for fried rice. I most often use scallions, garlic and shallots, but you can also use chilies, ginger, onion, celery, lemongrass, or really anything else you like. Remember this dish cooks quickly, so small dice, mince, or thin slices are the way to go for prepping these.
5. Other Vegetables
The most common additions in this category that I think most people who have had fried rice from a takeout restaurant will recognize are peas and carrots. To be sure, these make for a delicious fried rice with interesting texture, a pleasant sweetness, and nice flavor, but you can really put anything you want in. This is most often where I employ vegetables that are lingering in my fridge without any real plan for them. Sometimes I’ll even use leftover vegetables that have already been cooked. Similar to the aromatic vegetables, you’ll want to cut these veggies relatively small so they cook quickly, however since they don’t necessarily need to be fully softened you can go for slightly larger pieces if you like.
6. Eggs
Technically optional, but they’ve been a part of every fried rice I’ve ever made, and I’d say most people consider eggs to be an integral component of the dish. I usually use one egg per serving. You can either scramble the eggs ahead of time in a bowl, or scramble them in the pan as they cook.
7. Seasonings
For a really bare bones fried rice the only seasoning you need is salt, but I’ll also often use some soy sauce, black pepper and MSG.
Now on to the method. First, as I’ve mentioned, this dish cooks quickly over high heat the entire time so its very important to have all your ingredients prepped and at the ready before you begin. Here is what my mise en place looks like:
As a non-traditional method, this has been designed to work best in a well seasoned cast iron skillet. Other pans will still work, but for best results I recommend cast iron. Start heating your skillet over medium-high or high heat (depending on how powerful your burner is), and heat up your cooking fat.
Once your pan is hot and ready to cook add your protein and cook until almost done. If you’re using a pre-cooked option like I am here just cook until it is heated through, and maybe has some nice crispy seared sides.
Use an amount of rice suited to the size of the pan. Roughly 2-3 cups of cooked rice pretty much maxes out the capacity of my 10” skillet.
Once your rice is in the pan your goal is to break up the clumps of rice and get every grain coated with cooking fat by constant gentle stirring. It doesn’t need to be drenched in cooking fat—we don’t want greasy fried rice—but each grain should be just barely coated, and glistening.
Once your veggies are just tender, push all the rice to one side of the pan exposing a half circle of bare pan. If you have enough oil in your pan that there is still ample lubrication you can go ahead and pour or crack in your eggs, otherwise add a bit more cooking fat before adding them. Once the eggs are in the pan turn off the burner. We will use the residual heat in the pan (which is why cast iron works best for this) to cook the eggs gently without turning them rubbery. Season the eggs lightly and cook to whatever degree you prefer before stirring them into the rest of the dish.
Once you’ve stirred in your eggs, all that's left to do is season. This is something done to taste, but I start with a sprinkle of light soy sauce (I recommend a light hand with the soy sauce for fried rice), a small pinch of MSG, and a few healthy grinds of black pepper.
I find cooking over high heat the entire time and the cutting it for the egg cooking and seasoning portions gives just the right balance of small bits of crispy rice, with soft, fluffy eggs, and tender but not mushy veggies. At this point, our fried rice is finished so just plate up, and enjoy.