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Curry Paste Meal Kits Chilli Sauces Marion's Original Marinades Marion's Original Salad Dressings EXPLORE Recipes MK Daily About Us Shop Cookbook Shop Wok WORK WITH US Media Partnerships Content Production Brand Endorsement GET HELP Contact Us Where to buy Shipping and Delivery Returns and Exchanges @2022 Marion's Kitchen Privacy Policy Terms of Service Stay in touch with my latest recipes and updates! I have read the privacy policy and agree to receive updates and/ or other marketing materialsStay in touch with my latest recipes and updates! I have read the privacy policy and agree to receive updates and/ or other marketing materialsPRODUCTS EXPLORE WORK WITH US GET HELP Curry Paste Recipes Media Partnerships Contact Us Meal Kits MK Daily Content Production Where to buy Chilli Sauces About Us Brand Endorsement Shipping and Delivery Marion's Original Marinades Shop Cookbook Returns and Exchanges Marion's Original Salad Dressings Shop Wok @2021 Marion's Kitchen Terms Privacy Policy Terms of Service Accessibility Stay in touch with my latest recipes and updates! I have read the privacy policy and agree to receive updates and/ or other marketing materialsPRODUCTS Curry Paste Meal Kits Chilli Sauces Marion's Original Marinades Marion's Original Salad Dressings EXPLORE Recipes
MK Daily About Us Shop Cookbook Shop Wok WORK WITH US Media Partnerships Content Production Brand Endorsement GET HELP Contact Us Where to buy Shipping and Delivery Returns and Exchanges @2021 Marion's Kitchen Privacy Policy Terms of Service We use cookies on our website to enhance your browsing experience and to analyze our website traffic. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL cookies. Cookie SettingsAccept Cooking fried rice is easy, tasty, and with a wide margin of error. So, you may wonder why I write about how to fry rice in great detail in this post. Because there is a catch! Most Asian restaurants prepare it with a high-power stove that generates intense heat, which is essential to produce excellent results. However, most people do not have the luxury of having it in their comfy home. While a home stove cannot reproduce the dramatic inferno of a wok stove, this post will show you how to dish out the fried rice at par with your favorite Chinese restaurant and Chinese takeout. Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my privacy policy for more info. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. There are two parts to this post
These tips will elevate the humble fried rice to the next level and turn it into a culinary wonder. All great recipes share a few universal techniques.
Before we look at the respective recipes, let’s get into the top secrets of how to cook the best fried rice. These secret tips apply to all recipes. Part 1: Ten secrets you need to know to be a fried rice expertAlthough each recipe is different, there are certain important techniques and tricks that are universal. As long as you understand and follow them, you are well on the way to cooking up a fantastic dish every time 1. Use the right type of riceThe best type of rice for frying should be less starchy, fragrant, and have a chewy texture.
Tips: Medium-grain rice is my choice. 2. Rinse the rice to remove the excess starchHave you ever wondered what the purpose is of rinsing the rice before cooking? a. Rinsing the rice serves two purposes:
Therefore, rinsing is far more important for frying rice than cooking white rice or preparing sashimi and risotto, as the stickiness of rice is relevant. b. How to do it:
Note that you do not need to rinse so many times if you want to cook plain or biryani rice. Conversely, you do not rinse Arborio rice to make risotto because you want to preserve as much starch as possible. 3. Fluff the rice to separate the grains
Tips: Fluffy rice is not only good for fried rice. It is also important to serve with plain steamed rice. Make a habit of fluffing the rice immediately after cooking it. 4. Dry the rice for perfect browningA plate of perfect fried rice should have a slightly charred surface and a soft and chewy interior. The surface of the rice grains should be dry enough to get a good browning effect while frying. The rice will stick together and not brown efficiently if the surface is wet. Fried rice cooked with normal water is unsuitable as it will clump together easily. The solution is to cook the rice with slightly less water than normal. The rice with lower water content will also avoid the problem of sticking to the wok during stir-frying. A well-seasoned wok is the best cookware to avoid sticking yet able to handle high heat. Tips:There are two ways to keep the surface of the rice dry and achieve a good browning effect.
5. Use seasoning sparinglyGenerally, fried rice should be seasoned with a small amount of soy sauce, salt, ground white pepper, oyster sauce, or fish sauce. The flavor of the rice should be highlighted, not the seasonings. While it is generally recommended that it doesn’t need a ton of sauce, Indonesian nasi goreng contains a large amount of chili paste and sweet soy sauce. The following list shows what seasonings are used normally, but there are still plenty of variations in different regions of the world.
Despite the differences, the key to making the fried rice smell aromatic is keeping the rice dry during stir-frying. Therefore adding the wet seasoning gradually to keep the rice dry is the best practice. 6. Add an egg for better flavorEggs are the essential ingredients for fried rice. The simplest egg fried rice (鸡蛋炒饭) only required egg and light soy sauce, which is a delectable meal by itself. This is analogous to a masterfully prepared plain agleo e oleo spaghetti with only olive oil and garlic. Its success depends on the cook’s skill, nothing less, as there are no other ingredients to enhance the flavor. There are different ways to use eggs for fried ricea. Fried and egg. Just fry an egg (normally an easy-over egg) and put it on a plate of fried rice. This is how Indonesian nasi goreng is usually presented. Since Indonesian fried rice contains plenty of chilies, it does not matter that the eggs are not mixed into the rice. b. Coat the rice with eggs.
This method enhances the flavor of all rice grains with eggs, much like a fish fillet covered in batter. It is a little more technical but worth the time to perfect the technique. c. Break up the omelet. Push the rice to the side of the wok. Pour some oil into the bottom and add a whisked egg to make an omelet. Use a wok spatula to break the cooked eggs into small pieces and mix them with the rice. This method is common to add an egg to most fried rice recipes. 7. Use a wok to fry (and what if you do not have one?)a. Fry with a wokA cast-iron or carbon steel wok is the best cooking utensil for fry rice. The wok has different heat zones that make controlling temperature an easy task. Its spherical shape makes tossing and flipping a snap, with little chance of food pieces falling out as they would from a flat pan. It sits perfectly on the wok burners that can generate intense heat to produce plenty of wok hei. However, the wok is not designed to be used on Western-style burners. Stove tops with induction or a heating coil cannot generate as much heat as a wok burner. These are the limitations most home cooks face when trying to replicate the restaurant’s standard fried rice. There is a workaround, albeit it’s not perfect. Below is my tested method. b. How to use a pan or a large skillet to fry rice
8. Choose the best combination of ingredientsFried rice is a great way to use up various leftovers. You can make chicken fried rice or shrimp fried rice out of your leftovers, but the following guideline applies to all types of fried rice. How to prepare the ingredients for fried rice
9. Use the right oil to fry riceThe choice of oil for fried rice plays an important part in creating authentic Asian flavor. Oils suitable for stir-frying are vegetable oil such as peanut and palm oil. They have a high smoking point suitable for stir-frying and a neutral taste that will not affect the flavor of the fried rice. Olive oil and butter are not suitable for cooking oriental fried rice. They do not have a neutral flavor, and the smoking point is relatively low. 10. Fry on the highest heatThere are many ways to fry rice. The proponent of each method vouches that they have the best method. The reality is that there is no ‘best’ method, as it is a matter of personal preference. However, producing wok-hei is crucial and is often used to measure a Chinese chef’s credibility. When cooked correctly, the fried rice is said to “have wok hei 有镬气. “To impart wok-hei, the food must be cooked in a hot wok over intense heat while being stirred and tossed quickly. In short, stir-fry the rice on high heat whenever possible. Part 2: Selected list of fried riceI published a list of fried rice recipes on this blog. There have different tastes but are still based on all the techniques in Part 1.
Prep Time 5 minutes Cook Time 10 minutes Total Time 15 minutes Ingredients
Instructions
Nutrition Information:Yield:1Serving Size:1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 986Total Fat: 36gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 29gCholesterol: 271mgSodium: 1524mgCarbohydrates: 116gFiber: 6gSugar: 2gProtein: 45g This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix on 5/28/2019 What rice is best for fried rice?Which rice is best for fried rice? Pick a medium-grain white rice, which is the standard in Chinese cuisine. A fresh batch of this variety turns out sticky in your rice cooker, which makes it easy to eat with chopsticks, yet it also has the ability to separate into individual grains.
What kind of rice do Chinese restaurants use for fried rice?Most Chinese restaurants make fried rice out of jasmine rice. Jasmine rice has a nice texture and flavor, making it perfect for this application.
What is the most common fried rice?The most common form of American Chinese fried rice consists of some mixture of eggs, scallions, and vegetables, with chopped meat added at the customer's discretion, and usually flavored with soy sauce instead of table salt (more typical for Chinese-style fried rice).
What is the secret of Chinese fried rice?Successful fried rice should have well-separated grains and fully-mixed ingredients and seasonings. I personally love jasmine rice because it has a light but distinct aroma, and won't become sticky when cooked. Long grain rice is also a good choice. Leftover cold rice is ideal for fried rice.
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