I'm sharing my secret to making takeout style egg fried rice! This recipe is super simple but with a few tricks, you'll have the same flavor at home.
Here you go fried rice lovers, this is literally the first thing we add to the cart when we order chinese takeout at home! It's always egg fried rice with a side of some chicken and vegetables.
And I've been wanting to nail it for a while. And like with a lot of chinese recipes on this site, I need to get it just right. I need it to taste exactly like egg fried rice from my chinese restaurant. I've done it before - with chilli chicken, chinese chicken salad, hot and sour soup and crispy fried noodles. And I've done it again with this recipe!
Egg fried rice is the best way to use day old leftover rice. You can add any bits and bobs of veggies lying around in your fridge, a few sauces, 2-3 eggs and you've got yourself a seriously delicious dish!
Special Tips for making Egg Fried Rice
Rice
This is probably the most important thing to remember while making any fried rice recipe. Never use freshly cooked rice. Fresh rice will leave your egg fried rice gluggy and sticky. It's best to use day-old leftover rice that’s been in the fridge overnight.
The fridge will take away some of the moisture from the rice, leaving you with grains that are drier and separate. If you don’t have leftover rice and want to mimic that texture, cook rice, spread it out on a baking tray and then refrigerate it for at least half an hour.
Oh and one more thing - the rice has to be al dente. This means that it should still have a bite. Overcooked rice or soft mushy rice is a big big no for any type of fried rice!
Wok
I can’t stress it enough. For great tasting Chinese food, a wok or a wide kadhai is so important. It helps spread out the heat. A good quality wok made of carbon steel or triple layer stainless steel will retain heat and the wide shape helped stir fry really well. A seasoned wok will also add flavour and smokiness to Chinese food which will give you the same taste as takeout.
If you don’t have either of these, try getting your hands on a large frying pan. Make sure you have enough room to toss and stir. If you use a small vessel, you are guaranteed to spill while making it.
Sauces
You’ll notice that we are using sauces sparingly. This fried rice recipe is not going to be deep brown in colour, or taste full of soy sauce. The proportions of sauces are just right to add enough flavour but still keep it tasting fresh, crunchy and healthy.
Variations
You can use this base recipe to do variations. You can turn this into prawn fried rice or chicken fried rice easily or just remove the egg and keep it vegetarian. Add cooked prawns or chicken when you add the veggies. Increase the sauces slightly and build this to your taste.
While this recipe already has it’s fair share of vegetables, you can still add on different veggies like bell peppers, onions, sweet corn etc. Add them in when you saute the other vegetables mentioned in the recipe.
When it comes to chicken, you can use small chunks boneless chicken thigh or chicken breast and add it right after sautéing ginger and garlic in the recipe below. You can even add prawns to this recipe - simply add it when you add your carrots, green beans and bell peppers. Chicken needs time to cook and needs to be added right at the beginning. Prawns, on the other hand, need very little time to cook - like no more than 2-3 minutes. You can even use leftover cooked chicken, just cut it up into small pieces and add it while adding in your rice!
And that's it! If you follow these super simple tricks, you'll always have amazing restaurant style fried rice at home in less than 20 minutes!
More Chinese Takeout Style Recipes
- Chinese Hot and Sour Soup
- Easy Chinese Chilli Chicken
- Crunchy Chinese Chicken Salad
- Crispy Fried Noodles
- Crispy Honey Chilli Potatoes
- Tofu Broccoli Stir Fry
- Schezwan Fried Rice
- Shrimp Chow Mein
- Burnt Garlic Mushroom Fried Rice
Watch how to make Egg Fried Rice Recipe Video
Egg Fried Rice - Same restaurant style taste!
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons Oil divided
- 1 teaspoon Ginger finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon Garlic finely chopped
- ¼ cup Celery finely chopped
- ¼ cup Spring onions finely chopped (white pale part)
- ½ cup Green beans chopped
- ½ cup Carrots chopped
- 1 cup Mushrooms sliced
- 2 ½ cups White rice cooked leftover (approx ¾ cup raw rice), refer to Note 1
- 1 tablespoon Dark soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon Rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon White pepper powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 2 Eggs
- ½ cup Spring onions chopped (green part)
Instructions
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok. Whisk the eggs and add them to the wok. Let the egg fry in the oil for 10 seconds and then scramble it, making sure not to brown it. Remove it from the wok.
- In the same wok, heat the remaining oil and add ginger, garlic, celery and the white part of spring onions. Stir fry the aromatics for a minute or two on high heat.
- Add beans, carrots and mushrooms and stir fry for another two minute, all the time making sure that its on high heat so that the veggies remain crunchy.
- Add cooked rice, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, white pepper powder, salt (if using). Stir fry again to make sure everything is mixed well.
- Don't worry if the rice sticks a little to the bottom. Just scrape it off - those crunchy bits are yum! Add the scrambled eggs and green part of spring onions. Mix again and turn off the heat. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Rice: Any short grain white rice will work well for this recipe. Short grain rice tastes much better than long grained rice in fried rice
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- Cooking rice for fried rice: Its best to use leftover rice from the previous day for fried rice. This is because, rice that has been in the fridge overnight has less moisture and will make for fluffier, less gluggy or sticky fried rice. If you don't have leftover rice, cook the rice, spread it out on a baking sheet and refrigerate it for half an hour before cooking.
- Veggies: You can use your favourite veggies in this recipe. That's the beauty of fried rice. I also love using broccoli, cabbage, bok choy in this recipe.
- Protein: Chicken, shrimp/ prawns, bacon all taste great in this recipe. Just cook them before and add them along with the veggies in the recipe
- Freezing: Egg fried rice can be easily frozen. Let it cool to room temperature and freeze it in freezer friendly containers. This can be frozen for up to 3 months.
- Reheating egg fried rice: To reheat this dish, take the container out of the freezer, let it thaw and then microwave in 2 minute spurts.
- Cauliflower Fried Rice: To make this healthier, swap the rice for 3 cups cauliflower rice
Kunal Thanawala says
Wanted to know if someone does have seasme oil what can it be substituted with or is it fine avoiding it.
Richa says
There isn't a good substitute for toasted sesame oil. You can skip it
Veronika Singh says
Thanks for sharing this recipe. It looks yummy! It’s making process is also very easy. When i get hungry, I can make that quick. it’s a good recipe. Keep posting this type of recipes.. 🙂
Shaheda says
It was as good as the restaurant
Nanditha says
Can we use white V begar instead of Rice vinegar?
Richa says
Sure!
Elizabeth Alex says
Yum😋😋
Richa says
Thank you so much!!
Jho Pasquin says
We tried your recipe and our family, loved it. We will try more of your recommendations.
Chief says
Good recipe but your video indicates no chopped celery. Your recipe does?
I sometimes use a small quantity of Teriyaki sauce in place of Soy Sauce to give it a bit of a flavour kick. I always use Basmati Rice and it therefore never becomes sticky or clumpy.
Richa says
Hey there, the video actually has celery, it goes in the wok right after ginger and garlic 🙂 Teriyaki sauce sounds like a great flavour too