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Homemade Fried Rice That Will Have Them Asking for Seconds

House fried rice is one of my boys' favorite dishes when we go out to eat. I generally like it, too. I've noticed over the years (we don't eat out often) that most restaurants seem to be getting skimpier on the meat, eggs, and veggies and heavier on the white rice. I figured homemade fried rice can't be that complicated to make – right? So hubby and I went hunting on the internet and came up with a recipe that sounded about right, then we tweaked it a little and this is where we ended up.

homemade fried rice

I start with the Basic Brown Rice 1 recipe from Nourishing Traditions.

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Basic Brown Rice

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Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 2 cups long-grain brown rice
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon gelatin (if I use chicken stock with plenty of feet, I skip the extra gelatin)
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

In a heavy, flameproof casserole, melt butter and olive oil. (I use my heavy bottom stainless steel 12 quart pot.)  Saute rice in butter and oil, stirring constantly, until rice begins to turn milky. (This step will often attract little boys to the kitchen with comments of, “What smells so good?”)

Pour in liquid, add salt and gelatin and bring to a rolling boil. Boil, uncovered, for about 10 minutes until the water had reduced to the level of the rice. Reduce flame to lowest heat, cover tightly and cook for at least 1 1/2 hours or as long as 3 hours. Do not remove lid during cooking.

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The rice goes on to cook in advance, closer to mealtime you prep everything else. Here's the recipe we used.

Homemade Fried Rice with Shrimp

INGREDIENTS:

4 ounces frozen uncooked shrimp, unshelled

Marinade:
1 tablespoon oyster sauce, or to taste (look for one made with real oysters)
1 tablespoon soy sauce, or to taste (look for real fermented soy sauce, without HFCS or artificial colors)
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Pepper to taste
1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoons water

Other:
4 ounces cooked ham
1 medium onion
2 green onions
2 eggs (more if desired, I usually use four or five)
1/2 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
1 or 2 carrots, finely chopped
4 cups cold cooked rice
4 to 5 tablespoons oil for stir-frying, or as needed (I like sesame oil)

PREPARATION:

Run the frozen shrimp under warm running water, pat dry with paper towels, shell and devein. Chop into pieces. Add the marinade ingredients and marinate for 15 minutes.

fried-rice

Dice the ham, onion, and green onion. (Sometimes we skip the ham and add chicken, sometimes we just double up on the shrimp. A lot of the time we don't have green onion, so we just skip it.)

Beat the eggs lightly with chopsticks, add a dash of salt, and mix.* Set aside.

Heat the wok and then add 1 tablespoon oil. (I don't have a wok, so we just use our REALLY BIG frying pan.)  When oil is ready, pour 1/2 of the egg mixture into the wok and cook over medium heat, turning over once. Cook the other half the same way. Cut the egg into thin strips, and save for later. (Sometimes husband will mix the egg with the rice later on, me, I'm a fan of egg strips.)

Add 2 tablespoons oil, or as needed. When oil is hot, stir-fry the onion and shrimp on high heat for a few moments, remove and set aside. Do the same for the green peas, and then the diced ham.

homemade fried rice

Uh, yeah, I generally go heavier on the veggies. This batch had about a cup of peas and one each purple and orange carrot. I mixed photos from two different batches of rice, because I didn't get a photo of the finished product when I the in progress photos. The boys were very hungry. 🙂

Add 1 – 2 tablespoons oil, turn the heat down to medium and stir-fry the rice. Add a bit of soy and oyster sauce if desired. Add the other ingredients except the egg and green onion and combine thoroughly. Serve the fried rice with the strips of egg on top and the green onion as garnish.**

*You can also add a bit of oyster sauce if desired
**Alternately, you can mix the green onion and egg in with the other ingredients.

And that's it. You end up with a large batch of very filling fried rice. For our family of four, we easily get two meals out of this recipe. The boys like it a lot. In fact, just last weekend we were in town running errands on Saturday and were thinking about eating supper in town. The boys both said they would rather come home and eat leftovers (which was this fried rice). The photo at the top of the page is some of the leftover rice. (Hubby finished that batch, so there are no egg hunks.)  It reheats pretty well in a skillet or the microwave, and is a handy one skillet meal. I watch for sales on the shrimp to make it less expensive, but you could also substitute chicken or whatever meat you have available, or add more veggies and eggs.

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Homemade Fried Rice

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  • Author: Laurie Neverman

Ingredients

Units Scale

4 ounces frozen uncooked shrimp, unshelled

Marinade:

  • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, or to taste (look for one made with real oysters)
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce, or to taste (look for real fermented soy sauce, without HFCS or artificial colors)
  • 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoons water

Other:

  • 4 ounces cooked ham
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 green onions
  • 2 eggs (more if desired, I usually use four or five)
  • 1/2 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
  • 1 or 2 carrots, finely chopped
  • 4 cups cold cooked rice
  • 4 to 5 tablespoons oil for stir-frying, or as needed (I like sesame oil)

Instructions

Run the frozen shrimp under warm running water, pat dry with paper towels, shell and devein. Chop into pieces. Add the marinade ingredients and marinate for 15 minutes.

Dice the ham, onion, and green onion. (Sometimes we skip the ham and add chicken, sometimes we just double up on the shrimp. A lot of the time we don't have green onion, so we just skip it.)

Beat the eggs lightly with chopsticks, add a dash of salt, and mix.* Set aside.

Heat the wok and then add 1 tablespoon oil. (I don't have a wok, so we just use our REALLY BIG frying pan.)  When oil is ready, pour 1/2 of the egg mixture into the wok and cook over medium heat, turning over once. Cook the other half the same way. Cut the egg into thin strips, and save for later. (Sometimes husband will mix the egg with the rice later on, me, I'm a fan of egg strips.)

Add 2 tablespoons oil, or as needed. When oil is hot, stir-fry the onion and shrimp on high heat for a few moments, remove and set aside. Do the same for the green peas, and then the diced ham.

Add 1 – 2 tablespoons oil, turn the heat down to medium and stir-fry the rice. Add a bit of soy and oyster sauce if desired. Add the other ingredients except the egg and green onion and combine thoroughly. Serve the fried rice with the strips of egg on top and the green onion as garnish.**

*You can also add a bit of oyster sauce if desired

**Alternately, you can mix the green onion and egg in with the other ingredients.

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14 Comments

  1. Laurie: Thanks for the Fried Rice recipe — looks real yummy. For the oyster sauce, what brand do you use/ recommend?

  2. I took a Chinese cooking class a few years ago. The chef told us to cook rice a day or two ahead of time, he claimed that was the secret to Chinese take-out! I don’t know if this is true, but it is handy for me to cook rice while I am cooking another meal, then save the rice to put together the next day’s meal. I have added my own broccoli and green beans to take-out to amp up the vegetable portion and to stretch the take-out into another meal.

  3. I make very similar to this, but use jasmine rice instead of long grain, just ’cause we like it and got a massive bag of it on sale. 🙂 There are lots of things you can add to fried rice to make it extra healthy! We have dehydrated spinach, kale, carrot shreds, various herbs, cabbage, and dozens of other things, and when I’m cooking the rice I’ll add a handful of colored stuff (usually greens, the hardest thing to get into our crowd). The rice comes out all pretty and speckled, and when you mix int he other things it just looks and tastes so good!

    We sometimes use those little tiny cans of mini-shrimp for fried rice, and sometimes tofu, or TVP, chicken, pork, beef (rarely), or a can of crab. I like to use leftovers for fried rice, because it makes a really quick meal that everyone loves. 🙂 Thanks for sharing this!

  4. This looks so delicious! I think I'll have to give it at try. I've made it with white rice in my pre-whole-foods years, but always felt kind of guilty about that. Thanks for the recipe!

  5. Mmmmm!! I love fried rice! It is one of my favorite things to make on the fly.

  6. We do have pretty decent restaurants around here..Up where we live it is pretty easy to get a good piece of meat, fish or other things..Down in the city you have the regular fast food places..

  7. Jo – maybe you have better restaurants in your area? Yes, you could easily use chicken or beef or whatever meat you had on hand, or drop the meat and use more veggies and eggs.

    Pamela – It'd be interesting to have my kitchen "invaded" by a cook from another country. I like trying new things, but sometimes worry whether I'll be able to get them right (or even "close enough").

  8. Laurie……thanks for this. I'm going to have to make this while my family is here. I gave my daughter in law (she's Filipino) full reign of the kitchen to cook all she wants of the type of foods she enjoys which is all Filipino / Thia and other Asian dishes. My grandson loves fried rice…this will be winner for him.

  9. It's wonderful that your boys pick homemade over eating out. It looks very delicious even though I would never get my husband to eat shrimp or ham again..But this basic recipe can easily be modified to individual liking and served when friends are visiting. I like dishes that can easily be reheated in a skillet since we don't use a microwave…

    I'm impressed that your kids picked leftovers, my kids wouldn't. LOL..