Whatever You’ve Got Fried Rice Recipe (2024)

Ingredients:frozen cooked rice, a cup or so per personfrozen diced vegetables meat, such as chopped BBQ brisket, pastrami, ground pork, bacon, roast chicken2 eggsgarlic, choppedginger, choppedscallions, choppedsoy sauce and sesame oil (about a 3:1 ratio) make 1/8 cup of sauce for two

I work as a nanny for a preschooler and have been making this for my little girl for a long time. Like the others, I find bagged frozen veggies to be a Godsend. I also throw in some salad mix--there are so many non-lettuce choices--cabbage, broccoli, carrots, and yes, always onion. I do use scrambled egg, to add protein (or tofu). Then some sesame oil and soy sauce. Authentic? Nope. Delish? Yep.

This is what Chinese moms do with leftovers. I don't bother with the ginger or garlic, though I'm sure it makes it more tasty. Scallions are enough for me, and it saves me the chopping time. My mom taught me to cook the eggs before throwing in the vegetables with the rice. But really, the best thing about this recipe is that cooking order doesn't matter. When I've served it to non-Chinese people, they are impressed and I am embarrassed since it's thrown together in 15 minutes from leftovers.

Who knew something so simple could be so good? Having made it once I better get the concept of "throw in anything you have." I added some chopped peanuts on top for some crunch and loved that.

I caramelize loads of onions when I have time, and then freeze them in small quantities. When I want to quickly make something like fried rice, it is great to have caramelized onions to add to it!

I’ve also used shredded cabbage instead of rice, it gives it a sort of lo mein feel.

Overnight in the fridge rice, crumbled up by hand before you start (super important)... Very hot oil, I use peanut, in a non-stick skillet. Dump in rice and push down into oil. Once it's browning, do a "fold in" turn for all of it, then let it brown again. Dump in your veggies... fold in again. Here, it starts to steam so get it "crunch y" beforehand. Stir as needed to not burn... add in soy sauce, stir. Well in the middle and eggs to cook them. Plate it up... Yummy!!!

Another great vegetable options: those bags of broccoli slaw or similar mixed shredded veggies from the produce section.

My kids tell me I need to write a cookbook with the title, "First You Take an Onion." After that, you can go a thousand different directions!

My version, less salt, more sesame oil, a powerful flavor-giving ingredient. Ginger can't hurt, for the same reason. And if you had some fresh coriander AFTER the wok, hey hey hey !

FYI Trader Joe's sells convenient and good frozen rice in pouches, either Jasmine or brown. Cooks in 3 minutes in microwave.

Adding the salad mix is a great idea too! Gonna steal that, with your kind permission...

I think he means rice that you have already cooked, like leftover rice that you store in the fridge or freezer. Fried rice is always made with 'old' or leftover rice from previous meals.

For those of you who believe that chilling the rice produces resistant starch, you are correct. However, once you heat it up again, the resistant starch disappears, and it converts back to regular starch. Just thought I would share that to clear up any confusion.

Yep. I always used frozen rice ( that I cooked myself) when making fried rice. It’s somewhat drier and absorbs flavor much better.

Boy, we sure like this around here. It’s such a cheat; max flavour and more-ish-ness with so little effort. Last night’s version started with about 6 slices of bacon, diced, and the roughly chopped remains of a store-bought roast chicken. Frozen veg, some chopped up cabbage. Fun to cook and everyone loves it!

Didn’t have pre-cooked rice or the time time to prepare rice so I used couscous. Ready in 3 minutes, flavor of lo mein or ramen noodles and the soft, fluffy mouth feel of rice. Plus it soaks up more of the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil sauce!

Also added some rice vinegar during cooking process.

I made this many times during the early days of the COVID lockdown when my husband and child were home during the day. It was an easy recipe to make for lunches as well as dinners with what you have on hand. It was also easy to cook more rice while assembling the other ingredients. Any leftovers were easy to warm up in the microwave. I did find, with experience, that it was easier to add the eggs after the vegetables, and before the rice. The rice helped break up the scrambled eggs.

To David’s concerns about bacterial spores in leftover rice: I’m a retired medical microbiologist, and yes, rice harbors a spore forming bacillus that, when growing, produces a heat stable toxin. AND bacterial food poisoning can happen with many foods, not just rice, with similar spore-forming bacteria or others. If you follow USDA storage requirements, keeping food either cold (under 40*) or hot (over 140*), cool leftovers quickly and refrigerate within an hour, they are safe to eat, rice too.

Yum, yum. I used vegan sausage, half brown and half wild leftover rice, then followed the instructions. What a delicious result. It was served with roasted salmon and a cool cabbage slaw. Another winner. Thank you, Sam.!

I have made this many times, especially in 2020. I made it for lunch as well as dinner and if I were lucky there was enough for one meal as a leftover.I leave out the gochujang, and use Tabasco instead. I let those who prefer more heat add hot sauce to suit themselves. Frozen mixed vegetables work well with this.It is a great adaptable recipe to what is available in the refrigerator and it always tastes great.

Great kid food!

Needed some oomph. Added some Schezwan seasoning that perked it up. Lots of bowls for all the different add ins:-)

Ironically, I followed this "non recipe" pretty closely. As directed, I made a sauce of 3T soy sauce, 1T sesame oil, and a tiny dab of hot gochujang. I used a couple of leftover pork chops, diced small; a large heap of leftover roasted veg (cauliflower, onions, and bell peppers); and one sad ear of corn I found languishing in the fridge. Sure enough, random as all that was, the end result is delicious and will be even better with some chopped roasted peanuts on top. Thanks, Sam Sifton.

This is a great recipe, but a couple of tablespoons of rice vinegar at the end really made it stand out. My favorite cheat was using a bag of cole slaw (just pre-shredded cabbage and carrots).

So delicious. We sometime sub out other ingredients but this is perfect as is! Started cooking Asian food during lockdown and found that it’s so easy and super fast. We have become experts.

Thank you for an easy to follow and execute fried rice recipe! I have tried many and this is the first one that works. Also, being gluten intolerant I can’t easily find Chinese food that is gluten free since soy sauce is customarily made from wheat. I can make recipes, however, by using tamari soy sauce which is made from soy. For some reason Chinese restaurants here do not use tamari sauce. I am not sure why as it has the same flavor and qualities as soy sauce made from wheat.

Chopped up bologna is a great addition. Not really a fan of the stuff in a sandwich setting, but crisped up in fried rice, it becomes one of my favorite ingredients!

I'm all about cleaning out the fridge and cut up some chicken and mushrooms to stir in, liked other stir fry recipes that suggested adding shredded cabbage, gave it more bulk and made it healthier!