My dad's simple, easy and quick Chinese egg fried rice recipe that's fluffy and coats each grain of rice with egg! Ready in from start to finish in 15 minutes!
This Chinese egg fried rice recipe is meant to be a simple, quick and easy and is best eaten as a side dish with a saucy main course. If you are looking for a heartier fried rice dish that can be enjoyed more as a main course, try my Cumin Beef Fried Rice recipe!
INGREDIENTS FOR EGG FRIED RICE
For this Chinese egg fried rice recipe, you can find all the ingredients at your local grocery store.
- Rice - Any type of rice works for this recipe, try to use day old cold rice if possible to prevent mushy fried rice.
HOW TO PREVENT MUSHY FRIED RICE
To get perfect fried rice every time, try to use rice that is day old (leftover rice). It is a lot drier and produces a less mushy fried rice.
If you are pressed for time and don't have any cold day old rice, you can make a fresh batch of rice but add less water to it when you are cooking so that it comes out drier and not fully cooked. You should still leave it to cool before using it - I like to wait until it is room temperature.
PREPARE EVERYTHING AHEAD OF TIME
Preparing all the ingredients ahead so that you can have everything ready to go when you are making the rice.
- If you are using day old rice, gently break up the rice into smaller chunks before you start cooking.
- For the eggs, add the oil and salt to the eggs and pre-scramble your eggs and have it ready to go.
MY DAD'S SECRET TO FLUFFY EGGS
Growing up, my dad always made these awesome scrambled eggs - his secret was he added a bit of oil to it! It's a bit odd but it works so I don't question it! I like to use this method whenever I make anything with scrambled eggs in it.
HOW TO COAT THE RICE WITH EGG
Whenever I make egg fried rice, I turned down the heat to low after the rice has toasted, right before I put in the egg. I don't want it to instantly cook the egg on a high temperature - I only want to slightly cook the egg and then shift all the rice on top of it which will coat every single one of your rice grains with a bit of egg.
While you are doing this, it might start to look like a half scrambled goopy mess - this is normal. Once you turn your heat back up to medium heat, the egg will fully cook once you start mixing everything together and the rice will dry up again.
LOOKING FOR MORE EASY RICE RECIPES? TRY THESE!
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Egg Fried Rice
INGREDIENTS
- 3 cups rice (preferably cold, day old rice, see notes)
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
Egg Mix
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoon oil (for the eggs)
- ½ teaspoon salt
Garnish
- 1-2 stalks green onions (finely chopped, added at the end)
- toasted sesame seeds (optional, added at the end)
INSTRUCTIONS
Preparation
- Gently break up the day-old rice in a bowl into smaller chunks with your hands and set aside.
- Finely chop up the green onions and set aside
- In a small bowl, add in the eggs, oil, and salt and beat it until it is fluffy and set aside.
Putting it Together
- Heat a large frying pan with a bit of oil over medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, add in the rice and cook it for a few minutes. Use your utensil to break up the rice while it is hot. Cook for about 4-6 minutes
- Reduce the heat to low heat
- Push the rice aside in the pan and add in the scrambled egg mix to the pan. Let it sit for about 1-2 seconds and then use your utensil to give it a gentle mix a few times.
- Push the rice on top of the scrambled eggs and gently mix it until each grain is coated (Don't worry goopy, the egg will cook and dry out in the next steps)
- Set the stove back to medium heat
- Continue to toss and mix the rice until the egg is cooked and evenly distributed with the rice. The fried rice should look dry and not goopy and mushy. Cook for approximately 5 minutes. If the rice still looks mushy, continue to cook it until the heat dries out the eggs.
- Add in the soy sauce and mix well to evenly distribute it
- Turn off the heat and add in the green onions and mix it for 1 minute so that the residual heat cooks it.
- Serve it as a side dish and enjoy!
NOTES
- Use day old, cold rice for the best textured fried rice (not mushy.) If you are pressed for time, make a batch of fresh rice but use less water to cook it so that it is drier but make sure you let it cool before using it.
NUTRITION
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Harold Burton says
Love this recipe! We use it quite often. I double the carrots and celery and add minced onion flakes to it and use Uncle Ben's Wild Rice. After a couple hours check it to see if it needs a little bit more water added.
Harold Burton
Joyce Lee says
Hi Harold,
I'm so happy you like this! Great idea adding some extra veg and minced onion! Thanks so much for sharing this with me!
Yukti Arora says
so tasty rice recipe so keep posting.
Joyce says
Thanks so much Yukti!