Quick and easy Chinese egg fried rice recipe with fluffy scrambled eggs that coat each grain of rice! Ready from start to finish in 15 minutes!
Table of Contents
This Chinese egg fried rice recipe is meant to be simple, quick, and easy and is best eaten as a side dish with a saucy main course.
There aren't many ingredients to this delicious easy egg fried rice recipe, at its core, it's just eggs and cooked rice with a bit of salt and soy sauce! So if you're looking for something easy that tastes just like they do at the Chinese restaurant, then you're at the right place!
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 or Kimchi Fried Rice with Spam recipes!
Egg Fried Rice Ingredients
- Rice - Any type of rice works for this easy egg fried recipe, try to use day old cold cooked rice if possible to prevent mushy/soggy fried rice. I personally like to use jasmine rice (long grain rice) and Japanese calrose rice (medium grain rice) to make egg fried rice.
- Eggs - I like to use large chicken eggs for this easy egg fried rice recipe.
- Toasted Sesame Seeds and Green Onions - These garnishes add a lot of flavor to egg fried rice, especially the finely minced green onions.
- Salt - To flavor this fried rice, I use salt.
How to Make Egg Fried Rice
1.) 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 cooked white rice, gently break up the rice clumps into smaller pieces before you start cooking. I find it easiest to use your hands and try to break them into fine individual grains if you can.
- For the eggs, add the oil and salt to the eggs and pre-scramble your eggs, and have them ready to go.
2.) Cook Everything In a Large Wok or Skillet
- Once everything has been prepared, heat up large skillet or wok to very high heat and add a bit of oil to it. For a good fried rice, you can't be too shy with the oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add in the rice and cook it for a few minutes, breaking up the lumps of cooked rice into small grains.
- Push aside the rice, and add the beaten eggs in and let it cook for about 10 seconds until you start to see the edges bubbling. Then push the rice back on top of the egg.
- Keep cooking the fried rice until the egg has been fully cooked. If your fried rice looks soggy, keep cooking it to dry out the egg.
- Add the soy sauce over the fried rice and mix well until everything is well seasoned.
- Garnish with green onions or toasted sesame seeds and enjoy!
Joyce's Tips for Chinese Egg Fried Rice
- My dad's secret to egg fried rice is his awesome scrambled eggs. Whenever he made scrambled eggs, he would always add a bit of oil into it, which would create very fluffy and flavorful scrambled eggs.
- To get perfect fried rice every time, try to use cooked rice that is day old (leftover rice). It is a lot drier and produces less soggy fried rice.
If you are pressed for time and don't have any cold day-old leftover 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. - To make a good egg fried rice, you can't be too shy with the oil.
How to Coat Each Grain of Rice with Egg and Not Get Soggy Fried Rice
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 at 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 egg - 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.
Egg Fried Rice Variations
If you're looking for a bit more variety, here are some additional variations and ideas for this fried rice recipe.
- Vegetables - Try adding some frozen (or fresh) veggies like chopped carrots, onions, bell peppers, green beans, and peas for flavor and variety.
- Kimchi - If you have leftover kimchi, you can finely chop it up and add it to your fried rice for some extra flavor. I also have a kimchi fried rice with spam recipe here as well if you want something a bit more complex.
- Fish Sauce instead of Soy Sauce - Instead of soy sauce, you can switch up your umami bomb with fish sauce instead.
- Ground Chicken, Pork or Beef - Using ground meat is a great way to add more flavor and transform this fried rice into a meal chicken fried rice or like my Cumin Beef Fried Rice and my Thai Basil Turkey Fried Rice. You can even add shrimp!
- Bacon or Spam - Add some fried bacon of spam for a lot of extra flavor from both the saltiness and the extra fat.
- Toasted Sesame Oil or Garlic - You can mix in a bit of toasted sesame oil into the soy sauce or stir-fry some garlic while you are pan frying the white rice to give this egg fried rice even more flavor.
- Golden Egg Fried Rice - Use only the egg yolks to create a richer and more egg flavored Chinese egg fried rice.
Frequently Asked Questions
The secret to a good fried rice is its simplicity and to make sure it is well seasoned with salt or soy sauce. To give your fried rice a bit more flavor you can also add a bit of butter when you add the oil in, right before you add in the cold day old leftover rice.
Add the egg after the fried rice has been pan-fried for a few minutes and the rice clumps has been broken into individual grains.
To make fried rice taste better, you definitely want to make sure that it is well seasoned with either salt or soy sauce.
Chinese restaurants use intense high heat which causes a maillard reaction to the rice which gives it a 'wok hei' flavor. It's a light smoky flavor that makes fried rice (and noodles) taste absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, it is difficult to achieve that at home since our stoves cannot get that hot.
Yes, you definitely can. When you are making the rice in a rice cooker or a pot, add less water than you normally would (I add about ¼ cup less water). Once the rice is done, spread it out on a cookie sheet or a large plate and let it cool before you use it. If you have time, once the rice has slightly cooled, you can also cool it further by adding the cookie sheet (uncovered) in the fridge for an hour as well.
More Rice Recipes You May Like
- Vermicelli Rice
- Cumin Beef Fried Rice
- Tuna Mayo Deopbap (Korean Tuna Mayo Rice)
- Thai Basil Turkey Fried Rice
- Kimchi Fried Rice
- Chinese Sticky Rice (Lo Mai Fan)
- Lao Crispy Rice Salad (Nam Khao)
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Recipe Card
Easy Egg Fried Rice (5 Ingredients)
Recipe 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.
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. Approximately 3 cups rice.
- Finely chop up the 1-2 stalks green onions and set aside
- In a small bowl, add in the 3 eggs, 1 ½ teaspoon oil, and ½ teaspoon 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 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce and mix well until all the rice has been seasoned with 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!
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*
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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!