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A small white plate of Korean kimchi fried rice topped with a fried sunny side up egg and garnished with green onions, sesame seeds and seaweed.
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5 from 20 votes

Kimchi Fried Rice with Spam

A delicious and easy, 30 minute kimchi fried rice recipe (Kimchi Bokkeumbap) made with kimchi, spam, and rice and served with a fried egg on top
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine: Asian, Korean
Servings: 4
Calories: 774kcal
Author: Joyce Lee

Ingredients

  • 3 cups rice (cold, leftover rice, *see notes)
  • 1 cup spam (chopped into ¼ inch cubes, *see notes for substitutions)
  • 2 cloves garlic (finely minced, approx. 1 ½ tablespoon)
  • cup onion (diced)
  • 1 cup kimchi
  • 2-3 tablespoons butter
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil (mixed it at the very end after the rice is done cooking)
  • (optional) egg (To make a sunny side-up fried egg on top)

Kimchi Fried Rice Sauce

Garnishes

Instructions

Prepare the Ingredients

  • Gently break up the leftover cold rice by hand into small pieces.
  • Measure out the kimchi and place it in bowl. Squeeze as much of the liquid out of the kimchi as you can into a separate bowl. Chop the kimchi into small ¼ pieces and set it aside for later
  • Remove the spam from the can and chop it into small ¼ inch cubes. Set it aside for later
  • Peel and dice an onion and set it aside for later
  • Peel and finely mince the garlic and set it aside for later
  • If you are using seaweed as a garnish, cut it into smaller pieces using scissors and set it aside for the very end.
  • If you are using green onions as a garnish, finely chop it and set it aside for the very end.

Mix the Sauce

  • Make sure you have enough reserved liquid for the recipe. If you don't have enough kimchi liquid, you can mix 2½ teaspoons of gochujang with 2 tablespoons of water to make up for the remainder of the kimchi liquid. (You can double it, if you need more than 2 tablespoons of liquid)
  • Once you have enough kimchi liquid, mix it with the fish sauce and gochujang until it forms a sauce.

(Optional) Fry a Sunny Side-Up Egg

  • If you are serving it with a fried egg, pan-fry a sunny side-up egg and place it on a plate, and set it aside for the very end.

Making the Kimchi Fried Rice

  • Set the stove to medium-high heat and melt the butter with 1-2 tablespoons of oil
  • Once the butter has melted, add in the spam. Toast the spam until it turns a toasty dark pink color (approximately 3-4 minutes)
  • Reduce the heat on the stove to medium heat
  • Add in the onions and garlic and cook it for 2 minutes
  • Add in the kimchi and cook it for 3-4 minutes until there is very little to no liquid in the frying pan
  • Add the cooked rice and cook it for 1-2 minutes.
  • Add the sauce and mix everything together for about 1 minute until everything is mixed together evenly. If there are any lumps in the rice, wait until it has warmed up from the heat and use your utensil to press on it to break it down into individual grains of rice.
    Make sure to coat all the rice with the sauce so that you see no white rice.
  • Do a taste test. If it needs more salt, add in more salt or soy sauce until it is flavored the way you like.
  • Turn off the heat, and mix in the sesame oil and garnish with toppings of your choice! If you made a fried egg, place it on top of your fried rice and enjoy with the runny yolk!
  • Enjoy hot as a meal or a side dish!

Notes

  • If you don't want to use spam, you can substitute it with bacon. Keep in mind, spam is a lot saltier than bacon so you will need to do a taste test and add a bit more salt or soy sauce to make up it. Alternatively, you can also use up any leftover meats for this recipe as well, in place of the spam/bacon.
  • Older kimchi has more flavor for cooking - Older kimchi is fizzy, more fermented, and has a lot more flavor than freshly made kimchi which makes this recipe great for using up old kimchi on. Older kimchi also has a lot more liquid in it which you will need to flavor this fried rice with. That being said, freshly store-bought kimchi can still be considered older kimchi since they are pre-made ahead of time and have been sitting in the stores for a least a few weeks.
  • If you can't squeeze enough kimchi liquid of your kimchi you can mix gochujang with warm water to make up for the remaining kimchi liquid. I like to use about 2 ½ teaspoons of gochujang with 2 tablespoons of warm water. If you need more, you can double it.
  • Make sure to toast the spam until it is a dark pink color - This will render out the fat in the spam which will give the fried rice extra flavor.
  • Always use leftover cold rice for any type of fried rice - Leftover rice that has been in the fridge has less moisture, which is great for making fried rice because you'll have less of a chance of making your rice soggy and mushy. If you don't have day-old rice to use, you can make a batch of fresh rice but put less water in than you normally do to cook it. Once it is done cooking, if you have the time, put it in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours.
  • If you want your kimchi fried rice spicier, add ¼ - ½ tsp of cayenne pepper. Adding more gochujang may make it slightly more spicier but it will also make it saltier as well. Alternatively, gochujang comes in different heat levels as well, so you can buy the 'hot' version if you like your food spicier.
  • Mix in the sesame oil at the end after you turn off the heat - Adding heat to sesame oil reduces the flavor from it, so I like to mix it in at the very end after the heat has turned off to get the best nutty flavor from the sesame oil.

Nutrition

Calories: 774kcal | Carbohydrates: 117g | Protein: 18g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 57mg | Sodium: 1246mg | Potassium: 456mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 184IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 49mg | Iron: 2mg