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Garlic fried rice, shrimp fried rice, golden fried rice, and more
Kat Thompson is the associate editor of Eater at Home, covering home cooking and baking, cookbooks, and kitchen gadgets.
Fried rice is one of those dishes that doesn’t really need a recipe. So often, it’s all about chucking whatever odds and ends you have in your fridge — along with cold, leftover rice — and calling it a day. But when you are intentional with your fried rice, like coating the rice in egg yolks before frying, like Lucas Sin does, or topping the entire thing in a creamy Yum Yum Sauce à la Eric Kim, magic can happen. Here are Eater staffers’ favorite fried rice recipes to follow.
Shrimp Fried Rice
Eric Kim, NYT Cooking
As someone who often has cooked rice lying around my refrigerator, Eric Kim’s shrimp fried rice recipe is, if not a godsend, then definitely one of my very favorite ways to upcycle my leftovers. Kim combines the rice with shrimp, frozen mixed vegetables, soy sauce, garlic powder, some diced onion, and eggs, the latter of which are fried in butter. Thanks to the genius inclusion of frozen vegetables, this is a meal that comes together in about 20 minutes; the most laborious task here is chopping a single onion. It’s rich and salty and satisfying, and that’s even before you add the Yum Yum Sauce, a condiment that is somehow not a classified substance but instead a combination of mayonnaise (I use Vegenaise), ketchup, garlic powder, paprika, rice vinegar, and toasted sesame oil. Yum Yum Sauce has found its way onto most things that I eat, though if I’m being honest it’s also exceptional on its own, accompanied only by a spoon. But on top of a hot bowl of shrimp fried rice? That really is a godsend. — Rebecca Flint Marx, editor, Eater at Home
Golden Fried Rice
Lucas Sin, Food & Wine
I feel forever grateful to chef Lucas Sin for the ways his recipes — at the time, casually shared in Instagram stories — got me through the early pandemic. I made so much tomato-egg soup (both variations — IYKYK). Because of him, I also made so much golden fried rice. The method, which is an Imperial technique, involves coating your rice in egg yolks before stir-frying it. The whites, meanwhile, are cooked separately from the rice to add heft and texture to the finished dish. Of course, as with any fried rice recipe, it’s a good way to then add any odds and ends from the fridge. I used to make my fried rice by frying it, seasoning it, and then cracking in an egg, but it never tasted quite as good as at Chinese restaurants. This method ensures a richer flavor and better texture and over the past five years, it’s become my default technique. — Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter
Kasama Garlic Fried Rice
Tim Flores, Eater: 100 Essential Restaurant Recipes from the Authority on Where to Eat and Why It Matters
There are a few recipes that I believe can justify the work of painstakingly mincing nearly 20 cloves of garlic, but this fried rice recipe from Chicago stalwart Kasama is absolutely worth peeling and chopping all those darn cloves. You start with frying the garlic in oil until it’s golden brown and your entire apartment smells amazing, then briefly toss some day-old rice in the deliciously garlicky oil left behind. It is, of course, perfect with the mushroom adobo recipe that it’s paired with, but I regularly find myself craving this rice on its own with just a jammy-yolked fried egg on top. — Amy McCarthy, reporter
Arroz Chaufa
Ham El-Waylly, NYT Cooking
Whenever I order pollo a la brasa for takeout (which is…fairly often), I usually throw in an order of chaufa, the Peruvian take on fried rice. So when I saw a recipe for it pop up on NYT Cooking, I naturally decided to give it a whirl. This recipe isn’t dramatically different from Chinese versions of the dish (neither is chaufa, really, though you might be more likely to see pieces of hot dog, a heavy hand with soy sauce, or a splash of aji amarillo sauce, which this recipe does not include). But it’s a great base for weeknight cooking and pretty flexible: I’ve added shrimp, bean sprouts, cubes of Spam (in homage to my local go-to Peruvian chicken joint), and other odds and ends from the fridge. — Missy Frederick, cities director
Sizzling Beef Pepper Rice
Ian Rivero, Iankewks
Pepper Lunch, the Japan-based casual hot plate chain specializing in sizzling beef and rice, is one of my favorite quick meals. However, their signature dish is so simple to prepare at home that I’ve found myself visiting my local franchise less and less. This recipe from Iankewks tastes exactly like the beefy and buttery plate that is my go-to order. I love the sweet pops of corn in this dish and the savory sauce that permeates everything. Although this is not a traditional fried rice by any means — you don’t have to mix all the components if you don’t want to — it is still a great way to utilize old fried rice in your fridge. — Kat Thompson, associate editor, Eater at Home
