This is the only fried rice recipe you need. It’s incredibly fast, takes less than 20 minutes to make, and tastes even better than takeout.
When you need a delicious dinner on the table fast, you’ll want this recipe for fried rice in your back pocket. It’s perfect for using up leftovers and cleaning out the fridge, and thanks to my fried rice sauce, it’s really tasty. Plus, you can use the sauce for stir-fries another day. We use it for this shrimp stir fry.
While this recipe is written for a classic egg and vegetable fried rice, it’s easy to swap the veggies or add extra protein to make it your own. Tips for this are below!
Key Ingredients
- Rice: For the best fried rice, use leftover cold white rice. Hot or freshly cooked rice will become mushy. I prefer short-grain or medium-grain rice, such as calrose or jasmine rice. That said, you can use brown rice or quinoa in our recipe below.
- Aromatics: For restaurant-quality flavor, use fresh garlic, ginger, and green onions. I mince my garlic and use a microplane to grate the ginger.
- Vegetables: You have leeway when it comes to the veggies. I love carrots, zucchini, and peas. Mushrooms are also lovely, as are broccoli florets.
- Eggs: I love egg fried rice, so I usually add eggs to this. They are optional, though! When cooking them, I add a dab of butter to add a bit of extra richness.
- Fried Rice Sauce: When seasoning fried rice, I love using a homemade sauce that combines low-sodium soy sauce with brown sugar and rice vinegar, and toasted sesame oil. It is perfect for this recipe and also great for cooking chicken, shrimp, and tofu.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Fried Rice
Tip 1: Start with cold rice. Your best bet is to use leftover rice that’s been in the fridge. If you are sitting there with a craving for fried rice, but no leftover rice, make rice, but then spread it onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for about 1 hour. This will quickly cool it down, and dry it out a bit so it doesn’t turn mushy when you cook it.
Tip 2: Use a large skillet or wok. A large pan gives you plenty of room to toss ingredients without them falling out. A hot wok is the traditional choice, but your largest skillet will work just as well (a 12-inch skillet is a good bet).
Tip 3: Give heartier veggies a head start. Fried rice cooks quickly, but to make sure that all the vegetables are perfectly tender, start with hearty vegetables like carrots and broccoli first, giving them 1 to 2 minutes of cooking time before following up with the quicker-cooking veggies.
Tip 4: Adding the egg. I love the egg in this rice. To add them, push the rice to one side of the pan. Then, scramble your eggs in the empty space. Break them up a bit and stir them into the rice. Easy!
Tip 5: Add your favorite protein. You can easily add your favorite protein, such as sliced beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, or tofu. Just cook it in the skillet first, transfer it to a plate, and then make the fried rice as directed. Stir the cooked protein back into the skillet with the rice, egg, and veggies at the end.
More Asian-Inspired Recipes
- Homemade Crab Rangoon
- Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry
- Easy Teriyaki Chicken
- Thai Green Curry
- Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls
Easy Fried Rice
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Our family loves this homemade fried rice. It’s delicious and filling as written, but feel free to add your favorite protein to this, too. Cook it first until mostly cooked, then transfer it to a plate. Finally, stir it into the rice just before cooking.
The homemade sauce takes this dish to the next level. It’s so much more delicious than just stirring in plain soy sauce. The sauce takes 3 minutes to make, so I highly recommend making a batch! For more ways to use it, see our fried rice sauce recipe.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
For Fried Rice4 cups cold cooked rice (500g)
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
6 green onions, thinly sliced, greens and whites separated
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon finely grated ginger, optional
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
1/2 cup frozen peas (70g)
5 to 6 tablespoons fried rice sauce, recipe below
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds, optional
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
For the Sauce (makes 1 cup)3/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce (190g)
1/4 cup brown sugar (50g)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons mirin, optional
1/4 teaspoon Chinese five spice, optional
1 tablespoon sambal oelek chili paste or gochujang, optional
Directions
1Make sauce: Add soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, and sesame oil to a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sugar dissolves. If you are adding them, stir in the optional ingredients. You will have leftover sauce; see tips for storing instructions.
2Whisk the eggs: In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with a pinch of salt until well blended. Set aside.
3Cook the veggies: Heat avocado oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the carrots and cook for 2 minutes, tossing occasionally. Next, add the sesame oil, garlic, ginger, green onion whites, zucchini, and peas. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant and the zucchini is almost tender.
4Add the rice and sauce: Lightly season the veggies in the pan with salt and pepper, then add the cold rice to the skillet and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring to break it apart and lightly toast it. Add 5 tablespoons of the sauce and toss to coat all of the ingredients.
5Cook the eggs: Push the fried rice to one side of the pan. Add the butter to the empty space and pour in the whisked eggs. Scramble the eggs until just cooked through, then stir to combine with the rice.
6Serve: Taste and season with more sauce, salt, or pepper as needed. Garnish with sesame seeds and the green onion greens before serving.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- No leftover rice: You can make fresh rice for this recipe. Cook your rice as usual with water, then spread the cooked hot rice into one layer on a large baking sheet. Slide the baking sheet into the fridge for an hour, and you will have firmed up, cold rice that’s perfect for fried rice.
- Storing leftovers: Transfer the cooled rice to an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Freeze in freezer-safe bags or containers for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
- Storing the sauce: Keep the sauce in an airtight container like a mason jar in the refrigerator for up to one week. Shake before using. Freeze the sauce in ice cube trays, dividing it between the ice cube holes. When frozen, pop them out and add to a freezer-safe container or zip-top bag. Freeze up to 3 months.
- The nutritional information provided are estimates.
It has been years since I’ve made my own fried rice and I have been missing out. Great recipe, I will admit I didn’t have sesame oil or five spice but none the less delicious. And it’s a perfect like you said when you don’t have much but want to pull together a dinner. Thanks for another recipe in my back pocket!
You are so welcome! Glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
Compliments from all of the family on this recipe. I’ve never made a sauce for fried rice, and it seemed to make a big difference. Neither Aldi nor Walmart had zucchini after Winter Storm Fern, so I left that out and then added 12 ozthinly sliced pan-seared steak to make it a main dish.
Yum! Love your addition of steak. I bet that was tasty!
Delicious and so easy! It was our first time cooking with the Chinese 5 spice and we loved it! Also loved the zucchini in it. Awesome recipe, thanks!
So happy you loved it, Sarah! I love Chinese 5 spice (you can also substitute it whenever you see cinnamon called for in recipes).
What a great meal!! I marinated tofu in remaining sauce. The sauce was delicious. I also added a few sliced cremini mushrooms with the zucchini as they were on hand. It was all so good. We loved it. My husband said “don’t change a thing for next time”.
That’s amazing, Karla! Thank you so much for sharing.
Super easy and tasty! I added tofu for some extra protein. My family loved it! Thank you for helping out this busy mom. 😀
I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that we helped make your life a little easier! So glad everyone enjoyed it 🙂
We made this recipe tonight for supper, my son is a fried rice connoisseur and he absolutely loved it. Super easy recipe you gotta try.
Oh wow! So happy it met your son’s expectations 🙂
This blog has excellent writing and is quite impressive. Thank you for providing us with this fantastic blog.
Hi, I want to make this, but I already have some sauce in my fridge, and I don’t want it to go to waste. How much do I need?
Hi there, we start with 5 tablespoons of the sauce and go from there.
Chinese five spice is it spicy or not just wondering as never used it before and not sure if going to buy or not ? is there a substitute ?
Hi Lindsay, Chinese five spice isn’t spicy in a heat sense. It’s warm and aromatic, more like cinnamon, cloves, and star anise. It adds a hint of sweetness and depth, not heat. It’s also optional in the sauce, so you can skip it if you don’t want to buy a new spice.
Your introductory statement turned out to be correct: It IS “the only fried rice recipe I will ever need”! Thanks for sharing it! IT IS SO GOOD!!! I have to admit it-I did eat the whole thing all by myself. Of course, it’s only me anyway. But it was ‘easy’, just very time consuming. However, the results are worth it. Good food (BEST food, really) is ALWAYS worth it! Love always…..
So happy you gave the recipe a try, Denise! Thanks for coming back and letting us know how it turned out!
I made it and it was absolutely delicious!!! Thank you for sharing such amazing recipes with us every week! Martin (from Belgium)
You are so welcome! So happy you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
I wish you had a cookbooks on all your recipes. i love all of your recipes when served on a plate they’re very colorful and so tempting. No chance of dieting. My best wishes to both of you. Pam
You are too sweet! We are currently working on a cookbook, so stay tuned 🙂
A cookbook??? How exciting!! 👏👏👏