Best Fried rice recipe Chinese

If your experience with fried rice has only been the greasy, overly-salty affair from Chinese take-out, then you need to make this fresh, seasonally-inspired version — without delay! Grace Young's stir-fried rice is light and aromatic. Soy sauce and ginger are used for seasoning, but they're not so heavy that the vegetables get lost. You could eat this dish every day and never get bored.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to make quick, easy, and delicious fried rice at a moment's notice.

Grace Young calls this recipe "lazy man's fried rice." She says it's her go-to dish whenever dinnertime arrives and she's gotten so distracted with work that she forgot to cook anything.

The key to good fried rice is having cold day-old rice in the fridge: not only does this mean the stir-fry comes together in a snap but it guarantees fried rice with the perfect chewy-tender texture. Grace says she makes double the rice she needs whenever she makes it so she always has some left over in the fridge for this recipe. Be sure to fluff the rice as soon as it's cooked and before storing it, or else the rice tends to solidify into a block. You can also halve the recipe if you don't have quite as much rice as called for here.

Become a rice-making professional. Watch the video!

Keep tasting the dish as you cook. You're not looking for a crust or a particular color on the rice. It's done as soon as it tastes good to you. Dish it out and settle in: a bowl of this fried rice is a deeply comforting thing.

1. Cut Up the Ingredients: The most important key to making a good stir-fry is cutting each ingredient to a uniform size as specified above. Cut the aromatics as directed and set them aside in a bowl. Finely slice, then mince, the ginger. Don't grate it on a grater. Cut the vegetables and set them aside as well.

Fried Rice

Serves 4

Recipe from Grace Young, author of Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge

What You Need

Ingredients

Aromatics
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Vegetables
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels, defrosted
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas, defrosted
1/2 cup chopped scallions

For the rice
2 tablespoons grapeseed, canola, or peanut or vegetable oil
4 cups cold cooked rice

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, almonds, peanuts, or cashews
2 tablespoons minced cilantro (optional)

Equipment

A 14-inch flat-bottom carbon steel wok
A fish spatula or other thin, flexible spatula for stir frying

Instructions

Optional Step - Egg Pancake: There are several ways of adding egg to your finished fried rice. You can simply cook in the beaten egg at the end of cooking, or you can make an egg pancake. To do this, heat the wok and add 1 teaspoon of oil. Swirl in the oil to coat the bottom of the wok. Add a beaten egg and tilt the wok so that the egg covers the surface like a crepe. Cook the pancake about 30 seconds to a minute until it's just set. Use a metal spatula and flip the pancake and cook for 5 seconds or until set. Cut into small strips and add to fried rice near the end of cooking.

2. Prepare Your Wok Space: Set the bowls of vegetables, aromatics, rice, and soy sauce near your stove. Also, have a very small bowl of water next to the stove.

3. Heat the Wok: Turn on a stove burner, as high as it will go. Set a 14-inch wok over this high heat burner. To determine when the wok is hot enough, start flicking droplets of water from the small bowl into the pan after 30 seconds. As soon as a bead of water evaporates within 1 to 2 seconds of contact, the wok is heated and ready for stir-frying. Do not overheat the wok.

4. Pull Wok off the Heat and Add Oil, Then Stir-Fry Aromatics: Pull the wok off the heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Pick up the pan and carefully swirl it to coat the bottom and sides. (If the wok smokes wildly the moment you add the oil you've overheated the wok. Remove the wok from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes. When it's cool enough to handle carefully remove the oil with paper towels, wash the wok, and start again.)