The House Special – a fully loaded, fabulous Chicken Fried Rice!! With seasoned chicken, vegetables, fluffy egg and pops of salty bacon, this fried rice recipe is one that’s worthy of serving as a meal instead of as a fried rice side dish.
Don’t be fooled by recipes claiming to be “better than take out” that call for nothing more than soy sauce for flavour. It takes more than that for an authentic chicken fried rice – just ask your friendly local Chinese restaurant!!
Chicken Fried Rice
After Monday’s simple yet-myth-busting How To Cook Rice post, I thought I’d follow up with a quick ‘n easy recipe today. Using rice of course. My “House Special” chicken fried rice!! 😂
I know going with fried rice is an obvious option, and not the first I’ve shared at that. But I wanted to share a Chicken Fried Rice recipe which I haven’t done before specifically because while it’s very easy to say to people “oh, just cook up some chook before you toss in everything else!” in the notes of my everyday Fried Rice recipe, it’s just cleaner to have a recipe dedicated to Chicken Fried Rice.
And actually, the steps are a little different. 🙂
So that’s what I’m sharing today!
What you need
Here’s what you need for Chicken Fried Rice.
For the Fried Rice Sauce:
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Soy sauce – either light or all purposes is fine here. DO NOT use dark soy sauce, it’s too intense. Maggie seasoning would also work but reduce the quantity a bit (it’s saltier!).
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Oyster sauce can be substituted with either fish sauce + hoisin sauce (best!) or just hoisin sauce (though you will get a slight Chinese Five Spice Flavour which is lovely!)
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Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing Wine) (or Mirin or dry sherry) is the “secret ingredient” in fried rice. I really encourage you to get your hands on it if you can (or Mirin or dry sherry) because it really makes all the difference, adding complexity and depth to the sauce to make it stack up to Chinese restaurant fried rice! No alcoholic sub – see recipe notes, use chicken or vegetable stock powder / granulated bouillon.
And for the Add-Ins:
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Day old cooked rice that’s been refrigerated – because the rice dries out and becomes crumbly which is what you need so your fried rice isn’t clumpy and mushy
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Bacon – because it adds a load of flavour into fried rice and is the next best option to Chinese sausage (bit pricey in non Asian stores) or Chinese BBQ Pork (never have leftovers!) which is what restaurants typically use. Ham is also ideal!
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Diced veg – go with what you want here, anything that’s dice-able and stir-fry-able. I typically use diced carrot, frozen corn and frozen peas (easy, quick, classic Chinese).
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Egg – because we all love the fluffy egg bits in fried rice!
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Green onion – for a bit of freshness and colour;
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Chicken – oh yes, because this is a Chicken Fried Rice after all! 😂 (Feel free to sub with other proteins)
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Onion and garlic – essential flavour base.
How to make it
As with all stir fries, once you start cooking, Chicken Fried Rice comes together very quickly so have everything chopped and ready to throw into the wok – or skillet!
The only thing worth noting is that I cook the egg first, then take it out and add it back in later. In my classic side-dish Fried Rice recipe, I cook the egg without taking it out – which you can get away with doing because there’s less “stuff” in the fried rice so it’s easy enough to handle.
With Chicken Fried Rice, there’s more “stuff” in it and if you try to cook it all up in one go, it gets a little much.
What to serve with Chicken Fried Rice
I happily serve this as a meal because while one ordinarily assumes fried rice is carb heavy, in actual fact this recipe only calls for 2 cups of cooked rice compared to almost 4 cups of other “stuff” (chicken, veg, bacon).
It sounds out of whack, but you can see from the photos that it looks just as it should – like a fully loaded Chicken Fried Rice!
And it is of course suitable for serving as a side with anything Chinese or Asian for that matter, but I’d avoid things with very strong kapow flavours, like Thai Red Curry or Kung Pao Chicken because this Fried Rice has enough flavour in itself.
Milder stir fries on the other hand like Beef and Broccoli, Cashew Chicken, Prawn Stir Fry and Chop Suey Chicken Stir Fry would be fabulous.
Also, some more ideas for how to serve Chicken Fried Rice:
MAKE A MEAL OUT OF STARTERS
Make a meal out of dishes ordinarily served as starters by adding a side of Fried Rice. Things such Hot and Sour Soup, Chinese Corn Soup, Spring Rolls, Chinese Lettuce Wraps (San Choy Bau) or Egg Foo Young.
BANQUET!
Indulge in a homemade Yum Cha (Dim Sum) style banquet with dishes such as Potstickers, Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork), Chinese Steamed Pork Buns, or Crispy Chinese Pork Belly with a side of Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce or Chinese Lettuce with Creamy Sesame Dressing!
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
More fried rice recipes
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Classic Chinese Fried Rice – to serve as a side
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Chicken Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp oil , peanut, vegetable or canola
- 2 eggs , lightly whisked
- 150g (5oz) chicken breast , finely sliced into small pieces
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 onion , finely chopped
- 120g (4oz) bacon , excess fat trimmed, chopped (Note 1)
- 1 small carrot* , peeled and diced 0.75cm / 1/3"
- 1/2 cup frozen corn* (or can or fresh)
- 1/2 cup frozen peas*
- 2 cups (packed) cooked white rice , day old (Note 2)
- 3/4 cup green onions , finely sliced
SAUCE:
- 2.5 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or Mirin (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce (Note 4)
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 5)
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil , optional
- 1/4 tsp white pepper , optional
Instructions
- Sauce & chicken: Mix Sauce in a bowl. Pour 2 tsp over chicken, toss to coat, then set aside for 10 minutes.
- Egg: Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or skillet over medium heat. Add egg and scramble until just cooked (still a touch wet) then remove.
- Fried Rice: Turn heat up to high, add remaining 1/2 tbsp oil and bacon into same skillet. Cook for 1 minute or so until fat starts to melt, then add onion and garlic.
- Cook until bacon is light golden - about 1 1/2 minutes.
- Add vegetables (still frozen is fine). Cook for 1 minute.
- Add chicken and cook until it changes from pink to white - about 1 1/2 minutes.
- Add rice and Sauce ingredients. Cook for 1 1/2 minutes, stirring consantly.
- Add egg and green onion, toss through to disperse then remove from heat.
- Serve immediately!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Pho, fried rice, salad….. doesn’t matter what I’m serving up, he always eyes it off like this!!
Excellent! I had made chicken adobo the night before and had a lot of sauce left over. I used that instead of the soy sauce. I was worried about the vinegar in the sauce, but it turned out great. Thanks for sharing, definitely better than adding some “plain ol'” soy sauce and calling it good.
Love this simple easy chicken fried rice! It’s a family favourite now.. my 3.5 year old and 15 montg old just love it
this is by far the best chicken fried rice I have ever made… I used chopped bok choy and grated carrot for my add in veggies… make this your go to recipe!.
This was really nice! I didn’t have chicken so used kasseler ham (in Germany), carrot,peas,corn,celery,green onion,onion and red peppers. We did need to add hot sriracha, as we like it hot.
Love your fried rice recipe but tonight had leftover basmati rice and made this with prosciutto and finely sliced free range chicken thigh pieces. Equally delicious.
I am making enough for 6. Can I use my dutch oven or should I just stick to using 2 nonstick skillets?
So delicious. I was a bit sceptical about the amount of mirin but it turned out fantastic
Hi! This was so disappointing for me! It was so salty and really lacked a good flavor! I double checked to make sure I had the sauce ingredients and measurements correct. Maybe the bacon? I’m in Canada and used the usual bacon we get here, maybe different in Australia?
as I am a Canadian, I used regular bacon found here… I am wondering if you used light soy sauce or regular soy sauce as regular may have been too salty… just a thought
Cooked the fried rice – awsome
Delicious! I ordered chicken thigh online with our grocery order and received drumsticks…..I made it work. I oven roasted the chicken legs with just a seasoning of salt and pepper for 45 mins. Took them out and let them cool and shredded them….and nibbled on them too……I chopped up the meat and put aside to add it in after I added and cooked my veggies for a bit. Turned out perfectly! Wish I could add a photo ….
Hi Nagi, I love all your recipes but need to cook lower sodium for my hubby. Do you have any go to oyster sauce, soy sauce and hoison sauce that are lower in sodium???? Thanks!
Made this last night using left over brown rice from a couple of days ago, Went down a treat. Could have added some beans for more green, And some red caps. Probably used double the quantity but, what the heck. Another winner!
Good day, Your recipes looks good, I can’t wait to try them, thanks for sharing.
Made this tonight for tea with left over roast chicken. Delicious! Clean plates all round
I don’t have any shrimp, but am I able to substitute it with shrimp paste? And if so, how much would I add for this recipe? Thank you 🙂
Wow! Seriously great recipe! Truly better than take-out. Thank you so much!
We made this right after Thanksgiving with our leftover turkey… and we’ve made it once a week since then two months later. I never trust at-home fried rice recipes, they’re never as good as takeout. But this one IS! So good!
Did this with left over cooked pork loin, bacon and additional vegetables. Really good, thank you.
Yahoo, I have just picked up your book from Big W Nagi.
I’ll have to wait for Christmas though as a gift from one my boys.
Awesome – made it more or less as described – I didn’t measure the rice and was probably a little heavy. I keep cooked chicken in the freezer for quickie dinners and used that. The family loved it – definitely a keeper!!