A quick recipe for takeaway-style chicken fried rice with loads of flavour. I've included lots of swaps so you can use up whatever you've got in your pantry.
This chicken fried rice is such a great recipe for using up leftover scraps of chicken from your roast chicken dinner.
We hate seeing food go to waste, and will always try to find ways to turn leftovers into further meals or freeze for another day.
One thing that's become a ritual after I make a roast dinner, is Chris slicing up any leftover meat into one parcel for sandwiches/salads, then wrapping up shreds of meat for fried rice or soup, and then boiling up the carcass for stock.
So I'm using leftover roast chicken for this recipe. You can use rotisserie chicken, cooked chicken breast or other cooked and sliced/shredded meat if you prefer.
What do we need?
How to make chicken fried rice
Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Soften a chopped onion in the wok in a little oil. Then add chopped red pepper, garlic and peas and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add cooked shredded chicken, a splash of sesame oil and cold boiled rice. Turn up the heat to high and keep tossing everything together in the wok until the rice is hot.
- Once the rice is hot, push the rice over to the side of the pan and crack the two eggs in the space, then add a little splash of soy sauce. Stir the eggs, heating through until lightly scrambled, then stir the eggs into the rice.
- Add in more soy sauce, plus salt and a squirt of lemon juice and give everything a good stir.
Serve topped with spring onions (scallions).
I quite like a drizzle of sriracha on mine too.
You can serve the rice as a meal in its own right, or you can have serve it with a few sides, or even serve the rice as a side dish.
Why not serve as part of a Chinese banquet with some of these recipes
Homemade Crispy Duck with Spicy Plum Sauce (full masterclass recipe)
Sticky Sesame chicken
Crispy Sesame Prawn Toast
Spicy Ginger Beef
Sticky Chinese Pork Belly – melt-in-the-mouth tender
Baked Cauliflower Wings in a delicious Asian sauce
Oven-Baked Ribs with Crispy Onions
The boiled rice - getting it right every time
To make the best fried rice, it's really important to get the boiled rice bit right first.
It needs to be boiled (I've got a simple tutorial here for how to boil rice in a pan perfectly), then cooled, so the rice dries out a little.
This will help stop the rice from sticking together and will also help it to absorb more flavour.
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Can I use ready-cooked rice sachets?
Yes! If you want a really quick meal, then ready-cooked rice is a pretty good option.
Personally I don't think the flavour is quite as good with ready-cooked rice. This is often made from easy-cook rice, which is is less starchy. In one way the less starchy rice is good, because it stops the rice sticking together. But less starchy rice absorbs less flavour.
I would still totally use ready-cooked rice if I needed dinner super-quick though.
Swaps for fried rice
- Swap out the chicken for cooked shredded/sliced pork or beef.
- You could also add ham, crispy bacon and/or cooked chorizo pieces.
- If you want more veggies, add in cooked carrots, sweetcorn, broccoli, mushrooms, sugarsnap peas, canned beansprouts or canned bamboo shoots.
More rice recipes
Cauliflower egg fried rice from my chicken stir fry
Homemade pilau rice from my chicken jalfrezi recipe
Watch how to make it
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Chicken Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion peeled and diced
- 1 red bell pepper deseeded and finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- ⅔ cup (115g) frozen peas
- 2 cups (250g) cooked shredded/sliced chicken
- ½ tbsp sesame oil
- 4 cups (800g) boiled and cooled long grain rice - (this is about 1 ⅓ cups (300g) dried rice that has been boiled in water)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- ¼ tsp salt
- juice of ½ a lemon
To Serve:
- ½ bunch of spring onions/scallions chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
- Add 1 tbsp of the oil in a large wok. Add the onion and cook, stirring regularly on a medium heat for 5 minutes until the onion starts to turn soft and translucent.
- Add in the remaining vegetable oil, chopped red bell pepper, garlic and peas. Cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Now add chicken and sesame oil. Stir together, then add in the rice and turn up the heat to high.
- Use a spatula to toss everything together and to ensure the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Keep moving the rice around so that it's all getting reheated.
- Once the rice is hot (this will take about 5 minutes), push the rice over to the side of the pan and crack the two eggs in the space. Add a little splash of the soy sauce to the eggs.
- Making sure the part of the wok with the eggs in is over the heat, fry the eggs, giving a mix with the spatula until the egg starts to cook and look scrambled, but is still a little runny.
- Now mix the egg into the rice.
- Pour in the remaining soy sauce and sprinkle on the salt and mix it all together.
- Add the lemon juice, stir and taste. Add a little more lemon juice if required.
- Divide between 4 bowls. Top with spring onions (scallions).
Video
✎ Notes
1. Can I make it ahead?
Yes! I think reheated fried rice actually tastes better! Cook the rice, then spread it out in a large dish (so it will cool quickly) cover and refrigerate for up to a day. Don't leave cooked rice out at room temperature. Bacteria can grow on cooked rice very quickly, so it's important to:- Refrigerate it as quickly as possible
- Don't store for more than 24 hours in the fridge, and
- Thoroughly reheat it.
2. Can I freeze it?
Yes, you can freeze this chicken fried rice. Cook the rice, then spread it out in a large dish (so it will cool quickly) cover and freeze. As per the instructions above - Don't leave cooked rice out at room temperature. Bacteria can grow on cooked rice very quickly, so it's important to:- Freeze it as quickly as possible
- Defrost in the refrigerator overnight (and don't store for more than 24 hours)
- Thoroughly reheat it.
3. Nutritional information is per serving
- this recipe serves 4Nutrition
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Jeff says
You never gave the ingredients!
Nicky Corbishley says
There's a recipe card with full ingredients and instructions at the bottom of the blog post (you can jump to it, using the 'jump to recipe' button at the top of the page.
Lizzy says
Fab!!! A big hit in our house and so quick to make. x
D says
The best egg fried rice I have ever tried. 🙂
Rosie says
Best recipe ever!!! So delicious
Andrew Wills says
Delicious. I've made this a few times. I now use shallots instead of onion, a small chopped chilli instead of red bell pepper, and I add a dash of fish sauce with the soy sauce.
Sadie Fletcher says
One word … delicious 😋
Katie McCarthy says
Wow! This was amazing. I added a hand full of Cashew nuts when I added the peas, and served with curry sauce. Thank you 😊 x
Raymond Foster says
Beautiful - reminded me of my time in Singapore in the Sixties at the Macan stalls on the roadside.
The only thing missing is the copious quantities of diesel fumes which were served freely.
I would point out though that re-heating should be done in a wok NOT a microwave - result is vastly different.
Cracking recipe - thanks.
Jackie says
Delicious and so easy.
Amie says
How many cups do you get for the serving size?
Nicky Corbishley says
Hi Amie,
Sorry, being based in the UK, we don't serve in cup sizes, so it's not something I check. I do try to workout out cup measurements for the ingredients for my US readers though.
I would estimate this recipe makes approx 7 cups altogether, so that would be approx 1 and 3/4 cups per serving.
Judy says
My husband said to keep this one, it was really good!
ann says
great reciepts in these hard times, thankyou, keep safe.