To make baked fried rice, just place uncooked rice, stock, soy sauce and a few other flavourings in a baking pan, give it a mix then shove it in the oven. Out comes fluffy, seasoned fried rice that’s so good, you may never wok-toss fried rice ever again!
(Well, maybe not. Nothing beats the real deal, after all. But this emergency version is excellent for the minimal effort required!)
Emergency baked fried rice
OK, you’re right, this isn’t fried rice per se! It’s a baked rice. But I call it a baked fried rice because it’s everything we love about fried rice, without the frying! It will save you on all those nights when you’re scrambling for a quick side dish that will go with almost everything and please everyone.
Unlike the normal way fried rice is cooked, there’s no need to plan ahead and cook rice the day before so that it has time to dry out overnight in the fridge. You don’t even need to chop anything (hello, frozen veg!).
Just dump everything in the pan – uncooked rice, stock, frozen pre-chopped vegetables, raw bacon – then whack it in the oven. There’s no need to stir while cooking – in fact, I forbid it, because it makes the rice mushy!
And for all that effort, you will be rewarded with THIS ↓↓↓ (“this” being a big pan of fluffy seasoned fried rice that’s littered with vegetables and oh wow, even the bacon is nice and golden!!🙌🏻)
Ingredients for baked fried rice
This is an excellent recipe to customise and make your own, with lots of options for changing up add-ins! Here’s what I use in this baked fried rice recipe:
Rice – Best made with long grain white rice because it’s the least sticky. This means you get that nice, crumbly and fluffy fried rice texture with this “dump ‘n bake” cooking method.
Other rice types that work:
→ Basmati rice: Has the same fluffy texture but you get the basmati aroma (it’s not traditional with fried rice seasoning, but it’s rather nice!)
→ Medium and short grain white rice: Works perfectly but these rices are a bit stickier so don’t expect quite the same rice texture you see in the video (it will clump a little more).
→ Jasmine rice: Reduce water by 1/4 cup (water to rice ratio is lower, see here for cooking plain jasmine rice).This recipe won’t work as-written for the following: Brown rice, paella or risotto rice, wild rice, quinoa or other speciality rices. I’d need to figure out special liquid/rice ratios and bake times, which I have not done!
Stock/broth – Chicken stock will give a better flavour (it’s not chicken-y as such, it has just a more deeply seasoned flavour), but vegetable stock works just fine too. Whichever you use, make sure it’s low sodium otherwise the rice ends up a tad saltier than is ideal.
Don’t have liquid stock? Use water plus stock powder. Make up 2 cups according to the stock powder directions and use per the recipe.
Vegetables – Because this is conceived as a recipe for “dinner emergencies”, I’ve used frozen diced vegetables here. Fresh vegetables can be used, but you’ll need to increase the water by 1/4 cup because the liquid to rice ratio factors in the water that comes off the frozen vegetables (a surprising amount!).
Garlic – I can’t ever imagine making any type of fried rice without garlic. And that includes an emergency baked version!
Bacon (uncooked) or ham – Just like we do in wok tossed fried rice! Here, it’s scattered across the surface and it adds flavour into the stock as it cooks.
There’s no need to cook the bacon beforehand, it will brown at the end when we finish the rice off uncovered in the oven.
Soy sauce – I’ve used light soy sauce here which adds seasoning without discolouring the rice too much. All purpose soy sauce will work just fine too.
Dark soy sauce – It’s much more intense in flavour so use half the quantity and be prepared for your rice to be much browner in colour.
Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine) – adds umami / depth of flavour which is important for this method of cooking that skips the usual “sauté garlic and onion” etc.
Best substitute – Dry sherry, followed by cooking sake, followed by mirin (though rice will be a touch sweeter).
Non alcoholic option – Skip the wine and add an extra 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce PLUS add 30g / 2 tbsp of unsalted butter with the sesame (butter compensates for loss of flavour from skipping the cooking wine). It’s not the same, but equally delicious!
Pepper – For a touch of warmth. White pepper is typically used for fried rice because you can’t see it. Substitute with black pepper.
Sesame oil & green onion – For finishing. We add sesame oil at the end to preserve the flavour, and the green onion is tossed through at the end for a hit of freshness and colour.
How to make baked fried rice
Are you ready to see how easy it is??
Put the uncooked rice into the baking pan;
Add everything else except the bacon;
Give it a mix, then scatter the bacon across the surface (because we want it to get some colour when we bake it uncovered);
Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes at 200°C / 390°F (180°C fan);
Remove foil and bake for a further 15 minutes. This gives the bacon some nice colour;
Remove from the oven, cover with foil then let it rest for 10 minutes. To finish the dish, add sesame oil and green onion, fluff with a fork then serve!
Why we rest rice – When you take it out of the oven, there should be no liquid left in the pan and the rice will be cooked through though a tiny bit firmer than ideal. You’ll also notice that the surface of the rice grains will be wet.
When we rest the rice for 10 minutes, the grains finish cooking through using the residual heat, and the wetness on the rice grains gets absorbed. This is an essential step with any rice you cook, no matter what method you use – stove, absorption, boil and drain, oven, microwave or rice cooker!
Here’s a nice close up for you so you can see how the grains are fluffy and separated, and how the bacon bits are lovely and golden.
No mushy, overcooked rice in sight!
What to serve with baked fried rice
Serve to accompany dishes you would with fried rice, which these days is far and beyond just Asian foods! Try it with the Mushroom Stuffed Chicken I shared a couple of weeks ago, or as a side for a fillet of seasoned pan fried fish.
Pair it with something sticky like this Chilli Chicken, Honey Garlic Chicken or a tropical Hawaiian Huli-Huli chicken. For vegetarian options, skip the bacon and instead, pile over juicy and buttery garlic mushrooms or a medley of marinated grilled vegetables.
The rules are: there are no rules! This is a rice side that will go with virtually anything, Asian or not! – Nagi x
PS. I just had a fleeting thought. If you’d like to turn this into a meal, trying stirring through a big handful of baby spinach or chopped English spinach when fluffing it up at the end. By upping the veg in this, it would be great as a meal!
Watch how to make it
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Emergency “Dump ‘n Bake” Fried Rice
Ingredients
Baked Fried Rice:
- 1 1/2 cups long grain white rice , UNCOOKED (Note 1)
- 2 cups chicken or veg stock , low sodium
- 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 2)
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (dry sherry, mirin or sake, Note 3)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced with crusher (straight into pan)
- 2 cups frozen diced veg (carrots, peas, corn mix, Note 4 fresh veg)
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 1 1/4 cups / 180g bacon (uncooked) or ham , chopped (I use store bought chopped bacon, Note 5)
Finishing:
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 cup green onion , finely sliced (2 – 3 stems)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F (180°C fan).
- Mix ingredients in baking dish: Place all Baked Fried Rice ingredients except bacon in a baking dish (~22 x 32cm / 9 x 13"). Stir, then spread rice evenly across pan.
- Top with bacon: Scatter bacon across surface.
- Bake covered 40 min: Cover with foil. Bake 40 minutes.
- Bake uncovered 15 min: Remove foil. Bake uncovered 15 minutes – this will colour the bacon. Liquid should be absorbed, rice should be cooked (but will seem wet, will absorb and soften while resting).
- Rest 10 min: Cover loosely with foil, stand for 10 minutes.
- Fluff: Add green onion and sesame oil. Fluff rice with fork, marvel at how perfectly cooked the rice grains are. Serve!
Recipe Notes:
1. Rice types – Best made with long grain rice because it’s the least sticky so you get that nice crumbly, fluffy fried rice texture with this “dump ‘n bake” cooking method. Other rice types that work:
- Basmati rice – same fluffy texture but you get the basmati aroma (it’s not traditional with fried rice seasoning, but it’s rather nice!)
- Medium and short grain white rice – works perfectly but the rice is a bit stickier (that’s the way it is) so don’t expect the same rice texture you see in the video (it will clump a little more).
- Jasmine rice – NOT RECOMMENDED. This rice is softer and difficult to get exactly right for this recipe.
- Carrots, peas, corn, onion – use in recipe as written.
- Cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, zucchini, capsicum/bell peppers (chopped) – add them 30 min into bake time.
- Egg – Cook separately and stir in when fluffing rice. Either scramble, or make ribbons (cook a thin omelette using 2 whisked eggs, roll it up like a cigar then finely slice)
- Cooked chicken (or other cooked protein), char siu – dice or shred, toss on top of rice when resting (residual heat will warm up), then mix through well fluffing rice.
- Raw prawns/shrimp – small ones. When you remove the foil, scatter them across the surface, pop into oven for the last 15 min uncovered bake time.
- Baby spinach or chopped spinach – Stir it through at end with fluffing rice, residual heat will make it wilt.
- Spicy! Add a squirt of sriracha or dollop of your favourite chilli paste during cooking, or stir through a big handful of chopped kimchi just before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Weekend car problems. Dozer was keen to help. (Well that’s a big fat lie! We all know he was just snuffling around for treats from the road side assistance man.)
Made this tonight for dinner bit hesitant that it would work like fried rice but turned out amazing – thank you will certainly make again – as very easy!!
Wahoo, that’s awesome Debra!! N x
Can you recommend a good Chinese cooking wine available at the grocery store?
Hi Marge, I have a post here which will be helpful 🙂 https://salesdock.info/asian-market-grocery-store-shopping-list/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Loved it, just what I fancied tonight and frozen veg just perfect for a lockdown meal. Also made the pork tenderloin with honey garlic sauce and while the sauce was the prominent flavour, I thought it went really well together. Thanks again and stay well.
Perfect Polly, sounds like a winner!! N x
Always love your recipes Nagi! Can’t wait to try it!!! Love your convenient one pot/pan/tray recipes.
PS. Not sure if Uncle Roger would approve 😂😂😂
Thanks so much Hazel – this one is SUPER convenient, but of course nothing beats the real deal!! N x
Excellent, another winner. You never fail to inspire Nagi. I’m going to try this in a Dutch oven in a Kamado with some wood for smoking. Throw in some minced or sliced beef/pork/chicken. Will it freeze OK?
What a great idea!!! Yes this will freeze too. N x
I freeze fried rice all the time Alan, it freezes well =)
Super surprised! This works great
It truly does doesn’t it Valerie?!!! N x
Forgot to mention that I threw in some sliced sandwich meat chicken too. Not that it needed it but I wanted to use it up.
Love the look of this….please can we have it in metric measurements….pretty please
Yes! Sorry, I forgot, I just added it! N x
Sorry – will have this updated, the usual metric toggle seems to be missing. N x
what if you cant have soy sauce, what to use instead? when should seafood like squid, octopus and prawns be added?
Hi Psychonut – Tamari or coconut aminoes are a great sub for soy sauce, adding seafood is going to change the recipe depending on amount/type sorry! N x
Coconut aminos are great or Tamari is wheat free if that’s
Now I’m of the opinion that your chicken fried rice is the best thing since sliced bread. But, I admit that I tend to be a very messy cook when making it in my wok so I’m keen to give this a go thank you Nagi. Could I possibly add some chicken with the bacon if I dice it into small enough pieces please?
Yes 100% Lorraine!!! You’re going to love this one! N x
What about using leftover BBQ/rotisserie chicken? I think that would be very yummy.
Bonjour Nagi,
Merci pour votre recette
Riz frit d’urgence « Dump ‘n Bake », juste un petit renseignement, avant de le cuire, faut il “laver” le riz. Avec mes remerciements. Bonne journée Bise d’Italie
Hi Jackye, our rice here doesn’t need to be washed before being cooked. I mention this in the recipe notes: No need to rinse rice first unless you’re concerned about rice cleanliness (rice in packets at grocery stores should be fine, I never rinse). If you rinse, reduce water by 2 tbsp. – N x
C’est pas necessaire
Bonjour, Pas besoin de le laver. Si vous tenez à le faire, Nagi recommandé d’enlever 2 càs d’eau. Bon appétit
Hi Nagi,
Another recipe to give a go, as we love our fried rice, I can’t wait!
No need to rinse the rice first?
We only use Jasmine here, and in the instructions, it states to lessen the water by a 1/4 cup meaning the chicken broth yes?
And finally where is the metric button to convert to metric?
Cheers,
John
Hi John, yes that should be stock not water sorry, I don’t rinse my rice – it’s not needed for the rice here. And thanks for picking up the missing metric toggle! N x
Hi there, very new to cooking and thankfully I stumbled onto your website, it is fantastic!
So far I have cooked the chicken and rice, donner kebabs, kfc chicken.
Hands down the Donner Kebabs where a stand out, my four boys all rated them better than the local!
The rice in the chicken and rice was sensational so now I’m going to try the Emergency fried rice, one question.
Any suggestions on adding prawns and egg?
Hi Matt, I’ve updated the notes to answer your questions 🙂 N x
Hey Matt, check out Note 5 after the written recipe where she discusses adding eggs & prawns. Hope that helps 🙂
You are one rare cook. Everything I try is easy and delicious. I’m 81 and love to cook and you have opened a new world of cooking for a died in the wool traditionalist. Go Asian cuisine. No more take away. Home cooking.
This has made my day Carole, thanks so much!!! N x
My mum used to do fried rice like this when we were kids, more than sixty years ago. She would often add eggs in omelette strips to make it a main meal. Great way to use up any left over veg in the fridge.
Yes you can definitely add eggs – I do when doing wok fried rice 🙂 N x
I love fried rice but live alone, so this is a lot of food, can the recipe be halved without issue? It looks delicious.
Hi Jackie, if halving, make sure to use a smaller pan so the liquid doesn’t dry up in the cook time. You can also make a full back and then portion and freeze too! N x
Hi Jackie,
Just under the 5-star rating in the actual recipe, there is the word “Servings”. If you hover over that word, a slider scale pops out where you can slide it left or right to adjust for the number of serves for the recipe, and all the quantities of each ingredient is adjusted automatically.
Cheers,
John
‘
Thanks John, I’ve never needed to change a recipe before so that’s awesome to know, thanks again.
Hi Nagi, we love fried rice so I’m going to give this ago tonight, it will go great with the Char Siu pork ribs I’ve got planned. Your recipes are so good, they are a main source of enjoyment in our household – thank you
YUM!!! A great combo! N x
Huh, Nagi Maehashi – I have prepared fried rice in all its guises for over five decades, almost every week and sometimes more often . . . and I AM dubious ! Life was not meant to be SO uncomplicated . . . or ? And since I mostly eat the dish like a Chinese peasant who considers himself very lucky to have just it in his bowl – well, I like the real stuff !!! OK – I’ll try, hmph 🙂 🙂 🙂 ! But with ham and my choice of fresh vegetables . . . they only take three minutes to cut for one person: onion, zucchini, capsicum, perhaps my favourite sliced brussels . . . shall report back VERY soon, probably with a hug knowing you !!! How far are the renovations . . . can the guys come or are you stuck for the moment . . . ?. . .
I’m keeping you on your toes Eha!!! I have lots of tricks up my sleeve! Unfortunately renovations are on hold at the moment until the restrictions ease 🙄 N x
Is that a threat or hopefully a promise . . . 🙂 ? B . . . er about the reno – you hardly want your Christmas tree at the supposedly short-term pied-a-terre . . .
Hi Naji,
Sounds like a great alternative to the usual stir fry version.
You mentioned storing in the fridge but I wonder if it is freezable in small portions?
Yes definitely Nicole! N x
Can you also add frozen prawns?
Hi Lee, I’ve just updated the notes 🙂 N x
Of course Lee, cooked prawns that have been warmed, toss through when finished, green prawns I would cook in a little butter or oil first , then toss through,
have a nice day
Hi Nagi, this looks delicious and I’ve never been disappointed with anything yet 😋 can it be stored and reheated then I could enjoy it a couple of times a week instead of scaling the recipe down? Thanks🙂
Yes 100% Carole!! Just reheat in the microwave 🙂 N x