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:
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!).
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!)
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:
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
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!
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).
Egg – because we all love the fluffy egg bits in fried rice!
Green onion – for a bit of freshness and colour;
Chicken – oh yes, because this is a Chicken Fried Rice after all! 😂 (Feel free to sub with other proteins)
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
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!!
Absolutely stunning tastes just like take-away/ restaurant fried rice. It is certainly a regular in our house. I’m hooked on your recipes Nagi – thank you!
I made today and it was delicious! My son said it was authentic good-Thank You for such a great recipe!
Nagi, you are my food hero. I have
made several of your recipes and they have all been a huge hit. This fried rice was another to add to the list. Bacon wrapped pork loin to try tomorrow. When I’m looking for a recipe now I Google “ingredient” + Recipe Tin Eats, thank you
Thank you Laura for those kind words! N x
Super recipe i love it all. Thank you Nagi for this work ♥ ♥
Super recipe i love it all. Thank you Nagi for this work ♥
Hi Nagi-this recipe is amazing! I always add a clove more garlic and a tsp of hoisin plus a pinch of 5spice and red pepper flakes. It really is the best!
Delicious. A chef staying here temporarily said he already ate but he is having some now as it smells so good. For me it’s delicious and I can use up excess veg, basically it’s food for two or three meals all for the price of some chicken and bacon.
I am about to make this for a second time. It is, quite simply, The Best!. The Hoisin sauce really makes this pop. This time I’m going to try the sesame oil and white pepper (try finding those ingredients). I always make a double-batch – and go heavy on the bacon. Love it.
Made this dish tonight and it was delicious. Will definitely be making it again
Really yummy. Tastes like takeaway but fresher and better 🙂
Fantastic recipe. Love that I can use up leftover veggies too so it’s always a little bit different each time I cook it. Made this with some potato wedges and curry sauce (mayflower). Really enjoyed and now it’s a regular on our meal menu.
My fiance and I used Lap Cheong Chinese Sausage instead of the Chicken and Bacon. This is the best fried rice recipe. Thanks Nagi 😍
Really loved this recipe. My fiance and I used Lap Cheong Sausage instead of the chicken. This is my favourite fried rice recipe 😍
Amazing recipe – my family loves it. Reheats really well (we triple the quantities).
Five stars from it was better than my local Chinese restaurant xx
I don’t much believe in 5 star ratings, but, take a look at how easy this recipe is. Then taste it. Delicious, NOT too salty (I only use a little salt when cooking) and, as the best homemade fried rice recipe, I’ll give it 5 stars. Thanks for your enthusiasm about cooking, Nagi and your wonderful recipes!
Recipe look great
Thanks so much Carole, I hope you try it! N x
Thanks for this wonderful recipe, I made it tonight as no one could think what they wanted for dinner and suddenly someone shouted “Fried Rice”. Children requested extra chicken and egg next time as they licked the pan clean! It was so super quick and easy. Have added to favourites!! Thanks x
I think this is the first (and probably the last) recipe on RTE that I’ve given anything under a 5.
But.. the the sauce made it much too salty. (Even with low-sodium soy). Probably a family preference for the more “white/light coloured” fried rice = not heavily sauced. And I did walk into it with my eyes-open: even while putting together the sauce, I was thinking … ummm… but I wanted to see how it went.
Which leaves me still with the age-old fried-rice-at-home problem: No furnace-hot stove, so how do I get it tasting like it should – without dousing it in a soy++ sauce? … sigh … the quest continues…
Hi Ish, sorry you had issues here – it definitely shouldn’t be overly salty. Did you use a 15ml tablespoon to measure? N x
Same, mine came out too salty unfortunately :/ I used standard tablespoon measurement (15ml) but normal soy sauce, not light, not sure if that would make a diff?
Similar to my fried rice with no recipe. Nice to have a guidemap and some new twists! Just found your website! Very excited to try many recipes!