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!!
Abiola says
Came out great!!!
Nagi says
Wahoo, that’s awesome Abiola! N x
Jane says
Just cooked this for tonight! So yummy!
I used some left over roast pork that I marinated in Char Siu sauce. So good!
Every time I’ve cooked your recipes they turn out perfect Nagi!
We have a black lab, love our pups xx
L&M says
It is an absolutely delicious recipe.I had to opt for homemade omnivore hoisin sauce instead of oyster sauce due to allergies. My partner partner had seconds. 🙏.
Kerry says
Love, love 💕, your recipes Nagi.
You got me through Covid and l want to sincerely thankyou.
And darling Dozer. If l could send you a treat thru email l would. BUT… No more compost please darling !xx
Gabrielle says
Delicious thank you 😍 I made your Oven Baked Chicken and Rice for supper yesterday and I saved the left over yummy rice. Definitely a brilliant (and delicious) decision to use it in the chicken fried rice for tonight’s supper. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes – my mom always brags about my cooking to the rest of the family thanks to your blog 😁
Hilary Paton says
We love this! Please can you give nutritional values per 100g. Our 6 year old was small portions so its easier to clac carbs with a per 100g ratio. She is T1 diabetic so we need to be accurate
Spelt says
Nutritional info is done per serving. 36g is around two exchanges or two and a third slices of bread.
Peta says
The flavour is fantastic! Despite doing all the right things – rice cooked previous day, cooking small servings, and cooking everything separately I still couldn’t get enough heat with gas wok burner to ‘fry’ the rice. But a lovely meal none the less and a great recipe.
Tamara says
Awesome recipe! I usually almost triple the recipe and serve it as a complete meal for my family — we all love it! EVERYONE is happy with this one, which is a rarity. I omit the bacon and use vegetarian oyster sauce. I think the flavor is so great. Thank you!
Rakel says
Dozer looks so excited on that picture, and who would blame him when it´s you who were cooking, talking of cooking, this was the first recepi of yours that I made this year, I made 33 last year and I aim to top it this year, and this was sooo gooood, my parnter filled his bowl 4 times and I had planned to make this last for our dinner the evening after, but that went out of the window, no need for take aways, thank you x
Rick Starling says
This is the best chicken fried rice I have eaten.
Thanks for sharing.
Reshika Mudasir says
I just made this chicken fried rice
it was so to easy to make , kids helped in preparing the dish
I have 3 fussy eaters in my house
Thank you so much
Sonia Ouellette says
love your fried rice my family favorite. wondering if i could use pork belly instead of bacon….
Farisa says
I made this without the bacon because I didn’t have any and used canned baby corn and frozen broccoli. Delicious! Better than take out Chinese!
Nagi says
Perfect Farisa – it really is good to just use up what you have in the kitchen! N x
Georgie says
Chicken Fried Rice!
Bloody delicious!!
Thanks Nagi!
This is one of many I have done!
Your recipes are just so easy to follow and just perfect to eat!!
Anna says
WOW. This is THE fried rice recipe, and I believe me, I’ve tried dozens.
Nagi says
Thanks so much Anna!! N x
Leslie says
Can I use the already prepared Charlie sauce with this?
Catherine Pratt says
Brilliant recipe, i used some Char Sui which i had cooked with your recipe, instead of the bacon, delicious, many thanks x
michelle says
if using fish sauce + hoisin sauce as substitute, how much of each do I need. Maybe I’m overlooking. I can’t wait to try this!
Nagi says
Hi Michelle, use 1 tsp fish sauce and 1 tbls of hoisin. I hope you love it! N x
Melissa says
So delicious, That good idea for dinner. it’s delicious beyond my imagination. Thank you for recipe!
James says
Make a meal out of dishes