Kimchi Fried Rice

Don’t be intimidated by the fiery red colour of Kimchi Fried Rice. It actually isn’t that spicy! But it’s certainly loaded with flavour, even more than its Chinese counterpart. It makes an excellent (essential) side dish for a Korean food night, or alongside any Asian food. And it’s a satisfying meal in itself!

Kimchi Fried Rice

Kimchi Fried Rice is as common in Korea as Chinese fried rice is in China. Every household makes it, and it’s a thrifty comfort dish that makes use of leftover cooked rice and kimchi from the fridge. Extra ingredients on hand are often added to keep things interesting.

This fiery-red Korean rice dish is more bark than bite! While it is full-flavoured, it is not nearly as blow-your-head-off-spicy as one might expect.

Though having said that, if spicy is your thing, it’s very simple to dial up the spicy factor until you go cross-eyed!

So what does Kimchi Fried Rice taste like? Well … Kimchi. 🙂 But more! The sauce for Kimchi Fried Rice is made with a combination of the juices from a jar of kimchi, plus gochujang, the Korean soy bean chilli paste commonly used in Korean cooking.

If you love fried rice, this is absolutely one for you to try. It’s one of the more intensely flavoured fried rice dishes, which is right up my alley. I am all for kapow flavours!

What goes in Kimchi Fried Rice

Here’s what you need to make Kimchi Fried Rice:

• Kimchi – Kimchi is pickled and fermented cabbage, often spicy. It’s pretty widely availably these days even in everyday grocery stores, especially with the whole fermentation trend amongst the healthy food crowd.

  Fashion aside, skip the boho-hipster kimchi brands and stick to a tried-and-true Korean one! Not all kimchi is created equal, so if you can get to an Asian store, even better. Typically the kimchi will be fresher, with better flavour. I am using Paldo brand in this recipe.

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• Rice – Use day-old cooked rice that’s been refrigerated. Or better yet, have you got a stash in the freezer? If not, WHY NOT?? Rice freezes perfectly and it’s a handy to have a stash ready to go. It’s an Asian thing. 😇

  Struggling with how to cook rice? Here’s how I make it. A game-changer for anyone who has struggled to cook rice on the stove!

  Type of rice – Any plain white rice works well for the most neutral flavour base, whether long, medium or short grain. Jasmine, basmati, brown and other rices with more flavour will also work just fine but will add their own distinct flavour to the dish.

• Enoki mushrooms – While you’ll find every Korean household has their own standard inclusions for Kimchi Fried Rice (I’ve even heard of Spam ham being a regular!), enoki mushrooms is a fairly popular choice you often see at Korean restaurants. Substitutes are provided in the recipe card notes;

• Gochujang – A soy bean-based Korean chilli paste that is packed with umami (savoury flavour), commonly used in Korean cooking for heat, flavour and its rich red colour. A dollop of this can save any (Asian) dish that you feel is missing “something” and it lasts almost forever in the fridge. It’s spicy, but we don’t use much, just 1 tablespoon.

  Where to find it: These days, you can even find it in the Asian section of major grocery stores in Australia, such as Woolworths and Coles. Otherwise, Asian or Korean stores.

  Also used in: Momofuku Pork Bossam, Bibimbap (Korean Rice Bowl), Spicy Korean Pork Stir Fry.

• Garlic – It would be an understatement to say Koreans love their garlic. Kimchi Fried Rice would never happen without it!

• Sesame oil – Koreans also love sesame oil!

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How to make Kimchi Fried Rice

Kimchi Fried Rice is flavoured with the juice of Kimchi plus a dab of gochujang for a extra kick of flavour. Really, don’t skip the gochujang. It would be like making Chinese Fried Rice without soy sauce. Just, no!

Part 1: Prep the kimchi

1. Extra juice from kimchi – Measure out 1 packed cup of kimchi, then either press through a sieve to extract as much juice as possible OR just grab handfuls and squeeze it out. I normally do the latter, but thought it would be more respectable to use a sieve for the purpose of sharing this recipe!

2. The purpose of this step is twofold – To extract the kimchi juice which we use as the sauce for the fried rice, and to remove water from the kimchi so the fried rice doesn’t go soggy;

3. Measure out 1/4 cup of kimchi juice. If you’re struggling to get this much out of the 1 cup of kimchi you measured, if you’re still short, steal some more out of the kimchi jar or squeeze more cabbage!

4. Chop kimchi into 2cm / ⅘” pieces – Not too fine, we want the chunks in the fried rice.

Part 2: Making the Kimchi Fried Rice

1. Cook enoki mushrooms – Most recipes will have you cook the enoki mushrooms with the rice. You get a better result by cooking it separately so it doesn’t go soggy, and nor does it get weighed down by too much of the rather intense Kimchi Fried Rice sauce.

   I cook it in sesame oil and a little garlic for flavour;

2. Set aside – It takes barely a minute to start wilting in the pan. Then simply remove it to a plate;

3. Sauté garlic with gochujang – This takes the raw edge off the gochujang, and removes some of the excess water to keep the fried rice from going soggy. It also intensifies the gochujang flavour;

4. Cook kimchi – Next, we add the kimchi and cook it for a minute to drive off any excess moisture and warm it through. Kimchi does not need to be cooked, we just don’t want cold bits of kimchi in our fried rice!

5. Add rice;

6. Add kimchi juice;

7. Toss well – Toss the rice well to ensure all the flavours coat the rice evenly. You especially want to ensure the gochujang coating the kimchi goes through the rice;

8. Add enoki mushrooms back in, and toss through to disperse. You’re done!

Optional toppings: Fried egg & nori strips

If you’re serving Kimchi Fried Rice as a side dish for Korean mains, especially things that are a bit saucy, then it’s fine to serve it unadorned.

However, if you’re serving it as a meal, I definitely recommend topping it with a fried egg, sunny side up! This is a traditional topping for Kimchi Fried Rice, and the runny yolk essentially acts like a bit of sauce for the dish.

Other traditional garnishes that are more for visual effect than flavour include:

• Crispy nori / dried seaweed strips – You can buy roasted, crispy nori seaweed in small packets which is just cut into little batons. Otherwise, just use normal nori or skip it. It’s really not a big part of the eating experience, it’s more for visual;

• Green onions – Just finely sliced for a nice splash of fresh green colour; and

• Black sesame seeds – The black colour pops against the red rice and the egg! But again, it’s not a big deal to skip it.

How to serve Kimchi Fried Rice

Ideas for serving Kimchi Fried Rice:

• A side dish to all things Korean;

• Alongside all things Asian, in fact. Think: next to stir fries, as a side dish for things like Chinese BBQ Pork or Chinese Crispy Pork Belly;

• Prop up light meals such as Egg Foo Young, or create a meal by serving alongside appetiser-type things like Spring Rolls, Chinese Pork Dumplings (Potstickers), Siu Mai or Sticky Chinese Wings;

• As a completed meal, topped with the egg;

• Throw it together on the hotplate at the end of a home Korean barbecue; or

• Use it to stuff into Korean Lettuce Wraps – try it with Momofuku Pork Bossam. Epic!

Enjoy! – Nagi x

The Spicy Side of Life: Korean recipes

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Watch how to make it

Love spicy Asian?

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