Today, I give you the easy, classic chicken fried rice recipe that you can make for a quick dinner any day of the week. Take-out restaurants generally don’t do justice to this dish, as the chicken bits are usually small, or they used dry, stringy precooked chicken. This is the reason why chicken fried rice is generally not the most favored choice when I’m given a choice between beef, chicken, pork or shrimp!
Our already popular Classic Pork Fried Rice is really hard to beat if you use fresh Chinese roast pork (char siu) but for those of you who don’t eat pork or want to stay on the healthier side, chicken fried rice––when prepared properly––is a great choice. This chicken fried rice recipe uses large chunks of chicken to make this dish a meal.
Remember, this is only a template recipe for classic chicken fried rice with onions, eggs, bean sprouts, and scallions. You can customize to your heart’s content and add mushrooms, peas, or carrots. You can cut your chicken into smaller pieces if you like, omit the onions, use black pepper instead of white pepper… I think you get the point.
One word of advice: If you have never made chicken fried rice before, then follow these directions as written just once. Then next time, you can make adjustments according to your own tastes and experiment with variations.
Happy Cooking!
Chicken Fried Rice Recipe Instructions
Combine the chicken and marinade ingredients (soy sauce, cornstarch, sesame oil, and oil), and set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. For more information and preparing chicken for stir fries, see Bill’s post on Chicken velveting 101.
Next, combine the hot water, sugar, regular or light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, salt and white pepper in a small bowl. This is the sauce that you’ll be adding to the rice, and it’s much easier to have it combined and ready to go before you start cooking. If you have questions about light and dark soy sauce, be sure to check out our Chinese sauces, vinegar, and oils ingredient page.
Take your cooked rice and fluff it with a fork or with your hands (you can rinse your hands in cold water if the rice starts sticking to them). If you are using cold leftover rice, try to break up the clumps as best as possible.
Heat the wok over medium high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the eggs and scramble them until just done. You can even start scooping them up when they look like they are almost done and set aside. They will continue to cook in the bowl and you will cook them again in the rice. I’m only harping on this because you don’t want dried egg bits in your chicken fried rice!
Heat the wok until just smoking and spread another tablespoon oil around your wok. Sear the marinated chicken in one layer for 20 seconds.
Stir-fry the chicken until about 80% done. Remove the chicken to your marinade bowl and set aside.
With the wok over medium high heat, add another tablespoon of oil and sauté the onions until translucent.
Add the rice, and use your metal spatula to flatten out and break up any large clumps. If the rice is cold from the refrigerator, continue stir-frying until the rice is warmed up, which will take about 5 minutes.
Sprinkling just a little water on large clumps of rice will help break them up more easily. If the rice was made fresh, cooking time will be faster. Just make sure that the rice isn’t too wet––which will make frying it difficult.
When it comes to fried rice, leftovers are the best, but how exactly did you make the rice in the first place? If you have not purchased a rice cooker yet, then you really should consider it. They’re a kitchen lifesaver, and we recommend a really simple one without too many bells and whistles. Check out our Chinese Cooking Tools page for more information and some useful links to products.
Once the rice is warmed (very important or the sauce will not mix as well and the color of the rice will not be as uniform), add the sauce mixture and mix with a scooping motion until the rice is evenly coated with sauce. You will have to break up any remaining clumps of rice with the spatula as best as possible, but no need to be obsessive. The rice should be hot by this time.
Now add the chicken and any juices from the bowl you set aside earlier and stir fry for another minute.
Add the eggs, bean sprouts, and scallions, and continue stir-frying the rice for another 30 seconds.
Then gather all of the rice into the middle of the wok to let the sides of the wok heat up. After about 20 seconds, spread the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok and stir-fry for another 20 seconds.
This step gives you a little of that extra “wok hay” that you taste when you get fried rice from a good Chinese restaurant.
Serve with some homemade red chili oil.
Chicken Fried Rice
Ingredients
For the chicken and marinade:
- One large chicken breast (diced into ½-inch cubes)
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon oil
You'll also need:
- 1 tablespoon hot water
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- white pepper (to taste)
- 3 tablespoons canola oil (divided)
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 1 medium onion (diced)
- 5 cups cooked rice
- 1 cup fresh mung bean sprouts
- 1 scallion (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
Instructions
- Combine the chicken and marinade ingredients and set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- Next, combine the hot water, sugar, soy sauces and white pepper in a small bowl. This is the sauce that you’ll be adding to the rice, and it’s much easier to have it combined and ready to go before you start cooking. If you have questions about light and dark soy sauce, be sure to check out our Chinese sauces, vinegar, and oils ingredient page.
- Take your cooked rice and fluff it with a fork or with your hands (you can rinse your hands in cold water if the rice starts sticking to them). If you are using cold leftover rice, try to break up the clumps as best as possible.
- Heat the wok over medium high heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the eggs and scramble them until just done. You can even start scooping them up when they look like they are almost done and set aside. They will continue to cook in the bowl and you will cook them again in the rice. I'm only harping on this because you don’t want dried egg bits in your chicken fried rice!
- Heat the wok until just smoking and spread another tablespoon oil around your wok. Sear the marinated chicken in one layer for 20 seconds. Stir-fry the chicken until about 80% done. Remove the chicken to your marinade bowl and set aside.
- With the wok over medium high heat, add another tablespoon of oil and sauté the onions until translucent. Add the rice, and use your metal spatula to flatten out and break up any large clumps. If the rice is cold from the refrigerator, continue stir-frying until the rice is warmed up, which will take about 5 minutes. Sprinkling just a little water on large clumps of rice will help break them up more easily. If the rice was made fresh, cooking time will be faster. Just make sure that the rice isn't too wet––which will make frying it difficult.
- Once the rice is warmed (very important or the sauce will not mix as well and the color of the rice will not be as uniform), add the sauce mixture and mix with a scooping motion until the rice is evenly coated with sauce. You will have to break up any remaining clumps of rice with the spatula as best as possible, but no need to be obsessive. The rice should be hot by this time. Now add the chicken and any juices from the bowl you set aside earlier and stir fry for another minute.
- Add the eggs, bean sprouts, and scallions, and continue stir-frying the rice for another 30 seconds. Then gather all of the rice into the middle of the wok to let the sides of the wok heat up. After about 20 seconds, spread the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok and stir-fry for another 20 seconds. This step gives you a little of that extra "wok hay" that you taste when you get fried rice from a good Chinese restaurant.
nutrition facts
Hello love your recipes. In traditional fried rice, do you add peas because that’s what I’ve been doing for a long time now, and that’s what the Chinese takeaway add . Or is it an optional thing? Or maybe it’s a British thing
Thank you!
Totally optional to add peas. It adds color and sneaks in a vegetable ;-)
How can I make it for two people I will like to do it for me and my date
Hi johnathan, as a meal, two people can enjoy this recipe ;-)
I love the classic chicken fried rice. But my all time favorite is Thai Chicken fried rice. Thank you for the recipe.
You’re welcome Jacob. Add a little Thai Basil and some fish sauce and you get real close to the flavors of a Thai chicken fried rice. ;-)
I made this two weeks ago and was so timid about heating my wok up properly that I just heated up to the point I was comfortable. I followed the recipe to the T (I even made my own dark soy sauce) and everything was so delicious. I made this again this evening and wasn’t afraid of heating my wok up properly. It’s amazing what a little more heat can do to your wok and your food. Thank you for sharing this recipe with the world. So worthwhile! Also, how can I upload pics? Lol not sure if that’s even an option. Thank you again for this delicious recipe!
Hi Maria, don’t underestimate the power of a hot wok! lol The best way to share photos is on Facebook or instagram. Just tag us and we’ll see it!
Great and easy recipe- made it last night for dinner!
Hi Nancy, great – sounds like you had a good dinner last night :)
Amazing!
Thank you so much!
Yayyyy!
Made this with leftover duck, added carrot, some garlic and ginger. Very nice.
That sounds lovely, Kath!
So yesterday I did the CANTONESE SOY SAUCE PAN-FRIED NOODLES and I loved it?, today I did the Chicken Fried Rice and my PICKY son ate everything in his plate, I add carrot and he said it’s taste better with the carrot. You don’t know how much this means to me to see my son finishing his food.
THANK YOU SO MUCH
SO AWESOME, Mabel! You are right, I don’t know because I have only told my girls not to eat too much :-)
Learned to eat Chinese foods when stationed in the Philippines and when I visited Hong Kong in the late 50’s, been in love since then. I am now retired and want to star cooking it myself; thank you for your blog.
Hi Andre, You’re welcome and hope you continue to cook with us! Please also use our rating system after you have prepared a recipe so we know when we need to improve instructions or the recipe itself!
can i make 5 to 7 rack of ribs ahead of time for agtup of people for a party in advanced and put something to preserve it frousttosa is ok?
Hi lila, making the ribs ahead of time and reheating them in the oven is fine.