Hamburger Fried Rice is a quick and easy weekday dish you can whip up in no time. Mixing together some simple ground beef, onions, frozen peas, and leftover rice can create a delicious meal. Top each serving off with a runny fried egg drizzled with sweet soy sauce, and bam! You have just kicked up your hamburger fried rice another couple of notches!
It seems like the trendy thing to do these days it to put a fried egg on top of anything. But long before kale, quinoa, and avocado toasts became the latest thing, my sisters and I were frying up eggs to add to all sorts of things. They were always a welcome addition. The runny yolk mixed into the rice with the sweet soy sauce packs an extra kick of flavor, contrast, and richness when digging into this hamburger fried rice.
Best of all, this is a really quick and easy dish to make. For busy parents and working professionals, this is a more delicious and healthy option than any Hamburger Helper you might be considering, and your kids will love it!
Ok, let’s talk about how to make it.
Hamburger Fried Rice Recipe Instructions
Combine the warm beef stock or water, soy sauces, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and black pepper in a small bowl. It’s much easier to mix your sauces and spices so they are ready to go before you start cooking your rice. If you have questions about the differences between light and dark soy sauces, 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). Try to break up any clumps as best as possible.
Heat your wok until just smoking, and coat your wok with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. A seasoned carbon steel wok or a non-stick pan is good for this hamburger fried rice, since the rice in this dish is more prone to sticking.
Add your ground beef and stir-fry until browned and fragrant.
Break the hamburger meat up, but don’t be obsessive about it. It’s ok to have small delicious chunks of ground beef with the rice.
Next, add the onions, minced garlic and Shaoxing wine. Reduce the heat to medium high and continue to cook until the onions are translucent.
Stir in the sauce mixture and bring it to a simmer.
The sauce will deglaze all those tasty bits of hamburger clinging to the wok or pan.
Next, add in the rice and stir everything together until well mixed and the rice is uniform in color, about 1 minute. Increase the heat to high, especially when using a carbon steel wok. High heat will help prevent sticking.
Another technique when using a carbon steel wok is to press your metal spatula against the wok surface to lift any rice that may be sticking to the wok.
Add in the peas and continue to stir-fry in a scooping motion for another 2 to 4 minutes or until the rice is heated through.
Next, stir in the scallions until distributed through the rice and transfer the rice to serving plates. Fry your eggs in your wok or non-stick frying pan. We like eggs cooked both sunny side up or over easy, but you can make them however you like! The key to making a good fried egg is to heat the frying pan to high heat before adding a couple teaspoons of oil and the egg. While the egg is frying, make the sweet soy sauce mixture by combining 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 3 tablespoons hot water, and a teaspoon of sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
Serve your fried egg right on top of your hamburger fried rice and drizzle some sweet soy sauce on top of the egg before serving or serve it on the side.
Hamburger Fried Rice
Ingredients
For the rice:
- 3/4 cup warm beef stock or water (175 ml)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce (30 ml)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons mushroom flavored dark soy sauce (8 ml)
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 cups cooked white jasmine rice
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for frying eggs (30 ml)
- 8 ounces ground beef (225 g, we used 80% lean beef, but any ground beef will work)
- 1 medium onion (diced)
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (15 ml)
- 1 cup frozen peas (120 g)
- 1 scallion (chopped)
- 4 eggs
Sweet soy sauce mixture:
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons hot water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Combine the warm beef stock or water, soy sauces, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and black pepper in a small bowl.
- 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). Try to break up any clumps as best as possible.
- Heat your wok until just smoking, and coat your wok with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. A seasoned carbon steel wok or a non-stick pan is good for this hamburger fried rice, since the rice in this dish is prone to sticking.
- Add your ground beef and stir-fry until browned and fragrant. Break the hamburger meat up, but don’t be obsessive about it. It’s ok to have small delicious chunks of ground beef with the rice. Next, add the onions, minced garlic and Shaoxing wine. Reduce the heat to medium high and continue to cook until the onions are translucent.
- Stir in the sauce mixture and bring it to a simmer. The sauce will deglaze all those tasty bits of hamburger clinging to the wok or pan. Next, add in the rice and stir everything together until well mixed and the rice is uniform in color, about 1 minute. Increase the heat to high.
- Add in the peas and continue to stir-fry in a scooping motion for another 2 to 4 minutes or until the rice is heated through.
- Next, stir in the scallions until distributed through the rice and transfer the rice to serving plates. Fry your eggs in your wok or non-stick frying pan. We like eggs cooked both sunny side up or over easy, but you can make them however you like! The key to making a good fried egg is to heat the frying pan to high heat before adding a couple teaspoons of oil and the egg. While the egg is frying, make the sweet soy sauce mixture by combining 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 3 tablespoons hot water, and a teaspoon of sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
- Serve your fried egg right on top of your hamburger fried rice and drizzle some sweet soy sauce on top of the egg before serving or serve it on the side.
nutrition facts
I made this dish a few weeks ago. The flavour was excellent. When it comes to fried rice, I like to really fry the rice for 4-5 minutes to lightly brown the exterior of the rice grains. This was hardy possible due to the generous addition of the beef stock. However, since the final rice dish was not mushy, it is not a big deal.
I think your Beef Fried Rice might satisfy my personal preference for drier fried rice better. I’ll give that one a shot! Hopefully the flavour is as good as your Hamburger Fried Rice.
Hi Fred, you’re right, the Hamburger fried rice is a wetter version, so if you like the rice grains slightly scorched, the beef fried rice is for you. Cook at extra high heat to generate some wok hei flavor and add a little bit of Shaoxing wine around the perimeter or the hot wok just before finishing it and you won’t be disappointed!
This was so very delicious. I was skeptical of the 3/4 cup of stock I thought it would be mushy, but I followed the directions and wow was this great. Who would have thought that such simple ingredients could be this good.
Thank you for all your work you do on this blog. I really appreciate how well the recipes are written and the photos are spot on.
I wish you had a ‘buy me a cup of coffee’ or some way to for those of us who really appreciate your work to financially support what you do.
Thanks Mo, thanks and glad you are cooking with us :)
I made this using day-old brown rice. It was delicious. I will make it again and also try other recipes on this website.
Hi Kendall, good idea using brown rice! It’s healthy and has a nice chewy texture :)
Agree with Nance, I always use cold leftover rice. I also like bean sprouts in fried rice, which lighten the dish up a bit. I add them right after the onion.
I add bean sprouts at the end because we like them crunchy!
Hi Cheryl, bean sprouts are definitely one of the favorite additions to fried rice :)
I followed the recipe but the end result came out mushy. I probably should have used day old rice.
Hi Cheryl, when making fresh rice (long grain) for fried rice, use less water (about 10 to 15% less) and once done, fluff it with a fork. Then take the rice out onto a sheet pan to cool and dry out. That should solve the mushy rice problem.
We find it’s much easier to use old rice than freshly cooked rice…
Hi Nance, agreed and it’s the best use of leftover rice if you have it :)
Your family’s blog is like a breath of fresh air. Of course I LOVE food, especially Chinese food, as I grew up with it, but your blog is so much more than that. Thanks for sharing your love for family, friends and of course FOOD with us, your readers. So even though your Valentine’s Day email is about Fried Rice, to me, since cooking for my family is all about love, it is the PERFECT Valentine’s Day email (without the cost of outrageous chocolates or flowers)
My mother used to add a fried egg on top of her “red fried rice” a hybrid of Chinese and Portuguese cooking found in Macau. She would fry up slices of Portuguese Chorizo, set them aside, then stir fry diced onions and sliced garlic with leftover rice, add enough salt, white pepper and tomato paste to make the rice tomatoey and red, throw the sausage back in (sometimes she would add thinly sliced green cabbage), mix it up, serve it with a fried egg over the top and voila! Comfort food Macau style.
I still make it for my kids, and they love it as well.
Thanks Ana for your kind comments and sharing your stories and yes, that fried egg is pure comfort!