Sticky rice with Chinese sausage is a staple on dim sum carts (you’ll usually see it in overturned glass bowls––as little sticky rice “domes”), and it’s actually very easy to make. This sticky rice recipe is similar to the sticky rice with chicken (lo mai gai) we already have on the blog, but less complex in terms of ingredients and kitchen prep.
We used the classic trio of Chinese sausage, dried black mushrooms, and dried shrimp. When added to sticky rice, it’s a delicious combination that everyone knows and loves. Any sticky rice dish doesn’t last very long in our house, and this one is no different.
Traditionally, this sticky rice with Chinese sausage dish is often made by taking uncooked sticky rice that’s been soaked for hours, and putting it directly in the wok for stir-frying. However, to shorten the cooking time and to simplify the process, many restaurants used cooked sticky rice instead, which is what we recommend as well. In my opinion, when done right, pre-cooking the rice makes little or no difference in the finished dish.
So the next time you’re having dim sum, you’ll be able to pass on this simple sticky rice with Chinese sausage dish (because you’ll be making it at home!) and leave some room to try other interesting dim sum favorites. If you haven’t already, you can also check out our dim sum recipes for black bean steamed spare ribs, pork and shrimp shumai, sticky rice shumai (which is vegetarian), rice noodle rolls, egg tarts, and roast pork puffs. For our entire dim sum recipe repertoire, click here.
Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage: Recipe Instructions
Cook the sticky rice (AKA sweet rice). We sometimes make it in our rice cooker, which has a sweet rice setting. If you don’t have a rice cooker, you can also use our method for soaking and steaming the sticky rice to pre-cook it.
When in doubt, use less water to ensure you don’t come out with mushy, overcooked rice. In this case, undercooked is better than overcooked, because you will to cook the rice again when stir-frying in the wok.
Combine the oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, chicken stock, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the dried shrimp, and stir-fry for 30 seconds to bring out the flavor.
Next, add the onion, dried black/shiitake mushrooms, and Chinese sausage, and stir-fry for another minute, taking care not to burn the onion. Add the Shaoxing wine and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.
Add all of the cooked sticky rice to the wok and break it up as much as possible with your wok spatula.
Spoon half of the sauce mixture over the rice (it helps to add the sauce over any clumps of rice to help break them up).
Mix well, using a scooping motion with your metal wok spatula to ensure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the wok. Add the rest of the sauce and stir-fry until the sticky rice is uniform in color.
Season with white pepper to taste and mix in the scallions.
You can serve it as is…or if you want to get fancy, you can pack the rice into a nice round bowl rinsed in warm water and turn it over on a plate. Garnish your sticky rice with Chinese sausage with cilantro and serve.
Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked sticky rice (400g, also known as “Sweet Rice” or “Glutinous Rice”)
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
- ¼ teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ cup chicken stock (60 ml)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons oil
- ¼ cup dried shrimp (soaked for 15 minutes in warm water)
- 1 medium onion (finely diced)
- 5 dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked in warm water until softened and diced)
- 3 links Chinese sausage (cut into small discs)
- 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
- white pepper (to taste)
- 2 scallions (chopped)
- Cilantro (to garnish, optional)
Instructions
- Cook the sticky rice according to the directions on the package and set aside to cool (we usually just make it in our rice cooker). You can also use our method for soaking and steaming the sticky rice to pre-cook it.
- Combine the oyster sauce, soy sauces, sesame oil, chicken stock, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the shrimp and stir-fry for 30 seconds to bring out the flavor. Next, add the onion, mushrooms and Chinese sausage, and stir-fry for another minute, taking care not to burn the onion. Add the Shaoxing wine and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.
- Add all of the cooked sticky rice to the wok and break it up as much as possible with a spatula. Spoon half of the sauce mixture over the rice (it helps to add the sauce over any clumps of rice to help break them up). Mix well, using a scooping motion to ensure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the wok. Add the rest of the sauce and stir-fry until the rice is uniform in color.
- Season with white pepper to taste and mix in the scallions. You can serve it as is…or if you want to get fancy, you can pack the rice into a nice round bowl rinsed in warm water and turn it over on a plate. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
nutrition facts
If you use the sweet rice setting on the rice cooker, do you still need to soak the rice beforehand?
No need :-)
Delicious! I make this about once or twice each month. My 15-year-old daughter just made a big batch (7.5 cups of uncooked rice) today. We soaked the rice for a couple of hours then steamed it in cheesecloth. We also sprinkled the rice with a little Lee Kum Kee chicken bouillon powder while mixing it with the rest of the ingredients. Thank you so much for an awesome & easy recipe!
Sounds brilliant Amy. a large batch of sticky rice is always welcome!
This is always my go to for Chinese sticky rice! Love the recipe and with a little prep this makes everything go so smoothly. I soak the Chinese sausage in the shao sing wine for added depth.
Thanks for your comment V – and your suggestion for soaking the sauasage. I haven’t tried that.
Hi Bill
I am at my parents for Christmas and don’t have dried shiitakes… can you let me know how and how much to substitute fresh shiitakes?
Hi Courtney, a small handful of fresh shiitakes (1/2 cup or more or less to your liking) is fine. Happy cooking!
For diabetic purposes, is it possible to use brown rice instead of glutinous rice?
Hi Carlton, you can use brown rice, and it will be delicious, but it will be quite different from using glutinous rice ;-)
AMAZING! I can’t believe how well this turned out. I made a half batch by soaking 1 cup of rice about 13 hours and steaming on a wet cheesecloth inside my bamboo steamer 35 minutes. I didn’t have shrimp, but instead added garlic per my personal tastes. Everything else was followed exactly as written, and I can say that was better than those I’ve had at restaurants. Thank you so much for taking the fear out of cooking sticky rice! This is fool-proof!
Hi Marina, excellent to hear that you successfully cooked and enjoyed this classic sticky rice with Chinese sausage dish!
The recipe calls for 2 cups rice. Is that US standard 2 cups rice or 2 cups of the rice measuring cup which approximates to 3/4 US cup?
Also, I will be using a rice cooker but it doesn’t have a sweet rice setting. Should I still soak it overnight? How much water should I put?
I’ve asked my family and even my grocery store lady but they’re telling me contradicting things. I thought I’d go straight to the source since it’s your recipe i’m using.
It’s 2 US standard cups, Stephanie! I would soak and steam your sticky rice. Yes, you should soak it overnight with at least 2 inches of water covering it. This is how we cook sticky rice: https://thewoksoflife.com/how-to-make-sticky-rice/
Hi Bill…thank you for this delicious recipe. Can you freeze the leftover (not that there will be any)?
Hi Joyce, yes you can freeze this sticky rice with Chinese sausage and reheat it in the steamer ;-)
So delicious, and wonder if you ever serve it with a fried egg on top?
Hi Lizo, we love serving an over-easy fried egg whenever we can on top of fried rice. Drizzle a little soy sauce over it to mix with the runny egg yolk and bam! so delicious!
At the moment I dont have sticky rice available at home, so…Im wondering if jasmine rice or basmati rice would work? just asking , before I start cooking and all goes wrong because of the type of rice….!!
Hi May, if you don’t have sticky rice, you can definitely use regular long grain or even short-grain rice which approximates sticky rice. Also, see our other recipe for lop cheung fried rice.