The basic elements of Chinese fried rice include rice, meat and vegetables, soy sauce and garlic. A number of fried rice recipes have been developed in China, such as Yangzhou and Sichuan fried rice. Leftover cooked rice among the Cantonese is commonly made into fried rice, prepared with chopped vegetables and meat.
Fried rice is a traditional Chinese preparation of cooked rice, vegetables, protein, soy sauce, and aromatics. The ingredients are stir-fried in a large pan or wok for even flavor distribution.
The traditional Chinese soy sauce fried rice uses a variety between light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. But it is quite hard to find outside China. We need to combine light soy sauce and dark soy sauce to achieve both taste and color goals.
There are a few different seasonings that make fried rice taste just right. The most important sauces to add are soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce in fried rice. All three add unique flavors to rice, but it can be easy to go overboard.
Fried Rice Ingredients
Butter: This is my secret ingredient! This is what they use at hibachi restaurants for their fried rice and has been a game changer ever since I started using it. It adds a lot more flavor and helps to brown the rice.
It is the most commonly used sauce in Chinese cooking. If our recipes call for “soy sauce,” we mean light soy sauce! Dark Soy Sauce (Chinese): Thicker and sweeter than light soy sauce, as it often contains added sugar. It's used in small amounts, for color as well as flavor in dishes.
In Chinese cuisines, soy sauce is used both for its salty-savory flavor and for what the Chinese call its deep “red” color. It is not just a kitchen seasoning but also a table condiment and a brining agent for pickles and preserves.
While soy sauce is used in nearly every Chinese food recipe and doubles as a delicious sauce for dipping your dumplings or even your sushi, there are more options for which soy sauce you'll want to turn to than what's on the surface.
Best for fried rice
When cooking fried rice, you'll want to use a darker soy sauce for sweeter caramel notes and to add that beautiful bronzed colour to your dish. A simple Chinese dark soy sauce will suffice.
The answer: high heat, expert tosses, and something known as 'wok hei. ' As J. Kenji López-Alt writes for Serious Eats, expert cooking with a wok (and the gas range it requires) is one of the main reasons that fried rice from a Chinese restaurant tastes so much better than what you can make at home.
I've heard that over there, putting soy sauce on plain rice is seen as some kind of boorish act, similar to putting ketchup on pizza in Italy. Supposedly, this stems from it being perceived as a poor man's meal, i.e. that's all poor people can afford.
The boiled-down soy sauce infuses the fried rice and brings non-sticky texture. The soy sauce becomes powdery by boiling it down. This powder coats the rice and other ingredients, adding subtle flavor to this dish. Be careful not to burn too much, as the subtle flavor changes to bitterness.
Soy sauce is as integral to Japanese cooking as it is to Chinese cooking. Not only is it used to provide flavor during cooking, it is also used as a seasoning (much like salt in Western cuisine) and a natural food coloring. It is also the base to everyone's favorite Japanese sauce, teriyaki sauce.
Soy sauce has been used in Chinese cooking for over 1,000 years. This classic dipping sauce is a staple in Chinese restaurants, as it is served with dim sum dishes and is used together with vinegar, ginger, and chili oil.
Soy sauce is widely used as an important flavoring and has been integrated into the traditional cuisines of many East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. Despite their rather similar appearance, soy sauces made in different cultures and regions are different in taste, consistency, fragrance and saltiness.
Soy sauce is packed with umami flavor from fermented soybeans and contains a substantial amount of salt which makes it the perfect condiment for just about anything that needs seasoning. Overall, soy sauce provides a dish with salt, umami and a hint of sweetness, making it suitable for a wide variety of recipes.
While traditional Chinese soy sauces were made only using soy beans (some modern Chinese soy sauces contain wheat, too), when the brewing method made its way to Japan, the recipe was modified to use an even ratio of soybeans and wheat, producing a soy sauce with a sweeter flavor profile.
Chinese-style soy sauces traditionally are made with 100 percent soy, while Japanese-style soy sauces are made with a mix of soy and wheat (usually 50/50). This gives the Japanese sauces a sweeter, more nuanced flavor than their Chinese counterparts, which are usually saltier and more aggressive.
In the case of Chinese fried rice, chefs usually sauté all the vegetables in oil with black pepper and salt. After that, schezwan masala and cooked rice are added. However, in Indian fried rice, vegetables/meat are stirred fried, and then partially cooked rice is added.
Using badly-cooked rice
Adding too much or too little water, or cooking for too long, can leave you with rice that's either mushy, crunchy, soggy, or burnt, all of which are poor places to start for fried rice (via the Foods Guy). So, make sure that you're cooking your rice correctly.
Recipe Tips
Be sure to fry the rice in two or more batches. If you add too much at once, it won't get the crispy texture we're going for. While grape seed oil is my first choice, there are other oils you can use. Here's a great article on the best oils to use for frying.