Recipe: Renee Chou's time-tested recipe for fried rice

One of my favorite dishes to make (and eat) is fried rice. My mother, who is from Taiwan, would often make this dish for lunch or dinner when I was growing up. It's a great way to use leftover rice, meat and vegetables - and combines into a hearty meal!

Posted 2:00 a.m. Jan 19, 2018 — Updated 2:00 a.m. Jan 19, 2018

Renee Chou

One of my favorite dishes to make (and eat) is fried rice. My mother, who is from Taiwan, would often make this dish for lunch or dinner when I was growing up. It’s a great way to use leftover rice, meat and vegetables – and combines into a hearty meal! My husband and three-year-old daughter both love it.

After posting a quick video of it on Facebook, people asked for the recipe. For this, I don’t use a recipe. Like my mom, I eyeball things and throw ingredients together to stir fry. It ends up delicious!

I’ll walk you through the process.

Start with the meat. I had 2 cooked chicken breasts from the night before, but you can use beef (such as flank steak) or pork. (If you want to get really authentic, you can buy some Chinese barbecue pork at an Asian grocery store!) Dice it up. (If you have raw meat, saute it until done, set aside, cool, then chop it up.)

Heat up a large pan (or wok) to medium heat with some oil. I cracked four eggs, scrambled them, cooked them in the pan and then used the spatula to chop the eggs into pieces.

Add a LOT more oil to the pan.

Next, add about 3 cups of warmed cooked rice. (Note: This is Asian rice that is a shorter grain and therefore “stickier." Long grain rice will not work as well. Also, rice that is a day old or two works best as opposed to newly cooked rice. Microwave the rice to warm it up, then add it to the pan).

Stir fry it all together with the egg.

Then I add a small bowl full of frozen peas and carrots that I had microwaved already. Keep combining and frying in the pan, even turning up the heat a little more and adding some more oil if you’d like.

Then take soy sauce (I use low sodium) and pour it all around. I pour three big “circles” around the pan to start. This gives the rice a nice brown color. I also add some spurts of Worcestershire sauce, and then I sprinkle some white pepper.

Keep stirring until some of the rice gets a little browned.

For the final touch -- stir in some chopped green onions and it’s ready to serve! Hopefully it’s even better than takeout!

Renee Chou is a mom and reporter and anchor for WRAL-TV. Go Ask Mom features recipes every Friday. For more, check WRAL.com's recipe database.

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