Fried rice has got to be one of my favorite foods. And surprisingly, it’s pretty easy to make. Many online websites recommend you use already cooked rice that’s been sitting around for a few days in your fridge. I’ve done it with fresh rice and old rice, and both tasted like delicious fried rice to me.

Moving on to what you actually need to make fried rice:

Rice

Soy sauce

Egg

By that I mean if you’re super desperate and hungry and the above three items are the absolute only things you have, you can make fried rice. Rice is a pretty basic item, and so are eggs, so you’re probably already stocked on those. If you don’t have any cooked rice in the fridge and aren’t quite sure how to make some, here’s a quick set of instructions on how to make rice. As for the soy sauce, I recommend you stock up on that. It’s a super easy way of adding flavor to your meat, switching up noodle dishes, and of course, making fried rice. Now as for the actual process:

Heat up the pan

Put the rice in the pan

Sprinkle soy sauce over it and stir

Add bits of egg– usually I go the lazy route and microwave the egg before adding it, but you can fry the egg first if you want to do it all in the pan

Eat

This fried rice will not be at all like the stuff you eat at the restaurant. Why? Because for some reason you only have rice, soy sauce and egg, and now you’re paying the price for not going out shopping more often. It will, however, be edible, and better than just plan rice in my opinion. Now if you’re smart and are stocked in the essentials, improving on this basic recipe should be no problem.

First of all, there are additional ingredients you can use in the rice, such as:

Onions– chop them up finely and fry them in the pan before adding the rice

Green onions– a better, albeit slightly more specialized option instead of regular onions

Peppers

Peas

Carrots

Broccoli

Some form of meat– you can add beef, pork, ham, sausage or chicken

These are just some ideas and no, I’m not saying you should jampack your fried rice with everything on the list. This is more so that you have some options to play around with, depending on what you have stocked in your pantry/fridge. You can also make different types of fried rice each time, to shake things up.

I have just a few more suggestions, as far as preparation is concerned. Salt, pepper and garlic are always welcome additions. Those basics aside, I have a friend who always makes her fried rice with some teriyaki sauce (she ends up using 2 parts teriyaki, one part soy on her fried rice), and it seems to work well for her. So if you have teriyaki sauce on hand, feel free to use some of that as well. She also adds a few pinches of sugar, and swears that it just isn’t as tasty without it. Finally, I’m a big fan of sweet and sour sauce and I love how it complements my fried rice, so if you by any chance happen to have sweet and sour on you, feel free to add a dash of it at the end.