Chicken Fried Rice! This take-out classic is an easy weeknight meal! It's made on the stovetop with chicken, eggs, onions, carrots, peas, and rice.

Photography Credit: Lisa Lin

When I was a kid, I always looked forward to days when my mother made fried rice for dinner. Like most Asian families, we ate regular plain rice almost every day with dinner, so any time my mother felt inspired to change up our dinner routine felt like a treat to me!

Video! How to Make Chicken Fried Rice

The Best Rice for Fried Rice

Fried rice is a dish that is meant to repurpose leftover rice from a day or two before. The first time I tried cooking fried rice on my own, I made the mistake of using freshly cooked rice.

Because it was still so moist and soft, resulting dish was far too gummy — nothing like what my mother cooked. I don’t even remember if I ate much of that batch of fried rice, but I certainly learned a big lesson!

If you don’t have any leftover rice from the night before, cook a batch of rice and spread it on a large baking sheet or several large plates. Let the rice dry out for about 1 to 2 hours before using it for fried rice.

Here is some more info on cooking rice:

The Ingredients for Chicken Fried Rice

Now, I make fried rice at home often, and this version with chicken is one of my favorites. I add onions, carrots and peas to my rice, but you can throw in whatever vegetables you have. Diced bell peppers, zucchini or sliced cabbage work well, too.

I also add a bit of Chinese five-spice powder to flavor the rice, a habit I picked up from my mother who always used it in her cooking. This is a blend of star anise, peppercorns, cloves, fennel seed, and cinnamon, and it gives the dish a warm spiciness. Feel free to leave it out if you like.

The Steps for Making Fried Rice

This recipe is for chicken fried rice, but you could really use the technique for making fried rice with almost any protein, like shrimp, pork, or tofu.

Prep the ingredients: Making fried rice is fast, so have all of your ingredients ready and by the stove. Dice your chicken into small cubes and salt it, whisk the egg, make sure all the veggies are diced and ready to go. Scramble the egg, then remove it from the pan. You want to cook the egg first so that it doesn’t end up overcooking and so that the egg stays in larger pieces. Stir fry the chicken, then it remove it from the pan, too. Make sure it’s cooked all the way through. Cook the vegetables, but leave them IN the pan! Add the rice, season it, then add the egg and chicken back to the pan. Serve hot!

Storing and Reheating Leftover Fried Rice

Fried rice is really best eaten the day it’s made, but the leftovers aren’t bad either! Store it in the fridge for up to three days.

You can reheat fried rice either in the microwave or the stovetop. Sprinkle a tablespoon or two of water over top to help it stay moist, and cover the dish or pan to trap the moisture and prevent the rice from drying out.

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