Best Fried Rice Recipe

I've been trying to make a decent fried rice for 10 years, and like many people's at-home creations it usually just comes out "eh." Well tonight's creation was super tasty, so I thought I'd post my method and a trick or two that make all the difference.

I made this on-the-fly, so my sauce measurements are purely educated guesses. Add more or less to your taste.

Ingredients

1 cup dry rice, prepared (should make a couple cups)

Soy sauce

Teriyaki sauce (I use Tabasco Spicy, which is not spicy but quite flavorful)

Salt

Pepper

1/2 cup diced yellow onion

1/2 cup sliced carrot

2 stalks celery, sliced

6 green onions, sliced

Oil (extra-light olive or vegetable or peanut)

Honey

Brown sugar

1 1/2 cup raw beef tips

Method

Take your beef tips (or chicken, tofu, pork, etc) and place them in a marinade-worthy dish. Add a few shakes of soy sauce, a few shakes of teriyaki sauce, about 2 tbsp. honey, about 1 tbsp. brown sugar, 1/2 tbsp. oil, and half the green onions. Set aside to let the flavors develop. I'll say right now that this was put together on a whim, and you could easily get by with just marinating in a bit of oil and soy + teriyaki sauces.

Heat up a small amount of oil in a large skillet on high heat. Once it's hot, add the rice and stir it around. Allow the rice to sit and cook for a few minutes, stirring just a few times. Push the rice to the outskirts of the pan, leaving a crater hole in the center. Add the meat in the center (make sure not to add any excess liquid, as this will likely ruin the recipe), spread it out and do not stir it. You want the seared flavor. If excess liquid gets in, it'll basically boil the meat, which sucks. Let the meat sear for 2-3 minutes, then give it a good stir. Repeat this until it looks pretty well cooked.

Now, toss on the load of veggies (everything else) and stir it all up. Stirring just a few times, give the veggies a time to cook and get better acquainted with the other ingredients. Now's a good time to add salt and pepper. I used a shaker of kosher salt, shaking liberally all around the pan, and the same with black pepper. With fried rice, my new rule of thumb is add as much as you think is necessary, then a bit more.

Now for my patented trick. Give everything a good stir and spread it evenly around the pan. Take your soy sauce and shake it about 8 to 12 times over the mixture, soon you'll hear a searing sizzle sound. Let it sear for at least 45 seconds, up to a couple minutes (depending on how hot your range gets). This really "fries" in the flavor. After it has been untouched for 45+ seconds, give it a stir then repeat the same process with teriyaki sauce. Let it sit, really cook into the rice, veggies and meat, sear sear sear. After you've waited an uncomfortable amount of time, stir it up again and you should see some tasty looking fried rice.

That's about it. Practice makes perfect, but I've had such great success with this method that I hope you do too.

Live well, eat well.

Craig Dugas