Fried rice is a great dish to make when you have lots of bits of leftovers to use up. Most adults and kids enjoy the flavors, it is economical to make, and it’s filling. A sure fire frugal winner!
Photo by Jerry Wong
Although you can use a recipe to make fried rice, learning the basic idea of how to make it will enable you to create your own version out of whatever ingredients you have on hand. Never one to reinvent the wheel, I’ve assembled some great resources from around the web so you all can learn how to make your own fried rice at home.
With 322 reviews and a five start rating, this Chinese Fried Rice recipe at Food.com is a great starting place to learn about cooking fried rice at home.
Are you more of a visual person? The Chinese Food section of About.com has a great photo tutorial that will walk you through how to make a basic fried rice.
If you prefer video, this quick 3 minute one from Start Cooking will get you started
Now a reminder for all of you out there who are not confident cooks–all of these ideas and recipes are meant to be adjusted to what you have on hand. The only real constants are the rice and the soy sauce-everything else can be varied. Don’t have oyster sauce? Skip it. Don’t use Sesame oil (although you should-just a couple of drops add delicious flavor) well substitute vegetable oil. Out of eggs? Skip it. Have roast beef instead of leftover ham, use that. It’s infinitely variable!
So what are you waiting for? Why not try making Fried Rice at home sometime soon!
This is my “fallback” recipe when I need to use up “things” in the fridge. And your totally right about adjusting it to your needs. Thanks for reminding me that i should do this soon, with ALL The leftovers from the holidays!
It’s great to have a few of these kind of recipes/techniques on hand to use up bits and pieces. My favorites are soup, fried rice and curry to use up lots of little bits 🙂
I followed the wonderful video — it turned out –GREAT! Thank you for this superb recipe.
Felicia-Glad you liked it-those folks put together a great video, didn’t they? The nice thing about fried rice is once you are confident you can change it up endlessly depending on what leftovers you have on hand! Enjoy, and keep cooking frugally!