Soy sauce fried rice is simple yet indulgent. It is a classic Chinese dish that uses minimal ingredients to create maximum flavor. Only takes ten minutes to prepare, and it’s robust enough to serve as a main or to satisfy your midnight salty snack craving.
Soy sauce fried rice is a classic. It is not just another fried rice. It’s a signature of Chinese cooking, as it uses pretty minimal ingredients to create a wonderful flavor. It uses simple ingredients such as butter, soy sauce, tons of green onions, and eggs to turn your leftover stale rice into a feast.
Traditional soy sauce fried rice uses animal fat (lard or chicken fat) instead of oil to create the best taste. However those animal fats are less commonly used in the US. That’s why I altered the recipe to use butter while maintaining the best taste.
Ingredients
It only takes a few ingredients to make a great soy sauce fried rice. But here are some important notes.
Overnight (leftover) rice
Overnight rice is not the most precise description. The best rice is 2 to 3 days old.
Freshly cooked rice contains a lot of moisture and its texture is sticky. It tastes great served as-is, but it won’t create the best result for fried rice.
When the rice is a few days old, it will start to get quite dry. You can easily separate the grains using your fingers without it feeling sticky. It is the best rice for frying, to get that crunchy crispy texture. Sometimes I freeze the rice and then thaw it, to achieve the desired texture for fried rice.
Dark soy sauce
It’s a dark-colored soy sauce that has a thicker texture and lightly sweet taste. It’s the key to the beautiful caramelized color of soy sauce fried rice.
Butter
It adds tons of flavor to the rice and it’s important. The next best choice is premium peanut oil with some sesame oil, but I still prefer the taste of butter.
If you want to get a super authentic taste, consider using chicken fat, duck fat, or lard. Epic and Fatworks both produce premium high-quality fats. You can find both on Amazon (Chicken Fat by Fatworks & Duck Fat by Epic).
Prep
Before turning on your stove, your kitchen counter should look like this.
Cooking process
- Lightly scramble the eggs until the bottom is cooked but the top is still runny, so some of the eggs will coat the rice.
- Add the rice and cook.
- Drizzle in the soy sauce mixture.
- Add the green onions and mix well.
NOTE: It’s important to heat up your pan really well and cook the rice thoroughly, so the moisture evaporates and the surface of the rice crisps up. If you’re using very stale rice, you will achieve a great texture more quickly. If you’re using fresher rice, it might take longer to fry the rice to achieve the desired texture.
How to DIY your soy sauce fried rice
Sometimes you might want to throw in some protein or veggies to make your fried rice into a full meal. Here are some great options:
- Leftover ham, rotisserie chicken, roast beef, cooked shrimp
- Diced peppers, onions
- Frozen veggies such as green peas, corn, and carrots
You can add these ingredients right before you drizzle in the soy sauce mixture (Between step 3 and 4 in the recipe).
NOTE: Making good fried rice is like choosing pizza toppings – less is more. You don’t want to add too many things that dilute the taste and texture of the fried rice. I would say only add a small handful of other ingredients (no more than 1 cup if combining everything you add). You’d be surprised how large the final volume will be.
Afterthought
I serve soy sauce fried rice on rare occasions at home. But not because I don’t like it that much. Quite the opposite, I LOVE it so much that I’d eat the whole pan myself! Yep. It’s THAT good. It’s not the healthiest thing to do, but I enjoy every moment when devouring every bit of the fried rice directly from the frying pan.
More restaurant-style Chinese recipes
- Chicken and Broccoli (Chinese Takeout Style)
- Real-Deal Szechuan Beef Stir Fry
- Easy Singapore Noodles
- Wonton Soup
- Cashew Chicken
- General Tso Tofu (Crispy Tofu without Deep Frying)
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Soy Sauce Fried Rice (酱油炒饭)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper powder
- 3 tablespoons butter (*see footnote 1)
- 3 eggs , beaten
- 4 cups overnight rice (see blog post for description)
- 3 green onions , chopped
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Combine the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, and white pepper in a small bowl. Stir to mix well.
- Add the butter into a large nonstick skillet and heat over medium-high heat until melted. Add the eggs. Cook until the bottom is slightly set. Scramble until the eggs are mostly cooked.
- Add the rice onto the egg. Cook and chop the rice with your spatula, to separate the grains and coat the rice with egg. Cook until the heat builds up and you can hear a vibrant sizzling.
- Swirl in the soy sauce mixture. Cook and stir constantly, until the rice turns an even color.
- Add the green onion and stir to mix well.
- Carefully taste the rice. Season lightly with sea salt if needed. Stir and mix thoroughly, so the salt is evenly dispersed.
- Transfer the rice to a bowl and serve hot as a side or a light main dish.
Notes
- My original recipe called for chicken fat or lard, to get the best flavor. In my latest update, I decided to use butter instead of animal fat, which is easier to find. The flavor of the rice will be slightly different but still taste rich.
Excellent! I added thinly sliced mushrooms and bean sprouts (because why make fried rice w/o bean sprouts?) Perfect side dish for chicken and broccoli *also pretty darn good. Honestly Maggie, I’ve loved everything I’ve made from your site!
I love this recipe! I would recommend this to others. I purchased all my items online with a website called Food For Foodies as I don’t have a Chinese supermarket near me. I would recommend them.
I would also recommend using a lower salt soy sauce if you want to be healthy!
I’ve been looking for this style recipe forever. Thank you for posting this.
Made it with cauliflower rice, no egg, and soy free soy sauce for whole30. It was amazing.
I always thought I was not a fan of fried rice. But this recipe changed everything! I now find myself craving this soy sauce fried rice regularly. Simple yet tasteful, I love this recipe.
If you use chicken fat instead of butter, how much should you use? The same amount as butter?
I would use 1 to 2 tablespoons chicken fat plus some peanut oil (or other type of neutral oil). 3 tablespoons will work if you like a strong flavor from the chicken fat.
I gave this a try today. It tasted great! Thank you for the recipe!!
So happy to hear you like this one and thanks for leaving a positive review 🙂
This recipe is very good. But for me it’s lacking a sauce to make it more authentic. Is it oyster sauce or possibly hoisen sauce? Thank you very much for the recipe.
I think a bit oyster sauce can add more flavor, but not hoisin sauce (too sweet). I think what is lacking could also be chicken bouillon (very commonly used in restaurant), or animal fat (a bit chicken fat goes a long way. Also commonly used in restaurants).
This was terrific! I also made your Char Sui pork recipe and added it to the rice. Superb recipes. Thanks so much!
Hi, can I make Fried Rice with whole grain rice?
Yes you can!