This is the best Chinese Chicken Fried Rice! Savoury and fluffy fried rice with juicy chicken, eggs, peas, carrots with garlic and shallots.
Ready in 30 minutes
This meal is perfect for dinner or lunch and works well as leftovers, if there are any left! Ready in just 30 minutes with cooked rice.
Comfort food
I’m a huge fan of Asian fried rice. It’s such a comforting dish that brings a lot of childhood nostalgia for me. Whenever my parents didn’t know what to cook for us, it would be fried rice. Why? Because if we had any leftover ingredients which would include rice, we could toss everything together in a wok to create a meal.
Easy Chicken Fried Rice Recipe
This authentic chicken fried rice is extremely easy to make at home. You’re simply marinating your chicken and letting that sit as you work on the other ingredients. Next mix your sauce and set aside. Then into a hot wok, fry your chicken and then remove from the heat. Back into the pan, fry the aromatics, veggies, and egg. Then tossing in your rice to mix, followed by sauce and lastly your chicken. That is it!
Better than Takeout Chicken Fried Rice
This is a strong claim, but I genuinely believe this is the best chicken fried rice recipe you will make at home! Like the restaurant fried rice, they use remarkably similar ingredients with the power of a carbon steel or steel wok. The smokiness that you get from this type of wok is a game changer when it comes to making Asian food at home. If you don’t own a wok, you can also make it in a normal pan. You just won’t get that smoky flavour but overall, this dish is delicious without it!
What you’ll need
For this recipe you’ll need the following chicken fried rice ingredients:
- cooked jasmine rice day old rice
- boneless skinless chicken thighs
- shallot
- garlic
- carrot
- peas
- eggs
- vegetable oil
Chicken marinade:
- regular soy sauce, not light or dark soy sauce!
- Shaoxing Cooking Wine, or sub with Dry Sherry Wine
- cornstarch
- vegetable oil
Sauce:
- regular soy sauce, not light or dark soy sauce!
- dark soy sauce
- sesame oil
- chicken bouillon powder, aka. Chicken instant stock mix
- white pepper, or sub with black pepper
How to make Chicken Fried Rice
Below are brief steps with visuals to show you how to make chicken fried rice restaurant style. Please scroll down to the recipe card below to find full instructions and details.
Marinate your sliced chicken for 5 minutes. Set aside.
In a bowl, pre-mix sauce ingredients as listed. Set aside.
In a hot wok set over medium high heat, add 1 tsp oil. Once oil is hot, fry chicken until fully cooked. Remove and set aside.
Add 1 tsp of oil and fry garlic and shallots for 10 seconds or until softened. Quickly add peas and carrots and fry for another 10 seconds or until softened. Push everything to the side of the wok.
Add 1 tsp of oil into empty space of wok. Pour in eggs and scramble before mixing with ingredients in wok.
Add remaining oil along with rice and toss with ingredients. Toss back in chicken.
Pour sauce around your rice along the edges of the wok (the heat + sauce creates more flavour vs. pouring on top of rice). Mix until all rice granules are coloured brown. Remove off heat. Serve and enjoy!
Cooking Tips
Below are tips on making chicken fried rice at home:
Prepare your ingredients ahead of time!
I know I say this in every single recipe post but in Asian cooking it is all about preparing the ingredients prior to cooking. Since we are cooking this dish in a hot wok, it is important to have the ingredients of chicken fried rice lined up and ready to throw into the pan. You do not want to be fumbling around the kitchen looking for ingredients as you cook. This causes overcooking.
Use day old, cooked rice for separated granules
This really helps to create that fluffy fried rice with separated granules in a hot wok or a normal pan.
Separate rice granules with hands before cooking
This is much easier than breaking the rice down in the a hot wok and prevents your rice from overcooking.
Slice chicken thinly
This ensures your chicken cooks evenly, quickly and through.
Pour the sauce along the edges of the wok to create more flavour
By pouring the sauce along the edges of the hot wok, the heat helps to caramelize the sauce making your fried rice even tastier versus just pouring it on top of your rice.
FAQ
Below are frequently asked questions about this delicious chicken fried rice:
Can you reheat Chinese chicken fried rice?
Yes! You can microwave it or better yet, place it back into a hot pan over medium high heat and fry it until you start to see the rice steam again!
What is the secret to good fried rice?
Using a wok that can withstand high flame to create “wok hei” or in Chinese “breathe of wok.” When the oil hits the heat of an extremely hot wok, this creates that smoky taste you enjoy in most Chinese cooked foods.
Why do you put eggs in fried rice?
They add a delicious flavour and texture to your fried rice. They are also fantastic for protein.
What gives Chinese rice its flavor?
We typically use regular/light, dark soy sauce, and sesame oil to give it a delicious flavour. Sometimes, oyster sauce is used but not in this recipe as it’s flavourful enough with it.
What oil is best for fried rice?
The best oil to use for fried rice are ones that can withstand high smoke points. These can include vegetable oil, peanut oil, avocado oil, or grapeseed oil.
How do you dry out rice for fried rice?
I will usually make it the night before and after it cooks, I’ll lay it out on a tray and place it in the back of the refrigerator, where it’s the coldest, uncovered.
To urgently dry out rice: after the rice has cooked, lay it out on a tray and then pop it into the freezer (not fridge) uncovered for 1 hour and this will help dry it out.
Other Fried Rice recipes you may like!
If you enjoyed this best chicken and egg fried rice, you may enjoy these other recipes:
Shrimp Fried Rice
Tomato Egg Fried Rice
Thai Spicy Basil Fried Rice
Vegan Mushroom Kimchi Fried Rice
Thai Railway Fried Rice
Try it!
Well, I hope you give my Chinese Chicken Fried Rice a try! It always excites me when you make my recipes and I hope this is one you try and most importantly, enjoy.
Sharing is caring
If you enjoyed my chicken fried rice from scratch, please share it with your family and friends or on social media! Take a picture of your re-creation and make sure to tag me @ChristieAtHome in your feed or stories as I would love to see it!
Did you enjoy it?
If you genuinely enjoyed my Chinese Chicken Fried Rice, please leave a 5-star review. I would appreciate it 🙂
Take care,
Christie
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Easy Chinese Chicken Fried Rice (30-min)
Ingredients
- 4 ½ cups cooked jasmine rice day old, see Notes for amount of uncooked rice
- ½ lb boneless skinless chicken thighs thinly sliced
- 1 shallot finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ¾ cup carrot finely diced
- ½ cup peas frozen
- 3 eggs beaten
- 4 tsp vegetable oil or any neutral tasting oil
Chicken marinade:
- 1 tsp regular soy sauce not light or dark soy sauce!
- 1 tsp Shaoxing Cooking Wine or sub with Dry Sherry Wine
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
Sauce:
- 2 tbsp regular soy sauce not light or dark soy sauce!
- ½ tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder aka. Chicken instant stock mix
- ⅛ tsp white pepper or sub with black pepper
Instructions
- Marinate your sliced chicken for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a bowl, pre-mix sauce ingredients as listed. Set aside.
- In a hot wok set over medium high heat, add 1 tsp oil. Once oil is hot, fry chicken until fully cooked. Remove and set aside.
- Add 1 tsp of oil and fry garlic and shallots for 10 seconds or until softened. Quickly add peas and carrots and fry for another 10 seconds or until softened. Push everything to the side of the wok.
- Add 1 tsp of oil into empty space of wok. Pour in eggs and scramble before mixing with ingredients in wok.
- Add remaining oil along with rice and toss with ingredients. Toss back in chicken.
- Pour sauce around your rice along the edges of the wok (the heat + sauce creates more flavour vs. pouring on top of rice). Mix until all rice granules are coloured brown. Remove off heat. Serve and enjoy!
NOTES
This would be such a great dish for my kids! I think they would absolutely love homemade fried rice! Thanks Christie! 🙂
I'm pretty excited that I have everything I need to make this one! I haven't had chicken fried rice in such a long time. Might be time to make it again! Take care Christie!
Yay! That's always a great thing. Thanks so much Leanne and I hope you enjoy it 🙂 Take care Leanne!
I don't make fried rice nearly enough and this one looks so scrumptious!! I also appreciate your wisdom on thinking in the present. Wonderful advice for the current times ~ thank you!
Thanks so much Tasia! I appreciate you taking the time to read and for your kind words on my fried rice. I hope you give it a try!
Is it okay to marinate your chicken overnight? I'm going to try this recipe tomorrow.
Absolutely! It'll make the chicken taste even better. I hope you enjoy my recipe!
Christie
Just yesterday I posted a chicken curry recipe. Chicken fried rice is something I have never tried before, as I have always grown up eating biryani instead. Hoping to give a try to this one sooner.
I appreciate your efforts in bringing the best.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog! I truly appreciate your kind comment! I absolutely love biryani and I will have to give it a try one day.
What a tasty chicken dish! It looks so flavorful.
How delicious... and I love that this only takes 30 minutes to prepare!
This was a quick, easy and absolutely delicious meal! I really appreciated the tips on cooking everything within the same pan to avoid dirtying more things. Loved making this on date night at home!
Thanks Florencia! I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed this as well as the cooking tips. I love making everything in one pan to reduce the amount of dishes I have to wash later haha 🙂
Just made your dish Came out wonderful so ummy
Made this last night; it was so easy and delicious. I marinated the chicken longer than five minutes for maximum flavour penetration but otherwise followed the recipe to the letter. I also prepped the rice in the morning then lined a sheet pan, spread it out and refrigerated it so it was ready and super dry before putting the recipe together. Never did this before but will from now on as the rice was nice and crisp. Will put this recipe on rotation!
Thank you so much for making my recipe D.Jay! I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed it 🙂 Glad that this dish can become part of your rotation!
Just made it, waiting for the troops to come. Will definitely post reactions, we love Asian food.
Thank you so much for making my recipe! I hope you and the troops enjoy it 🙂