Rice stir-fried with spam, eggs, vegetables in a savory sauce. This quick and easy spam fried rice is so delicious and made in one pan. If you're a spam lover, you need to try this dish as it's so simple and satisfying.
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My version of this fried rice dish is savory and packed with umami flavors. The best part is that it's made with simple pantry ingredients!
A great meal for a busy weeknight and an awesome way to use up leftover ingredients in the fridge. If you love spam, you're going to love this recipe!
Ingredients & Substitutes
Please scroll down to the below Recipe card for full measurements
- Day-old rice: Jasmine rice or long-grain white rice. Brown rice works too. If you're making fresh rice for this recipe, evenly spread it on a sheet pan and freeze it for 45-60 minutes exposed. Then break up the rice with a rice paddle or clean hands.
- Can of spam: low-sodium kind ideally
- Eggs
- Frozen Diced Carrots
- Frozen Corn: or substitute with strained canned corn
- Frozen Peas: or substitute with chopped green beans
- Shallots: or replace with onion
- Green onions
- Minced Garlic
- Neutral oil: any flavorless oil like avocado oil, peanut oil, grapeseed oil, vegetable oil or canola oil with a higher smoke point. Avoid olive oil.
- Regular soy sauce: or substitute with low sodium soy sauce or light soy sauce. If you’re gluten-free, substitute with tamari sauce, coconut aminos or a gluten-free soy sauce.
- Dark soy sauce: this is thicker and darker than regular soy sauce. But if you don’t have this, substitute with regular soy sauce.
- Unsalted butter
- Salt
- Sesame oil
Note: Your Asian grocery store will carry most of the Asian specific ingredients.
Expert Tips
- Use leftover rice to make the fluffy fried rice as this has less moisture in it.
- Break up the rice into separate grains.
- If you're making fresh rice for this recipe, use less water (a few tablespoons less) to steam the rice to create sturdy grains and dry it out on a baking sheet in the freezer for 45-60 minutes
- Prepare ingredients in advance as the cooking process is fast!
- Don't skimp on the oil! Enough oil is essential for a good fried rice.
- Make sure to fry the rice on medium-high heat and nothing lower. If the heat is too low, you'll have mushy rice with all that tossing action.
- If you have a carbon steel wok, use it! This is to your advantage because it offers a smoky flavor to the fried rice.
Instructions
Below are step-by-step instructions on how to make spam fried rice:
Fry Spam and Vegetables
First in a wok or large pan on medium-high heat, fry diced spam until golden brown on each side. Then add shallots and fry until softened.
Next add in vegetable oil, green onions and garlic. Then give this is a toss and push to the side of pan. Next toss in corn, peas and carrots and seep everything to the side
Cook Eggs and Season Rice
Then pour in beaten eggs into empty side of the pan. Allow this to cook and then break up the cooked eggs and push to the side.
Add in rice, regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce, butter, and salt. Toss until the rice and other ingredients are well combined and evenly coated. Season with sesame oil and mix. Enjoy!
Storage
- Leftovers will last up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. To reheat: microwave for 2-3 minutes until hot or reheat in a pan on medium heat.
- Freezer friendly? This can be stored in a freezer friendly bag and frozen up to 3 months or until you see freezer burn. To reheat, defrost it and reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop in a pan.
Pairing Suggestions
Spam fried rice serves well with:
- starters like egg rolls, crab rangoons, egg drop soup, hot and sour soup
- chow mein, or lo mein
- cooked vegetables like bok choy or stir fried snow pea leaves.
- Mongolian Chicken, Bang Bang Shrimp, Chinese Braised Tofu and more!
FAQ
Fresh cooked rice can be used to make fried rice but I would suggest using less water to steam it. Then dry it out to mimic day old rice. To do this: Evenly spread the cooked rice on a large baking sheet and place it in the freezer for up to 45-60 minutes exposed to the cold freezer air. Then break up the rice into separate grains with a rice paddle or clean hands.
No, a large pan will work too! But if you want that smoky taste that you'll find in most Asian takeout, use a steel wok. When the oil hits the hot steel, it creates a smoke in the air that envelops the food making it taste smoky.
Other Recipes You May Like
📖 Recipe
Quick & Easy Spam Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked jasmine rice cold day-old rice
- 1 can spam diced, low-sodium kind
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1 cup frozen diced carrots rinsed with cold water and strained
- ⅓ cup frozen peas rinsed with cold water and strained
- ⅓ cup frozen corn rinsed with cold water and strained
- 1 shallot finely chopped
- 2 green onions finely chopped
- 2 teaspoon garlic minced
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil or any neutral tasting oil
- 2 tablespoon regular soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon butter unsalted
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- In a wok or large pan on medium-high heat, fry your spam until golden brown on each side.
- Toss in your shallots. Fry until the shallots have softened.
- Add in vegetable oil, green onions and garlic. Give this is a toss and push to the side of pan.
- Add corn, peas and carrots. Toss with the other ingredients. Sweep everything to the side.
- Pour in beaten eggs into empty space of pan. Allow this to cook and then break into bite size pieces. Push to the side.
- Add in leftover rice, regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce, butter, and salt. Toss until the rice and other ingredients are well combined and evenly coated. Every grain should be brown.
- Drizzle sesame oil over and mix. Remove off heat. Enjoy!
Elizabeth
First time making Spam Fried Rice, and I'm so glad I picked your recipe to follow. It was simply delicious ☺️
Christie Lai
Thank you so much for making my recipe and for this positive review! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
tom
We always make a version of this, with red chilli, thank you for the day old rice trick
I didn't know that. Now I'll spread and freeze for one hour. Cheap n easy.
Christie Lai
Glad I could help with the tip! Thanks for the positive review!
Jeane
I made this last night, now having made it twice. It is so good and is now a regular on the family menu. I now do the prep work a few hours ahead of time- I cut up some extra carrot ( to cook with the garlic and onion/ shallot), dice up the spam and some pressed tofu dusted in cornstarch as well to stretch the protein (for family of 6). Because I have no wok, I cook the ingredients separately, and place each in a bowl and bring it all together in my skillet at the end and it works great. Thanks Christie, I'm looking forward to trying several of your recipes - you've made them very approachable. Good work!
Christie Lai
Thank you so much for leaving such a kind and positive review, Jeane! I am so thrilled to hear that you enjoy this recipe so much and I hope you enjoy my other recipes 🙂 Have a lovely day!
Amanda S Fisher
Amazing combination of flavors! Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
christieathome
Thank you so much for the kind comment, Amanda! Happy I could share this recipe with you and glad you enjoyed it!
Sarah
I made this today for the first time and it is absolutely delicious. It's cold and rainy outside and this was the bowl of comfort I was searching for. Thank you very much.
christieathome
Thank you so much for making my recipe, Sarah! I am so pleased that you enjoyed my dish 🙂 Have a lovely day!
George Moy
Christie; Hi your spam fried rice is delicious,I know I used to make it in the past, but I haven’t recently because when you buy spam at the grocery store (like Kroger) it is very expensive $3.89 for one can ,also you should let readers know sometimes when you order fried rice on a take out menu (as sides for your meal) all you will get fried rice all right,but no meat or vegetables,either.Another thing,you could make fried rice with,boil in bag rice or instant rice,(just use a sliver of water for instant rice) both rice will asorb soy sauce so easily that you should adjust how much soy sauce to season,now if you substitute the peppers (green,red, orange and yellow)it would make it more enjoyable because spam, and bacon is very salty, the green peppers will take the saltiness out with a little sweetness added to the dish.
George Moy
Also I forgot to mention to tell you instead of regular spam,you should try the new spam,that is bacon flavor spam,its like having fried bacon, but it tasted a little like Rath ham ,the bacon spam is very delicious too.
christieathome
Thanks for making my recipe! Glad you enjoyed it, George! Thanks for all this information and I'm sure the readers will find this comment helpful!
Rosemary
I love fried rice! You know it is such a great base recipe to throw different ingredients into! I definitely want to try this with some little pieces of chicken! And of course egg hehe
Letscurry
Christie, I'm planning this for a quick dinner and gonna replace spam with tofu. It's an amazing recipe to get more veggies in.
I agree with you about finding the right balance and working with our individual body rather than following the fad. We all are unique and so are our eating habits and too much of control will only backfire and make you binge more. Insightful eating is what we need but hey, life is too short to skip a packet of chips. Enjoy!
christieathome
That's wonderful! I'm so glad to hear you will try my recipe. I hope you enjoy it 🙂 It's a great foundation for any fried rice where you can swap out ingredients for what you prefer.
I'm also glad you're with me on that! It's very true, when we restrict ourselves it only leads to binge eating. Thanks for your kind comment Haseena! I truly appreciate it.
Katerina
I couldn't agree more - eating healthy is all about balance. What is the point of having the most nutritious diet if you're unhappy? I have to admit I only eat spam when we're in Hawaii (they do love their spam) but I love this idea - I don't think I'd be able to stop eating!
christieathome
Thanks Katerina! I am glad you're with me on that. It took me awhile to really get to this place of balanced wellness and I'm still learning as I go. I bet their spam is just amazing!
Never Ending Journeys
I absolutely love this recipe! Fried rice is one of my all time favorite dishes, so adding spam would take it to a whole new level. Thanks for sharing this!
christieathome
Thanks so much!! It was definitely one recipe that I was excited to share here because I'm sure so many people bought spam for the lockdown.
Rashmi
I just love fried rice... this looks so yummy... thanks for sharing the recipe dear 🙂
http://www.beautyandfashionfreaks.com
christieathome
Thank you so much! I appreciate that! It's a delicious one.
Tasia ~ two sugar bugs
I LOVE this Christie! In my opinion, it's all about balance. We have to allow ourselves to find what balance works for us. It makes me happy to know that you are sharing recipes that you love and enjoy!! This Spam fried rice looks insanely delicious too!!
christieathome
Thanks so much for reading Tasia! You're totally right. It really is about balance and I'm so happy to be sharing recipes that I truly enjoy now 🙂