Hong Kong Fried Rice

5 from 20 votes

HongKong Fried Rice is an easy essential restaurant style Chinese stir fry recipe to make at home with shrimp, egg, vegetables and leftover rice.

Prep Time15

Cook Time5

Total Time20

Course: Mains, Sides

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings:

Calories: 516kcal

Author: HWC Magazine

Equipment

Wok or large frying pan
spatula or cooking chopsticks

Ingredients

2 tablespoon oil
reserve half of oil for addition of rice and cooking of the egg.
¼ cup onion
chopped
1 inch ginger
knob peeled and grated
2-3 cloves garlic peeled and minced
5 oz shrimp small/medium peeled, vein and tail removed
2 cups rice
cooked day old cold rice ( we used Thai Jasmine long grain rice but you can use any kind you desire)
¼ cup Chinese pickled vegetables optional
½ cup mixed vegetables previously frozen but thawed, drained and dried well with paper towels. (carrots, peas, corn, etc.)
½ cup snow peas chopped - raw
2 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari sauce to keep gluten free
salt
to taste
⅛ teaspoon white pepper or to taste
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 egg
optional
3 tablespoon green onions chopped as garnish - optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

In a wok or large pan, turn on burner to medium/high heat and slowly heat to a high heat. Once the pan is hot, add 1 tablespoon of oil to wok or pan.
Add aromatics such as onion, ginger and garlic and fry just until the aroma hits your nose.About 1 minute. Do not burn garlic or otherwise it will have a bitter taste.
Place prepared shrimp(or other proteins as desired) into the pan. Stir fry shrimp until no longer translucent.If frying meats, cook until just golden brown moving your wok fast. Remove shrimp or other protein products from the pan and set aside.
If you are cleaning out the refrigerator, add any raw uncooked firm vegetables to the pan first. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes until vegetables are aldente. Keep your vegetables moving in the pan. However, we chose to use thawed and dried frozen mixed vegetables and quick cooking chopped snow peas. You do not need to stir fry these first as they are quick cooking. We will be adding these later in the recipe to keep them crisp.
Add your rice to the wok or pan and separate so that all rice pieces are coated with the oil and flavorings. Next, only if desired, add in Chinese pickles. (Totally optional but we love that little funky flavor it gives the fried rice. If you wanted to add XO sauce, we would add a tablespoon now.) Keep the contents in the pan moving
Add thawed previously frozen mixed vegetables that have been dried well and chopped snow peas and stir fry in the rice.
Move the rice to the center of your wok or pan. Add the soy sauce (tamari) around the exterior edges of the rice and leave it set for a few seconds until it evaporates. Then get that wok moving. Add salt, white pepper and sesame oil to taste. Keep the contents in the pan moving.
Add the cooked shrimp or proteins back into the wok or pan and toss.
Move your rice to the sides of the pan to create a well. Add the beaten egg to the well. Let the egg stand sit for just a second. Then, quickly stir the egg well until it starts to pull together. Now comes the fun part. Take your spatula and flip the rice over the egg mixture and really get that wok moving. Your goal is to have little thin strands of egg mixed in with your Hong Kong fried rice.
Add chopped green onions, give it a quick stir fry and enjoy hot.

Video

Notes

Rice cooking hacks

Use leftover cold rice to make fried rice. Cold rice is less likely to stick together.
If steaming rice to be used in a fried rice recipe, reduce the amount of water. For example, if your recipe for jasmine rice calls for 1.5 cups of water to 1 cup of rice, reduce to 1.25 cups of water. (If you have just leftover rice made the traditional way, that is A-Ok too. We just like to use our fingers to break it up a little bit before adding it to the wok to cook.)
We cool the rice in a sheet pan so it less likely to stick together. Rice that has been refrigerated at least 2 hours or overnight works best. Feel free to use jasmine rice, short grain sushi rice, brown rice, basmati rice like in our Hawaiian Luau Rice or any leftover you have on hand. However, Uncle Ben’s converted parboiled rice is not an option as it will have horrible texture results.

Wok Cooking Hacks

Do not over crowd the pan or wok. It is best to cook in batches and use the largest wok or pan you have. The food must maintain a constant temperature. If you overcrowd the pan, you are going to be steaming and not stir frying. The items in the wok must have space to move and stir fry.
The wok or pan heat needs to be gradually increased until it is a very high heat, almost to the point of smoking.
Do not add the oil to the wok (or pan) until it is hot. It is best to add the oil just before you add your ingredients.
If you add too little oil, your rice will stick to the pan. On the other hand, if you add too much oil, your fried rice with taste deep fried. A well-seasoned wok will help with this.
Gas stove top vs electric stovetop is preferred as that bit of flame that hits the moisture of the food that mixes with the oil gives this Authentic Chinese Fried Rice its delicious smokey profile.
Keep that wok moving over high heat. Stir fry quickly so that all the grains of rice have contact with the heat of the pan.

Ingredient Cooking Hacks

The amount of moisture in your vegetables will make or break your attempts at making homemade shrimp fried rice. Do not choose juicy vegetables like tomatoes to add to your fried rice or it will be wet and gummy. Choose firm crisp vegetables. We chose to add thawed well dried frozen mixed vegetables and quick cooking chopped snow peas for our recipe as they do not require pre-cooking and are very low in moisture.
If you choose raw firm vegetables like carrots and celery for your Hong Kong Fried Rice, you will need to stir fry these first. Stir fry your vegetables until firm crisp, before adding the rest of your ingredients. These vegetables take longer than everything else to cook.
When it is time to add the soy sauce, we like to move the rice to the center of the pan and pour the soy sauce around the exterior or the wok or pan. The purpose is to reduce the moisture of the soy sauce quickly. Do not add too much soy sauce as it will make your rice mushy. Use salt and white pepper to finish seasoning to your desired level. Wait, just a few seconds, before stirring to get the temperature of the wok stable. Then, super quickly get that wok moving - FAST. If you have a HUGE commercial sized wok like in a restaurant, there is no need to bring your rice to the center of the wok as there is such a huge cooking surface area.
Have everything chopped and ready to go before you heat up your wok or pan. Mise en place is big in Chinese cooking. Once that wok gets hot, you will be done cooking in less than 5 minutes.
Around the Chinese New Year, we love to put a tablespoon of XO Sauce in our fried rice. You can thank us later. If you like XO Sauce, be sure to try our recipe for Beef Noodles with Spicy XO Sauce.

Nutrition