There’s 2 real reasons homemade fried rice doesn’t come out just right.
You aren’t using old rice.
Your stove does not get **nearly **hot enough to achieve “wok hei”. This is the real reason. Proper fried rice has to be cooked in a wok over extremely high heat. The vast majority of home stoves do not output nearly enough BTU’s for this. When I make fried rice at home I actually cook it on a charcoal grill, it’s the only way I can get the heat high enough to acheive wok hei.
People have already mentioned that fried rice varies a lot, so it’s hard to know what taste you are going for.
Adding soy sauce is key as others have mentioned. For me, the key ingredient that changed my fried rice from generally good to almost exactly like Chinese take-out was mushroom soy sauce. I mix about 60% dark soy sauce and 40% mushroom soy sauce. A Laotian friend taught me this. He is now running his sister’s Chinese restaurant so I think he’s a good source.
Calgon?
Another vote for MSG. The stuff also does great things for savory dishes.
I was going to say this. You can’t get that smokey flavor without a blasting jet engine of a burner. And you’d have to have a wok that can take that kind of heat, lots of wok-like pans are designed for regular stovetop use since home kitchens don’t come with wok burners.
But if soy sauce is too exotic for your tastes, then don’t worry about the above.
Use cold leftover rice and fry on high heat. I’m lucky to have a gas stove.
I usually add crispy blackened chili, black bean preserve(if I have), vinegar, lime or something else tangy, ginger, garlic, onion and spring onion. Sometimes I mix things up and put a dollop of some kind of curry-paste, if I want to experiment a bit more.
Eggs I make on the side, as I like a runny yolk. Meats or shrimps I do before the rice, in the same wok, and set aside until the rice is close to finished. Gives a nice fond to fry all the other stuff in and adds umami, together with the blackened chili and the black bean preserve.
Ancient Chinese Secret, huh?
You can. Use toasted sesame seed oil as flavouring at end, that’s what I was taught when cooking it.
Sure, have a high heat, but the smokey flavour does not come from that.
Sure it does. I mean, it can come from both, but wok hei definitely imparts a charred, smoky, flavor to the dish. That’s the whole point of it. It’s a different smokiness than toasted sesame oil. Regardless, I can’t get that flavor at home unless I’m doing it over coals. I don’t bother and just end up with what I end up with. It’s still good, but not quite the same as when you have the proper high heat.
It definitely comes from that. My MIL co-owned and ran a Chinese Restaurant. I’ve actually pitched in to help cook on a busy night. My station? Fried Rice orders. Here’s the steps for a typical fried rice order:
Fire up the wok, add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Takes about 5 seconds to get the oil right up to smoke point. The wok stove has jet burners and puts out about 125,000 BTUs. In comparison, a high-end Viking Gas range for the home puts out about 18,000 BTUs. Not even close to comparison.
Add the rice. Since they go through a ton of rice daily, there is very rarely any leftovers. What’s done instead is to cook a batch of rice, spread it out on a pan, sprinkle a little five-spice powder on, and dry it out in the oven on low heat. Just grab the amount needed for the order and put in the wok. Stir fry constantly till you get just start to get wok hei. You’ll know it when you smell it, that smoky toasted smell.
Toss in the cubed meat, onions, peas, etc. Keep stir frying with the rice. Add in soy sauce for salt, the amount depends on how big the order is, usually just enough to change the color. Add in some ground white pepper. All this is about 20 more seconds of stir frying.
Last, crack in one or two eggs depending on the order sized, and stir it right into the fried rice for a few more seconds. Toss on some green onion, stir a couple more times. Boom, done. Smack the burner lever to the off position, scoop the rice out into the serving containers, clean the wok for the next order.
That’s pretty much all there was to it. Just three seasonings - five spice powder, soy sauce, and white pepper. The distinctive flavor mostly comes from the maillard reaction of the rice, meat, and veg from the extremely high temps. YMMV from restaurant to restaurant but not a whole lot unless they are going out of their way to make their fried rice different.
I follow the same steps when I make fried rice at home, except i do it in the grill on top of a large charcoal chimney.
Man, you can get ANYTHING on the dope. Guy making restaurant fried rice? Check.
I love the fried rice at this local place, and so I asked the cook what the seasonings were that I saw him putting on it. Everything else, like oil, butter, soy sauce, and so forth was pretty obvious, but I just didn’t know what was in the two seasoning shakers he used.
The answer: garlic powder, and sugar. I don’t have the exact amounts figured out, but the flavor profile is correct when I make it at home.
Butter? That’s atypical.
Much good advice above and I’ve provided my $20 worth in several threads, so go find them if you care enough.
A clarification: Wok Hei isn’t produced by the burning of the ingredients; it’s imparted by the iron when it’s heated properly. That means
Also, because it’s related, one note worth repeating from my other wok-related posts: Oil – start with a high temp oil like peanut or almond, rather than a flavor oil like olive or grapeseed. The flavor oils break down (there’s a scientific word for this but I can’t remember it right now) too quickly under the high heat of a wok. Use the flavor oil last so you don’t ruin the flavor you’re trying to gain.
BTW: The Chinese style of rice (as opposed to Japanese) is long grain. Long grain falls apart better; short (Japanese) grain sticks together better.
–G!
I can do a lot with a good blade –
I can even cook!