How to Make Fried Rice

By Helen Wang
Blog Content Contributor

Having to budget your food and your priorities in college is hard enough but for those of you who are always on the go and need something new to cook besides ramen and spaghetti everyday, here is a simple and fast recipe that everyone in college almost never attempts because they assume it’s hard:

Making fried rice is the easiest and most convenient thing ever when you’re on the go. The best part is that you can manipulate it to whatever you are craving. You can also make huge portions that can last you for days at a time!

HOW TO MAKE FRIED RICE

Step 1: Cook the rice. If you have a rice cooker, that’s awesome but if not you can also make rice in a pot. All you need is to put however much rice you need in the pot and rinse it a couple times with water (I usually rinse it once just because I don’t want to wash away all the nutrients.) When it’s time to cook the rice, fill the water to about half an inch above the rice itself and put it on low heat with a lid that has a hole for ventilation or just crack the lid a little on the side.

Step 2: The best rice to use when making fried rice is using over night rice that’s already a little hard and dried up but fresh rice is fine too. Step 2 is all about preparing your veggies and meats for stir frying. I usually prefer Asian sausages but you can use whatever meat you have in your fridge. I’ve used anything from chicken to pork to turkey to ground beef; literally any meat!

Step 3: After you cut up your meat, it’s time for veggies! You can use just about any kind of veggies you prefer as well. I usually like to use greens and reds to give my fried rice that nice pop of color so I put spinach, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, green onions, bell peppers and corn (yes, I love my veggies.)

Step 4: Once all of that is chopped up and prepped, it’s time to throw your meat of choice in the pan and start cooking. Once you feel that the meat is almost all the way cooked throw in your rice and add soy sauce to brown everything. Then it’s just stir, stir, stir!

Step 5: Next, you throw in your veggies and start seasoning. I usually love adobo, garlic salt, onion powder, pepper, cayenne pepper and chili powder. I love to make everything spicy so again you can totally season to your taste palate.

Step 6: Right before your fried rice is almost done, try to scoop everything to the side of the pan to make an opening in the center. Crack two eggs in the center and let it cook for about a minute, then start scrambling it and eventually mix it in with your rice.

Step 7: The secret ingredient to awesome fried rice is ketchup. That’s right, I said ketchup. Just when you think you’re almost done, add some ketchup. I love to go crazy with sauces so I add ketchup, hoison sauce, fish sauce and Siracha. This is basically the time to add any wet sauce you want that you think will make your fried rice taste extra bomb.

Step 8: The last step is to just keep stirring until everything tastes exactly how you want it to. Then empty it into a bowl and enjoy your deliciously easy fried rice!