Soy sauce fried rice is simple yet indulgent. It is a classic Chinese dish that uses minimal ingredients to create maximum flavor. Only takes ten minutes to prepare, and it’s robust enough to serve as a main or to satisfy your midnight salty snack craving.
Soy sauce fried rice (酱油炒饭, Jiang You Chao Fan) is a classic. It is not just another fried rice. It’s a signature of Chinese cooking, as it uses pretty minimal ingredients to create a wonderful flavor. It uses simple ingredients such as butter, soy sauce, tons of green onions, and eggs to turn your leftover stale rice into a feast.
Traditional soy sauce fried rice uses animal fat (pork fat or chicken fat) instead of oil to create the best taste. However those animal fats are less commonly used in the US. That’s why I altered the recipe to use butter while maintaining the best taste.
Soy sauce fried rice ingredients
It only takes a few ingredients to make a great soy sauce fried rice. But here are some important notes.
Overnight (leftover) rice
Jasmine rice is my favorite type of rice for soy sauce fried rice, because it has a nice fragrance, and the grains separate easily during cooking. You can also use other type of medium grain white rice for this recipe. I do not recommend using short grain rice, because it is starchier and the grains won’t crisp up nicely. For a healthier option, you can also use medium grain brown rice instead of white rice.
Overnight rice is not the most precise description. The best rice is 2 to 3 days old.
Freshly cooked rice contains a lot of moisture and its texture is sticky. It tastes great served as-is, but it won’t create the best result for fried rice.
When the rice is a few days old, it will start to get quite dry. You can easily separate the grains using your fingers without it feeling sticky. It is the best rice for frying, to get that crunchy crispy texture. Sometimes I freeze the rice and then thaw it, to achieve the desired texture for fried rice.
Dark soy sauce
Dark soy sauce is a dark-colored soy sauce that has a thicker texture and lightly sweet taste. It’s the key to the beautiful caramelized color of soy sauce fried rice.
Secrete ingredient – butter
It adds tons of flavor to the rice and it’s important. The next best choice is premium peanut oil with some sesame oil, but I still prefer the taste of butter.
If you want to get a super authentic taste, consider using chicken fat, duck fat, or lard. Epic and Fatworks both produce premium high-quality fats. You can find both on Amazon (Chicken Fat by Fatworks & Duck Fat by Epic).
Mise en place
Before turning on your stove, your kitchen counter should have:
- Mixed sauce
- Butter
- Beaten eggs
- Chopped green onion
- Rice, fluffed
Cooking process
- Lightly scramble the eggs until the bottom is cooked but the top is still runny, so some of the eggs will coat the rice.
- Add the rice and cook.
- Drizzle in the soy sauce mixture.
- Add the green onions and mix well.
NOTE: It’s important to heat up your pan really well and cook the rice thoroughly, so the moisture evaporates and the surface of the rice crisps up. If you’re using very stale rice, you will achieve a great texture more quickly. If you’re using fresher rice, it might take longer to fry the rice to achieve the desired texture.
How to DIY your soy sauce fried rice
Sometimes you might want to throw in some protein or veggies to make your fried rice into a full meal. Here are some great options:
- Leftover ham, pulled pork, rotisserie chicken, roast beef, cooked shrimp
- Diced peppers, onions
- Frozen vegetables such as green peas, corn, and carrots
You can add these ingredients right before you drizzle in the soy sauce mixture (Between step 3 and 4 in the recipe).
NOTE: Making good fried rice is like choosing pizza toppings – less is more. You don’t want to add too many things that dilute the taste and texture of the fried rice. I would say only add a small handful of other ingredients (no more than 1 cup if combining everything you add). You’d be surprised how large the final volume will be.
How to serve soy sauce fried rice
Soy sauce is a great side dish to add to your dinner, accompany with a main dish and a vegetable or soup. For example, consider serving soy sauce fried rice with:
- Crispy Sesame Chicken (without Deep Frying)
- Choy Sum with Garlic Sauce (白灼菜心)
- Shrimp and Asparagus Stir Fry
- Salt and Pepper Fish (椒盐鱼片)
- Sweet and Sour Shrimp (糖醋虾)
- Spinach Egg Drop Soup
You can also serve soy sauce as a quick main dish by itself for lunch.
Since it fridge and freeze very well and taste good after reheating, you can also make a big batch for meal prep.
Afterthought
I serve soy sauce fried rice on rare occasions at home. But not because I don’t like it that much. Quite the opposite, I LOVE it so much that I’d eat the whole pan myself! Yep. It’s THAT good. It’s not the healthiest thing to do, but I enjoy every moment when devouring every bit of the fried rice directly from the frying pan.
More restaurant-style Chinese recipes
- Chicken and Broccoli (Chinese Takeout Style)
- Real-Deal Szechuan Beef Stir Fry
- Easy Singapore Noodles
- Wonton Soup
- Cashew Chicken
- General Tso Tofu (Crispy Tofu without Deep Frying)
Soy Sauce Fried Rice (酱油炒饭)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper powder
- 3 tablespoons butter (*see footnote 1)
- 3 eggs , beaten
- 4 cups overnight jasmine rice (or other medium grain rice) (see blog post for description)
- 3 green onions , chopped
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Combine the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, and white pepper in a small bowl. Stir to mix well.
- Add the butter into a large nonstick skillet and heat over medium-high heat until melted. Add the eggs. Cook until the bottom is slightly set. Scramble until the eggs are mostly cooked.
- Add the rice onto the egg. Cook and chop the rice with your spatula, to separate the grains and coat the rice with egg. Cook until the heat builds up and you can hear a vibrant sizzling.
- Swirl in the soy sauce mixture. Cook and stir constantly, until the rice turns an even color.
- Add the green onion and stir to mix well.
- Carefully taste the rice. Season lightly with sea salt if needed. Stir and mix thoroughly, so the salt is evenly dispersed.
- Transfer the rice to a bowl and serve hot as a side or a light main dish.
Notes
- My original recipe called for chicken fat or lard, to get the best flavor. In my latest update, I decided to use butter instead of animal fat, which is easier to find. The flavor of the rice will be slightly different but still taste rich.
Fried rice was always a big favorite in my family!
Ours too! It’s so quick and delicious, isn’t it 🙂
I love this recipe, Maggie, and most of all the story behind it. Where do you get the fat from – do you buy it or just use the fat from cooking chicken or bacon?
We usually cook with the fat from roasting poultry. There are jarred lard and duck fat in the supermarket, but it’s too large for us and I’d probably end up cooking every dish with it! lol One of my favorites is duck fat. We get quite a lot every time we roast a whole duck or duck breasts. We always save them for other cooking.
I like the way Thomas thinks! The lamb sounds wonderful, but I could definitely have a big bowl of this fried rice and be very, very happy for dinner!
Me too 😉 This is a very simple dish, but I won’t mind to serve it for dinner at all!
Uh … bacon fat? I’m on board. Plus, I already have most of these ingredients on-hand, which makes this very tempting. (And I love rice.)
This recipe looks nice and simple!
I will try that!
Thanks!
I had leftover rice, and NOTHING else in the fridge, buy pure luck I had all the ingredients, although I had fully sized white onion, not green, so I just put less of it!
The dish is AMAZING and strong, so you feel full, although I had my doubts 🙂
I am from Croatia and our cuisine is very fatty and strong in my part of the country so I felt at home with this one!
Thank you for making an evening that was supposed to be just putting something in my mouth so I don’t starve into a wonderful dinner!
I only recently discovered soy sauce and find it heavenly, I have yet to try food with it that doesn’t taste wonderful!
I will keep trying other recipes 🙂
Hi Marin, I’m so glad to hear you tried out this recipe and enjoyed it! It’s a simple dish with bold flavor, isn’t it 🙂 Thanks so much for your kind words. You just made my day!
Soy sauce is truly amazing. I hope you would try a few more Asian dishes to try out soy sauce, and discover more dishes you love.
Hope you have a great weekend and happy cooking!
Hi is the bacon fat the secret ingredient that makes fried rice at the Chinese takeaway store taste so amazing???? I have been googling and trying different recipes at home but it NEVER tastes the same!?! I haven’t tried bacon fat though… I did however wander if it would work..
Hi Danielle, in fact Chinese restaurant usually lard. I used bacon fat because it’s easier to obtain than lard. But yes, it’s the secret ingredient that the restaurant version always tastes better than homemade. Also the restaurant version uses quite a lot of fat, which also helps.
“supposed to be just putting something in my mouth so I don’t starve into a wonderful dinner!” — Haha! This is so me!
Came out so GOOD!! First try! Thanks!😄
Dear Maggie,
I’d like to try this recipe, but is not very clear to me what is leftover rice. Is it boiled rise that remained from a prevous dish? Or is it uncooked rise that you have around the house?
Thank you,
Seba
Hi Sebastian, by leftover rice, I mean steamed rice that was previously cooked and not used (and stored in the fridge). I prefer to use yesterday’s rice instead of freshly made rice, because the rice will be less starchy and the grains are easily separated during the cooking to produce a better result.
I know this is a dumb question but is it 4 cups cooked or uncooked rice? Thank you!
Hi Chris, it’s 4 cups cooked rice. Happy cooking!
Thanks for getting back to me. This recipe is amazing!!!! I can’t believe how good it is – thanks for sharing and I can’t wait to try more from your site.
Any recommended substitute for dark soy sauce? (sheltering at home) Thank you!
Hi Jen, you can substitute it with 1 tablespoon oyster sauce if you have any. If not, you can replace it with 1 tablespoon regular soy sauce plus 1/4 teaspoon sugar. Your rice won’t have the dark color without the dark soy sauce, but it should still taste pretty good!
This looks so delicious, and I can’t wait to try it!
I don’t have dark soy sauce on hand, so I’m wondering if I can substitute kecap manis in place of the dark soy and sugar?
Thanks!
Hi Amy, I’m pretty sure you can! I think the rice might taste too sweet if you use 1 Tablespoon kecap manis. Maybe only use 2 teaspoons, and 1 more teaspoon of regular soy sauce.
Happy cooking 🙂
Recipe was excellent, however my rice waa still too moist even after days in the refrigerator. I did not steam it (no rice steamer) but thought I had followed proper directions not to fully cook. Any recommendations appreciated. Thank you for such a simple delicious recipe!
Hi Kim, to cook a drier textured rice for fried rice, here are a few tips:
– Use slightly less water when you steam the rice, so it’s tougher
– Use medium grain, long grain, or jasmine rice, which is less starchy less short grain rice
– Once the rice is steamed, fluffy it with rice paddle and let it cool completely before put in a container for storage. It also helps to leave the container open (at room temperature) for 1 to 2 hours so the rice will dry up further more (the most important)
– Freeze the rice and thaw it before cooking
Any of these things above help!
So I made dinner like this yesterday before seeing your recipe! I used light soy and oyster sauce to taste no other seasonings at all! I used a chopped roasted chicken breast, spring onions baby corn and frozen peas! It was honestly one of the best meals ever!
I will make this over and over again
The rice I used was a precooked plastic dish of supermarket long grain rice and was perfect!
I love this fried rice recipe. It was one of the only things that my niece would eat when she was living with me while her mom was out of town doing COVID relief work. I usually use white onion because I never have scallions around. In my last batch I also added some chopped char siu and I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Such a great recipe! I added chicken, green, red bell peppers. Hubby raved! I used Basmatic rice which was already partially cooked and it worked beautifully. As a side note, I ordered some dark soy sauce as I found the Oyster sauce made it more salty (I use low sodium soy sauce).
Oh and I forgot to say, Very Addictive!! I made this several times already and cannot get enough of it! The Dark Soy sauce worked beautifully.
Instead of butter my mom would start out with some chopped up bacon, to which she added diced onions … then the egg mixture. I need to get “your” soy sauce! Thanks
That sounds super delicious!
Great recipe. I used homemade Chinese bacon as my source of fat and protein. It really makes the rice great.
Any recipe adjustments needed to make it without egg? Or substitutes for the egg? Not vegan/vegetarian just wondering to cook it for someone who can’t have eggs
I think you can totally make this dish without using eggs. I would add some ground meat to further add flavors. And adding a handful of frozen veggies will give you a better texture.
I love fried rice and I definitely want to try and make this. Could u tell me what kind of rice you use?
I used Jasmine rice in this recipe. Medium grain rice also works well.
I loved this recipe so much!