BLT Fried Rice Recipe · i am a food blog (2024)

FAQs

What is the flavor enhancer in fried rice? ›

To give your dish that signature fried rice taste, you'll need to drizzle in sesame oil and soy sauce, but feel free to use as much or as little as you wish. You can even mix in things like garlic powder, ginger root, or Sriracha sauce and chili pepper for a bit of a kick.

The answer: high heat, expert tosses, and something known as 'wok hei. ' As J. Kenji López-Alt writes for Serious Eats, expert cooking with a wok (and the gas range it requires) is one of the main reasons that fried rice from a Chinese restaurant tastes so much better than what you can make at home.

Season With Soy Sauce, Rice Vinegar, and Sesame Oil

While not every recipe calls for this fried rice trifecta, many of our favorites do. Why? Soy sauce is the salt element, rice vinegar gives the dish a touch of brightness, and sesame oil lends an utterly delicious, toasty note.

You can also use day-old brown rice, however it will create a less-authentic taste and texture, even though it's still delicious. Sesame oil. I do not recommend omitting or substituting the sesame oil in this recipe. It is key to the authentic flavor of this dish.

Here's what goes in Fried Rice Sauce: Chinese cooking wine or Mirin (secret ingredient!) – this is the secret to a really great fried rice that truly stacks up to your favourite Chinese restaurant.

And that ingredient, while it might not be in your pantry yet, is mirin. What is mirin? It is a Japanese fermented rice wine, historically used for sipping, and now primarily used in cooking as a seasoning or condiment. It tastes like a syrupy, sweet sake with just a hint of tang.

The basic elements of Chinese fried rice include rice, meat and vegetables, soy sauce and garlic.

To get restaurant-quality fried rice at home, it's essential to use aromatics, a group of vegetables and herbs that are so named because they lend your dish a distinct aroma. Common aromatics that are used to flavor fried rice are onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and red peppers.

You may skip this easily from the recipe or use apple cider. Avoid white vinegar as it is too acidic in taste. If using apple cider, use it in combination with ½ teaspoon sugar as it recreates the same sweet flavour & taste of rice vinegar.

Chinese vinegar are less acidic than their distilled Western counterparts which, for that reason, are not appropriate substitutes for rice vinegars. The majority of the Asian rice vinegars are also milder and sweeter than those typically used in the Western world, with black vinegars as a notable exception.

What can you add to fried rice? ›

Carrots, onions, green onions and peas: This is the base mix of veggies that I always use for fried rice, but feel free to add in other stir-fry veggies you love (see ideas below). Garlic: Freshly-minced. Soy sauce: I created this recipe using low-sodium soy sauce. So add less if you're using traditional soy sauce.

Oils suitable for stir-frying are vegetable oil such as peanut and palm oil. They have a high smoking point suitable for stir-frying and a neutral taste that will not affect the flavor of the fried rice. Olive oil and butter are not suitable for cooking oriental fried rice.

Canola and vegetable oils have a mild taste which makes both an easy replacement for sesame oil. You can even use them to make your own sesame oil by toasting 1/4 cup sesame seeds in 1 cup canola or vegetable oil in a skillet until the seeds brown.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer that has been widely used for roughly 100 years ( 1 ). In addition to being naturally present in certain foods, it's a common food additive in Chinese recipes, canned vegetables and soups, and other processed goods.

MSG - monosodium glutamate - has a bad rap. For years, we've been told MSG (the sodium salt of glutamic acid) - often associated with cheap Chinese takeaways - is awful for our health and to be avoided at all costs. But one scientist argues it should be used as a “supersalt” and encourages adding it to food.

You can use oil, butter, salt, spices and broth or milk to enhance the flavor of your rice dish. Fresh herbs can be stirred into seasoned rice at the end of the cooking cycle before allowing the rice to rest.