If you are a fried rice lover, takeaway favourite House Special Fried Rice is a must-try classic Chinese stir fry dish. Made with leftover rice, char siu chicken, prawns, eggs, vegetables, and simple seasonings. It never fails to satisfy your Chinese takeout craving. Easy to cook at home and ready in 20 minutes!
I make this fried rice whenever I have leftover grilled Chinese five-spice chicken, or BBQ chicken at home. If you love to make Chinese BBQ chicken from scratch check out my Char Siu Chicken recipe.
What is special fried rice?
Special fried rice is one of the most popular fried rice dishes in the UK, US, and Western Chinese restaurants and takeaways. It's also called House special fried rice or combination fried rice, which contains plenty of Char Siu meat, seafood, eggs, peas, and vegetables. There is no exact method or ingredients to make this dish. Each restaurant and chef has their own recipe and you will get their best rice dish if you order their House fried rice.
Ingredients
Fried rice is a fast-cooking dish and you need to prepare the ingredients before you heat the wok. Following is a quick guide with photos and you can find detailed measurements on the recipe card.
- Rice: Leftover long-grain rice, or a day-old cold cooked rice is ideal for this recipe. Rice should be cold and all the lumps should be broken up for the best texture.
- Protein choice: Choose your favourite protein or use up leftover cooked meat left in your fridge. I usually use Char Siu chicken, prawns, and eggs. Slice or dice them into small bite-sized pieces.
- Vegetables: Popular options are frozen green peas, diced carrots, onions, and spring onions.
- Eggs: Egg is a must-add protein to achieve the classic egg fried rice flavour.
- Seasonings: You will need 4 cupboard-friendly ingredients, soy sauce, chicken powder, white pepper, and sesame oil.
- What type of oil to use? Like other Chinese stir fry dishes, neutral flavour oil is great for making this stir fry. Sunflower, canola, peanut, or vegetable oil are great options.
- Prawn Marinade: Soy sauce, corn starch, white pepper, and Shao Xing cooking wine.
- What type of prawns to use? We love to use small or medium-sized prawns/shrimp instead of jumbo king prawns. Small prawns are best for quick stir-fry dishes.
How to cook it
Prepare Rice and Ingredients:
- Fluff the rice gently by using your hand or spoon. Make sure to break up the clumps to separate the grains to prevent it from getting sticky.
- Gather the seasoning ingredients and prepare the onions, garlic, carrots, green peas, and spring onions. Cut char siu ( BBQ meat ) into small pieces. Whisk two eggs in a bowl and season with salt to taste.
- Season the prawns with soy sauce, Shao Xing wine, white pepper, and corn starch. Mix it well and set it aside.
How to Stir Fry It:
- Heat the large wok or pan over medium-high heat. Drizzle oil, add onions and follow with the chopped garlic. Next, add carrot and stir fry for a few seconds.
- Then add the marinated prawns and cook for 1-2 minutes then push the prawns to one side of the pan. Drizzle more oil in the pan and add the whisked egg. Let it set for a few seconds and break the egg into small pieces.
- Add char siu and green peas and continue stir fry for a few seconds.
- Now add the rice and seasoning ingredients, soy sauce, white pepper, chicken powder, and sesame oil. Combine everything well and stir fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Finish with spring onions and make a final quick toss. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
Variations
This dish is customizable and you don't have to use the same ingredients used in this recipe.
- More Veggies: Feel free to add other vegetables like bell peppers, sweet corn, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.
- For low-carb options, you can use cauliflower rice or brown rice.
- Protein Add-ons: You can also add extra chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, cooked meat, minced meat, crab meat, seafood sticks, fish balls, tofu, etc.
Pro Tips
- Special Chinese fried rice is a fast cooking process and having everything prepared is the key to achieving the best flavour and texture. Start by gathering all your ingredients, measuring, cutting, and marinating then it's ready to fry!
- Do not overcook the prawns and vegetables. Vegetables should be cooked and tender-crisp but not mushy.
- High heat: Make sure to use a large wok or pan and fry over medium-high heat. Do not overcrowd the wok and stir fry with batches if you are cooking for a large batch.
- Do not be afraid to make customization and make experiments by using different types of proteins or vegetables. This dish is an excellent way to use up the meat and vegetables you have in your fridge.
Most Asked Questions
The purpose of using a day-old cold rice is because it contains less moisture and cold rice helps to prevent the rice from getting sticky and overcooked.
If you love real-deal special Chinese takeaway and restaurant fried rice, you must add chicken powder or MSG to your dish. This will give your fried rice the signature savoury umami flavour, just like you have had at your favourite takeout.
Instead of char siu meat, you can add ham, bacon, spam, sausages, frankfurters, or a choice of grilled or BBQ meat.
More Delicious Fried Rice Recipes
Stir-fry rice is always on our family weekly meal rotation and we love to cook it in many different variations. From quick Egg Fried Rice to Char Siu Fried Rice, following are our family's favourite Chinese simple rice recipes, you might love.
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Special Fried Rice
Equipment
- 1 Large wok or pan
Ingredients
- 3 cup Cooked long grain rice About 200 grams, or 2 serving rice
- 100 gram Char Siu Chinese BBQ chicken, pork, or a choice of cooked meat, ( cut in small pieces )
- 150 gram Prawns Peeled and deveined prawns/shrimp
- 2 Egg Whisk and season with a pinch of salt
- 50 gram Green peas About ½ cup
- 1 Carrot Cut into small dice
- ½ Onion Cut into small dice
- 2 cloves Garlic Finely chopped
- 2-3 Spring onion Cut thin slices
- 2-3 tbsp Cooking oil Neutral flavour oil
Prawn marinade
- 1 tsp Soy sauce Regular or light soy sauce
- 1 tsp Shao Xing wine Chinese cooking rice wine
- 1 tsp Corn starch Or potato starch
- ¼ tsp White pepper powder Or black pepper
Seasoning
- 2 tbsp Soy sauce Regular soy sauce or light soy
- 1 tsp Chicken powder Chilli bouillion powder or Msg
- 1 tsp Sesame oil Toasted sesame oil
- ½ tsp White pepper powder Or black pepper
Instructions
Prepare Ingredients
- Fluff the rice gently by using your hand or spoon. Make sure to break up the clumps to separate the grains to prevent it from getting sticky.
- Cut char siu meat and vegetables.
- Season the prawns with soy sauce, Shao Xing wine, white pepper, and corn starch. Mix it well and set it aside.
How to stir fry
- Heat the large wok or pan over medium-high heat. Drizzle oil, add onions and follow with the chopped garlic. Next, add carrot and stir fry for a few seconds.
- Then add the marinated prawns and cook for 1-2 minutes then push the prawns to one side of the pan. Drizzle more oil in the pan and add the whisked egg. Let it set for a few seconds and break the egg into small pieces.
- Add char siu and green peas and continue stir fry for a few seconds.
- Now add the rice and seasoning ingredients, soy sauce, white pepper, chicken powder, and sesame oil. Combine everything well and stir fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Finish with spring onions and make a final quick toss. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
Notes
- What type of rice to use? You can use your choice of long-grain rice. Chinese long-grain rice, Thai jasmine rice, or regular long-grain rice are popular options. I personally don't like to use basmati rice or short-grain rice to make Chinese fried rice.
- Cooked Rice: A day-old or leftover rice cold rice is ideal for this recipe. Do not recommend using soft mushy rice or freshly cooked warm rice.
- Protein choice: Instead of prawns and char siu chicken, you can also add, chicken, cooked meat, minced meat, shrimp, crab meat, crabstick, fish balls, tofu, etc.
- Char Siu: is a Chinese BBQ meat and is usually added in restaurants and takeaways special fried rice. I used leftover Char Siu Chicken which I have in my fridge. You can substitute with a choice of BBQ chicken, pork, lamb, grilled or cooked meat.
- Salt: I don't usually add salt because soy sauce and chicken powder contain salt content. You can make a taste test and add salt and pepper to your taste. Or if you want to reduce sodium intake, you can use low-sodium soy sauce instead of regular soy sauce.
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