Fried Rice Problems
April 25, 2009
I made fried rice two nights ago, but it didn’t come out quite right. I’ve used this recipe a few times before and each time the texture of the rice is a little off – usually being to mushy.
The recipe is pretty simple – stir fry your onion, meat, and vegetable, add garlic and then remove all that from the pan. Then simply fry the rice in some oil, stir in two scrambled eggs, add back the meat/veggies, and add soy sauce and scallions.
The first couple times I thought it ended mushy because I added too much rice at one time, which prevented most of the rice from really frying. This time, however, my post-fry pre-egg rice looked pretty good. It had a glossy sheen and wasn’t clumping.
I added back the meat and veggies then stirred in the egg (I know this is out of order from the recipe, which is egg then meat/veggies, but I had to do the rice in two batches and that’s just how it ended up).
When I stirred in the egg, everything seemed to turn to turn soft and sticky. The rice lost its sheen and mushed together.
Does anyone know what went wrong? Was it too much egg? Did I fry the rice for too long? Do the eggs need to be fried/scrambled separately? Help?
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April 25th, 2009 at 8:18 am
you need to use leftover rice to keep the fried rice from getting mushy- if you use fresh hot rice, the moisture will make your fried rice smoosh together! its best if you use rice that you’ve made the night before and stored in the refrigerator. hope that helps!!
April 25th, 2009 at 8:23 am
I agree. Day old rice is
the best rice to use. I make a
small depression in my rice mound
and pour the eggs into that
depression. The I cover the eggs with
rice and let it cook for 30 seconds
or so. At that point I start mixing
the rice all together.
April 25th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I did use leftover rice this time (though I made this mistake the first time I made it). I’ll try your technique, JM, of adding the eggs in a well and covering for 30 seconds before stirring. Thanks!
April 25th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Hey Andy, yeah don’t stir the egg into the rice. Push the rice away and fry your egg in the pan then stir the cooked pieces back into the rice. You want fluffy pieces of scrambled egg not a coating of egg, does that make sense?
April 26th, 2009 at 11:08 am
If you start out with left-over MUSHY rice, you’ll probably end up with fried mushy rice.
May 6th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
chinese chefs always freeze the rice overnight to dry it out maximally. =) you’ll want to spread out the rice on a tray of some sort when you do so in order to max out surface area.
June 20th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
One major problem is scrambling eggs in a “well” with the rice already in the wok. The solution most Chinese cooks use is to scramble the eggs first, in about 2 tablespoons of oil, before anything else. Then remove the eggs and set aside. Only add them back in at the very end, after soy sauce, so eggs retain their nice yellow.
Also putting a decent amount of oil in the empty wok after meat has been cooked. Empty wok, hot oil, then add in room-temp day-old rice. It needs a coating of oil to prevent sticking, and to seal in moisture so it doesn’t get mushy.
But it all comes down to properly cooked rice in the first place. If there’s too much water in the original rice, it’ll taste mushy before you even put it in the fridge overnight.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
1. Make sure you are using long grain rice….not Japanese pearl rice
2. refridge the rice overnight in an open container…you want it cold and dry
3. Use plenty of oil…this will keep the rice grains separate. Before frying the rice I put several tablespoons of sesame oil over the rice and take my hands and fingers and break up all the clumps so their is nothing but individual grains.
4. I have never fried the eggs with the rice…I just beat them in a small bowl and fry them separately into a large patty and then chop it into small pieces and add it to the fried rice at the very end.
5. Finally, I like to add a little kick to the rice by adding a couple of squirts of Vietnamese hot chili sauce near the end of frying.