Name: Egg Fried Rice
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 1-2 eggs; 240 g leftover rice; 2-3 garlic cloves; 1 stalk green onion; 1 pcs chili (optional); 1 tsp oyster sauce; 1 tsp fish sauce; 1 tsp soy sauce; ½ tsp mushroom powder (optional); 1 tsp pepper

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Egg Fried Rice is a super easy meal that you can cook in just less than 10 minutes. It can be served as a light breakfast. Recook this recipe with simple ingredients and you will be surprised at the result!

A plate of egg fried rice with fried egg on top.

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Egg fried rice is a super easy, budget-friendly Chinese dish made with soft scrambled eggs, leeks, chili, and veggies. It’s a favorite in many homes because it’s simple to make and doesn’t cost much.

The best part? You only need a few ingredients—just eggs, leftover rice, maybe some leeks, veggies, and chili—and you’ve got a tasty meal ready in less than 10 minutes. This recipe is perfect for busy people and when you want something homemade real quick.

Plus, egg fried rice is super flexible. You can toss in whatever you have on hand: peas, carrots, or even bits of leftover chicken or shrimp. The eggs add a creamy texture, the rice is a bit crispy, and the leeks give a mild oniony kick.

If you love eggs, there are many dishes with eggs that you can easily cook to serve with this dish. Check out chive eggs, shrimp omelette, egg drop soup, egg foo young, or tomato egg.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

Simple Ingredients – You will love this egg fried rice for its simplicity and versatility. You can just prep it with only 3 basic ingredients and you can also add more ingredients to make it more.
Quick and Easy – This dish only takes less than 15 minutes to cook and prepare.
Inexpensive – The total cost for this recipe is very low.
Can be paired with other dish easily – This dish goes well with almost any deep-fried dish, stir-fries, or soup. They taste great together.

Recipe Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

Leftover rice – the best option is to use leftover rice from the fridge. But if you only have freshly cooked rice, you can keep it in the freezer 15 minutes before cooking for better result.

Chopped garlic – a MUST in all fried rice ingredients. Adding chopped garlic will add fragrance to the fried rice.

Oyster Sauce – try not to skip oyster sauce because this gives the umami flavor to the fried rice.

Fish sauce – use only a little fish sauce because it is very salty. The main ingredients in fish sauce is salted fish or anchovies. Fish sauce adds the umami flavor to a dish.

Soy sauce – use light soy sauce so the color of the fried rice is still bright and yellowish.

Mushroom powder or MSG – this is optional. You may add just a bit or you may skip it. Chinese restaurants always use MSG to complete the flavor.

Leeks – use PLENTY of minced leeks to make the fried rice more fragrant.

Chili or Carrots – use chilis or carrots or both to add some beautiful colors to the fried rice. For those who love hot spicy food, you may add a few chopped chilis. Another way to make it spicy is adding chili oil to the fried rice.

Pepper – add a dash of pepper to spice it up.

Variations

Add smoked beef or ham, chicken, anchovies, shrimp, or bacon to add more flavor into this fried rice. You can also add peas, chilis, and corn.
This simple dish will be so satisfying despite the simple ingredients. It is so good, you can just eat the fried rice alone without any additional dish.
Pair with chicken karaage or fried shrimp balls as side dish.

Be sure to check out the full recipe and ingredient list in the recipe card

How to Make Egg Fried Rice

Egg fried rice step by step process photos in collage.

STEP 1. Heat some oil until it is hot enough and you can see some smoke coming out. Put in chopped garlic. Stir-fry until fragrant and a little bit brownish (Image 1). Add diced carrots, stir fry for one minute (Image 2).

STEP 2. Transfer the cold rice into the wok. (Image 3) Press with your spatula to break down the clumped rice. (Image 4)

Step by step process photos of egg fried rice in collage.

STEP 3. Pour in the sauce mixture (Image 5). Stir fry with your spatula to let the rice soak the sauce evenly (Image 6). You can tell by the color of the rice.

STEP 4. Now, add the eggs (Image 7). Stir many times so the eggs break down into smaller bits (Image 8). If you prefer large chunks, you can wait for a while before stirring the egg in the wok.

Photo collage of stir frying the eggs with leeks .

STEP 5. Add the minced leeks and chili (if you like) (Image 9). Stir fry thoroughly until the eggs are all dried up and well-cooked (Image 10). Transfer to a serving plate. Enjoy your fried rice!

Pro Tips

Prepare the sauce in a bowl, that way you won’t forget anything in the process.
It is best to use leftover rice from yesterday. The rice will not be too soft and sticky. However, if you have don’t have leftover rice and you want to use today’s rice, you can just freeze it for 15 minutes before frying the rice.
Add lots of minced leeks to make the fried rice more fragrant. Stir some into the fried rice, and sprinkle fresh ones on top of the fried rice on a serving plate.
If you like big chunks of eggs, let the eggs cook for a while before stirring it with spatula.

Adding the egg or rice is actually up to each one’s preference. I find that adding the eggs after the rice will thoroughly cook the rice and make the eggs spread evenly into smaller bits.

It would be nice if you want to add another sunny side up on top of the fried rice. Another simple option will be fried shrimp. Just stir-fry a few shrimps on a separate pan and toss them on top of the egg fried rice. Add frozen vegetables like peas or carrots to make it more colorful and nutritious at the same time.

Leftover rice or a-day-old rice or overnight rice is rice that is not freshly cooked. The rice has been kept overnight or a few days in the fridge, making it hard and clumpy.

You want to use this type of rice so when you fry the rice in your wok, the rice will separate easily and absorb the sauce evenly. Freshly cooked rice tend to be sticky and easily clump together when cooked.

The fastest trick will be to put your rice in the freezer 15 minutes before. Try to spread the rice to form a thinner layer so it cools faster. Do not cover the rice in the freezer.

Most commonly used rice in Asian kitchen is the jasmine rice or medium grain rice. Long grain rice. I would not recommend short grain rice (normally used for sushi) because it gets more sticky.

You may also use brown rice or Basmati rice. Even shirataki rice can be used for this recipe.

Storage

Keep the leftover fried rice in a closed container in the fridge. You can always reheat in the microwave or on a pan. Do not keep it longer than 5 days. It is still best eaten immediately.