Special Fried Rice
An easy and yummy way to make your favorite take-away Chinese Special Fried Rice.
As I have mentioned before in previous posts, we are obsessed with rice in the Philippines. Why do I say so? Well, we just eat rice at least 3 times a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. I say at least 3 times because more often than not – it may be 5 times. Yes, seriously!
The 4th time in the day when we may have rice is in the mid to late afternoon when we fancy a quick meal or snack before dinner. Rice would then be cold as it’s usually the left-over from lunch or perhaps breakfast and at this stage it is called “bahaw.”
Not many households have the luxury of having a microwave so people just eat the rice cold and by that I don’t mean chilled in the fridge but simply rice left at room temperature.
The 5th chance to eat rice is after dinner as chances are your dessert is made from rice or at least includes rice as an ingredient. This is not implausible as many of our native delicacies particularly the native sweets are also made from rice.
As you can imagine, with rice being served several times a day, we definitely have lots of left-overs so fried rice is often on the menu.
Since I already made the Filipino version of Fried Rice called “Sinangag.” I thought I’ll attempt this time to make the Chinese favorite Special Fried Rice or at least our spin on it.
It’s pretty easy to make and really tasty, too. The key is to use previously cooked and chilled rice.
You cannot use freshly cooked rice as that won’t work. I particularly prefer to use Basmati rice when I make fried rice as it’s not as sticky as other rice so the grains separate easily.
But, feel free to use Jasmine rice or other types of rice, too. Provided they are chilled beforehand, they work perfectly fine, too as I have tried them previously as well.
As with any quick stir-fries, make sure that you’ve got all the ingredients ready when you make this as everything goes fast when you start cooking and there’s no time to prepare the ingredients in between cooking.
At any rate, there isn’t much to chop or prep anyway as most of the ingredients can be done ahead of time and you can also buy the ham diced already and this requires pre-cooked shrimp as well to make it even more convenient.
Certainly, let the measurement be a guide so even if you have less than 6 cups of rice, simply adjust the seasonings to taste and you will be fine! Just follow your taste buds. Hope you try this!
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Special Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 3 Eggs
- 2 tablespoons Sesame Oil
- 1 cup cooked thick-sliced Ham, diced
- 1 cup cooked Shrimp, shelled (you can use uncooked shrimp, too)
- 1 cup green Peas, frozen
- 3 tablespoons Soy Sauce, regular or gluten-free
- 2 tablespoons Chinese Rice Wine or dry Sherry
- 2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
- 6 cups cooked rice (left-over, if available), chilled, grains separated
- 4 Green Onions (Scallions), finely chopped
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Lightly beat the eggs and season with a little salt. Set aside.
- Heat the wok to medium-high and add the sesame oil then stir-fry the shrimp, peas and ham for about a minute. Pour in the soy sauce and wine. Stir quickly and then transfer everything to a bowl. Set aside
- Heat the remaining oil in the wok then scramble the eggs gently. Add the chilled rice and stir often to ensure the grains separate. When the rice is heated sufficiently, add the chopped green onions and the shrimp, ham and peas mixture including its sauce. Mix well and season with salt or a little more soy sauce according to taste. Garnish with fresh chopped green onions, if desired. Serve immediately with your favorite Asian viand.
Notes
Last updated on September 16th, 2023 at 09:59 pm
OOH YUM! MADE rice tonight to go with meatloaf and always make extra for fried rice the next day. Momma in love (from Cebu) says to leave it out overnight which I have been doing now for about 20 years lol never have used the rice wine vinegar in it, and use a splash or sesame oil and also I use about 4 cloves of garlic (we love garlic). I will try your recipe as I am also making the pancit tomorrow. However, she remembers how her momma made it, so can be a bit critical about how it's supposed to look and taste like. But just showing it came from a native will help. Haha.
Hope you like this version and that's rice wine by the way and not vinegar so hope there's no mix up. I also use a bit of Sesame oil though also a bit of the regular one so it's not too overpowering. Thanks Karen and please enjoy!
I love how colorful this dish is. A feast for the eyes and then we eat! 🙂
You have made it look so easy to make this recipe. It looks comforting and filling
Special is right because this is delicious.
Looooove fried rice and this looks amazing. I must make it very soon!!
I could eat this fried rice every single day. I am particularly weak before fried rice…of any flavor.
I love meals like this, as you can just throw everything in. Much cheaper than ordering it too.
I love fried rice, and yours look wonderful! I love the addition of shrimp to this. Great work!
Oh that looks good! So colorful and delicious!
Oh I love this rice! I've bookmarked it to try it!
This looks like a fabulous easy dinner that my kids will love.
Fried Rice is a guilt pleasure! Yum! 🙂
This looks fabulous!
I love fried rice and this version with shrimps looks so delicious! Will try this sometime soon.
Perfect anytime of the day! Love it all!! Must try! xo
Pretty sure I could eat this any time. Love fried rice any way I can get it
I need to start making extra rice on purpose! This looks SO yummy!
I think I could enjoy this for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!
Fried rice is one of my favs! Great video!
Ooh I love shrimp in my fried rice 🙂
I love shrimp fried rice. I always get that when I get take out.
Gotta make some take out at home now!
This looks amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
Such a flavorful fried rice recipe!
i love this
thanks for a great recipe
You’re welcome and glad you liked it. Thanks!
I got this recipe from a gentleman from the Philippines, that I worked with….His wife made it, and he gave meher recipe……
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Wonderful! Everyone has their own version and style. Please enjoy!
Hi, great recipe! want to make this but don’t eat ham. want to substitute chicken? have you done that with boneless chicken strips? what quantity would you use? also have you ever used brown rice or would that not go well? Just curious as brown basmati rice is my fave! oh, one more thing, we don’t have a wok, so I assume a frying pan would work.
Thanks:)
You can use chicken if you like with the same amount or however much you want as it all depends on how much rice you wish to use. It’s all a matter of taste. Dishes like this don’t require exact measurements because it’s adjustable to one’s taste preference so the recipe is a guide. As long as it’s cooked cold rice you can use it but white is always better for fried rice in my experience. Yes, a large skillet should do it.
Wow !! This is now my new go to recipe ! It was so easy to make, tastes wonderful, and is effortless. I only used 1 T of sesame oil as it’s powerful but kept the recipe exactly the same. I used cooking Sherry as I could not find rice wine but if still tasted great. My family could not get over how good it was. We ended up going back to the store to buy more ingredients so we could make another batch ! You will not be disappointed.
Thank you! So delighted to know you enjoyed this. It’s my favorite fried rice, too!
This fried rice is so good! Super easy to make and tastes delicious!
Rice wine was apparently what all of my fried rice recipes were previously missing. Delicious!
I love fried rice, and have made many different versions! Yours looks great, love the combination of ham and shrimp. Will definitely try this next.
Our family loves rice, and any new variations of how to make rice are welcomed. I made it for lunch today. It was DELICIOUS!
This was so flavorsome! Best fried rice I’ve made – thanks for the recipe!
This rice has everything you could need. It looks delicious.
I love special fried rice so much and your version looks absolutely delicious!!
Love the flavors in this special fried rice I am making this I guess this weekend is it! Thanks for sharing looks A-M-A-Z-I-N-G
LOVE how simple and tasty this recipe looks! I’ve never tried shrimp in fried rice but it sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing!
Oh wow! This special fried rice looks so delicious and very tasty! My family is going to love this recipe! So excited to make this soon!
Fried rice is one of our favorite things to take out! This recipe makes it so simple to make at home though.
I haven’t made a rice dish in such a long time! This recipe is perfect to get back to the rice game lol
I made this for yesterday’s dinner, it was delicious, thank you, I’d always kind of winged it with fried rice before but it never had the right flavour. This time following your recipe it was perfect and better than take away
Yay! I am so glad to know this!!! Thank you so much for letting us know.