Have you ever made fried rice at home and felt that it somehow lacked that flavor you get from take-out? I have many times. Somehow the fried rice tasted like simple vegetable rice. It just didn’t have the oomph factor that would get my brother nodding his head in approval until recently when I cooked up this ridiculous 5-min dish! Oh you bet my brother told me that my fried rice needed to be on a restaurant menu!
This spicy shrimp fried rice comes from… you’ve guessed it! That same Thai restaurant whose portly, bearded chef taught me how to make this Pad Thai and this Thai Beef Chili. The trick is simple: use 2-day old cold rice and fry up with a lug of peanut oil on a high heat until you feel that the grains of rice crisp up just a tad. And BOOM! You’re done even before you begun.
Be sure to tag me on Instagram if you make this shrimp fried rice!
Shrimp Fried Rice
Ingredients
- Peanut oil or any veg oil would work
- ¼ lb shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1 egg
- 1 cup carrots diced
- 1 cup green peas
- 4 cups cooked white rice must be a day or two day old rice
- 1 tsp garlic chilli paste
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce + 1 tbsp water
- chilli flakes to taste
- green onions or scallions for garnish
- sesame oil just a drizzle for flavor
Instructions
- In a pan add a bit of peanut oil and cook shrimps one minute on each side until golden brown. Remove to a clean plate. (We will add the shrimps back and fully cook them with the rice.)
- In the same pan, add about 2 tbsp more of oil. Crack a fresh egg and scramble it.
- Next, add in the carrots and peas and sautee for a 2-3 minutes on high heat. Add a bit more oil if necessary.
- Next, add in the rice, along with the shrimps and stir to combine.
- To spice up the rice, add in garlic chilli paste along with oyster sauce mixed with a tbsp of water.
- Stir the rice really well on high heat for a 5 mins but be sure to be gentle so as not to break up the grains.
- Add chilli flakes if you like spicy fried rice. I DO!
- Garnish with scallions and a drizzle of sesame oil. Sesame oil will give it that take-out flavor instantly.
- Stir and serve!
This might be a dumb question, but what do you mean by the rice needing to be old? Does that mean it needs to have been sitting out cold for 2 days, or come from an unsealed bag from the grocery store? Sorry, this part confused me, but so intrigued.
Hi Hena, old just means rice that was cooked a day or two ago (and is in your fridge). Much like how stale bread soaks up custard better than fresh bread, a day old rice holds the flavors well without getting mushy. Hope this helps!
Very tasty recipe! And well-prepared..
Thanks Urooj!