28 Chinese Takeout Recipes You Will Love (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret ingredient in Chinese fried rice? ›

Here's what goes in Fried Rice Sauce: Chinese cooking wine or Mirin (secret ingredient!) – this is the secret to a really great fried rice that truly stacks up to your favourite Chinese restaurant.

One tip is to never fry with cold rice right out of the fridge – be sure to take the overnight rice out of the fridge beforehand and warm it up briefly in the microwave. It should be barely warm or at least room temperature when you start cooking, otherwise it won't be able to absorb the flavours from frying.

The answer: high heat, expert tosses, and something known as 'wok hei. ' As J. Kenji López-Alt writes for Serious Eats, expert cooking with a wok (and the gas range it requires) is one of the main reasons that fried rice from a Chinese restaurant tastes so much better than what you can make at home.

Actually, the yellow colour of the fried rice came from the beaten eggs. The beaten eggs is the one that gives the yellow colour to the Fried Rice. This type of Fried Rice is called “Golden Egg Fried Rice.”

What oil do Chinese takeaways use for fried rice? - Quora. They use soybean oil. It's cheap and has a high smoke point, making it ideal for wok cooking.

To give your dish that signature fried rice taste, you'll need to drizzle in sesame oil and soy sauce, but feel free to use as much or as little as you wish. You can even mix in things like garlic powder, ginger root, or Sriracha sauce and chili pepper for a bit of a kick.

The usage of rice

But in Chinese rice, it is suggested to use leftover cooked rice to avoid the rice from being sticky. In Fried Rice, most quick-service restaurants (QSRs) use long-grain white rice like Basmati, whereas Jasmine Rice is used in Chinese Rice.

Frying short grain rice can result in a soggy, sticky blob. To ensure that your rice is nicely fried, mix a bit of mayo in it before frying. The oil in the mayo will coat the rice so that it does not stick together.

The difference between Yangzhou fried rice and ordinary fried rice is that Yangzhou style invariably includes a combination of proteins. Rather than using a single protein like shrimp or pork or chicken as the dominant ingredient in fried rice, Yangzhou uses a variety.

The two most mainstream rice types are indica and japonica rice mentioned above. Chinese people will cook these two kinds of rice directly, and then eat them together with different Chinese dishes. In fact, these two kinds of rice are easily distinguished from each other in appearance.

What is the most popular fried rice in China? ›

Yangzhou fried rice from Jiangsu Province is the most famous variety of fried rice in China. Known for the fine knifework in cutting the ingredients, it has been the model for “special fried rice” or "house fried rice" dishes found on Chinese restaurant menus in the West.

Aside from using a fragrant rice choice, there are many ways to add incredible flavor to your dish, and that's where aromatics come into play. Cooking oil is a great place to infuse flavor with spices, ginger, red pepper flakes, onions or garlic like in this Garlicy Vegetable Fried Rice recipe.

Why does the Chinese food in restaurants taste better than that cooked at home? Restaurants will have a long list of ingredients prepped, including stocks, sauces, lots of different spices, dark, light, and regular soy sauce, etc.

Chinese cooks normally use soybean oil, vegetable oil, or peanut oil, all of which have a high smoke point. Peanut oil usually has a pleasant nutty flavor and is suitable not only for stir-frying but also for deep-frying.

To get restaurant-quality fried rice at home, it's essential to use aromatics, a group of vegetables and herbs that are so named because they lend your dish a distinct aroma. Common aromatics that are used to flavor fried rice are onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and red peppers.

We all know soy sauce and MSG play a role in making delicious fried rice, but did you know a secret ingredient hailing from Japan can elevate your homemade fried rice? And that ingredient, while it might not be in your pantry yet, is mirin.

The golden yellow color comes from the egg yolk. The method of making golden fried rice is different from classic fried rice. The egg is mixed with rice directly before stir-frying. If you want your golden fried rice to be more “yellow”, you can add more egg yolks.