Chinese Fried Rice Recipe Calculator

Chinese Fried Rice (Yangzhou) Calculator

Yangzhou fried rice (扬州炒饭) comes from Jiangsu province in eastern China. What makes it work is day-old cooked rice tossed fast in a wok that's almost too hot to stand near. Tell the calculator how many people you're feeding and it figures out the amounts from 150 g cooked rice/person, 1 egg/person, 30 g vegetables/person (peas and carrot), 10 ml sesame oil/person and 15 ml soy sauce/person.

Cold, dry rice keeps the grains loose; warm rice clumps up on you. Get the wok genuinely hot before anything goes in, since that's where “wok hei” comes from. Scramble the egg first, then the aromatics and vegetables, then the rice. The sesame oil and soy sauce go in after you've pulled the pan off the heat. Add them too early and they scorch instead of perfuming the dish.

Applications

Good for a midweek dinner, for using up last night's rice, for rounding out a bigger Chinese meal, or for cooking a batch when there's a crowd to feed. Whichever it is, you'll know up front how many eggs to buy and how much veg and sauce to grab.

FAQ

Can I use freshly cooked rice? You can, but expect it to be on the sticky side. Spread it out on a tray to cool and dry for 20–30 minutes and it behaves a lot better.

What protein can I add? Diced char siu pork works, so does shrimp or chicken. Count on roughly 40–60 g per person and leave the rice amount where it is.

Is this gluten-free? Regular soy sauce contains wheat, so swap in tamari if the dish needs to stay gluten-free.