Discover the Perfect Fusion: Spicy Paneer Fried Rice

This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy

Watch the recipe

YouTube ↗

Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · crispy paneer meets fragrant spiced rice in one dish

Subscribe

Watch the full method on YouTube →

Looking for a satisfying fusion meal? You’ll love this fried rice with paneer.

If you’ve been following the blog for a while, then you know recently I had gone back home to India, and I enjoyed a cuisine I’ve never delved much into — Indo-Chinese! I’ve always enjoyed Indo-Chinese, but never ate much of it and only cooked a handful of dishes. I really got hooked and wanted to have more since visiting India!

Funny story about this dish - I was actually going to prepare my Chicken Hakka Noodles but was going to experiment with fried rice a few nights ago. I was getting my chicken out but unfortunately a funky smell came from the chicken. Guys, I hate food waste and I preach preventing it as much as possible on here, but no one’s perfect and sometimes these things are just out of our control. As long as you’re mindful of what you have and do your best, then that’s okay! I do encourage you to be mindful of what you have in your fridge and use your ingredients, and this can get that creative light bulb ding! I explain this more in my 5 Tips To Make Cooking Fun! - my ultimate free guide to expand your creativity in the kitchen and inspire you to reach your potential! That being said, I needed a protein desperately as my veggies were already in the pan and they were about to burn. I thought super quick on my toes, and I had some frozen paneer! I quickly thawed it in the microwave, chopped it up, and threw it in! Not only was dinner saved, but I discovered an INCREDIBLE new recipe! You saw the outcome if you follow me on Instagram as I shared a reel of the preliminary recipe! If this Paneer Fried Rice sounds exciting to you, then read on for the recipe, and perhaps make this as part of my Live to Cook one month challenge! You’ll get this for free along with my 5 top tips in the kitchen if you sign up for my newsletter!

Don’t forget to watch the video to see all the steps of how to make this delicious fried rice with paneer recipe! I’d also appreciate it if you subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and make sure you hit the bell button so you receive the notifications when the recipe videos go live! The video recipes are excellent for you to get a tangible view of how to make this recipe, and you’ve got everything to set you up for success! Let’s get cooking!

About This Fried Rice with Paneer Recipe

This is an Indo-Chinese fusion recipe. We have elements from Indian cooking with the veggies, paneer, and heat, and the stir fried cooking method comes from Chinese cuisine. You’ll adore the crunchy veggies and the crispy paneer that’s pan-fried to perfection! There are so many reasons why you need to try this delicious fried rice recipe for a tasty weeknight dinner!

This dish is:

• Vegetarian
• Healthy with loads of veggies
• Protein-packed with the paneer
• Fast to make - the longest part is making the rice!
• Can be veganized if the paneer is substituted with tofu

Tips for Perfect Vegetarian Indo-Chinese Fried Rice

• Leftover rice works best for a rice based stir fry. For fresh rice, let rice completely cool down by spreading it out in a single layer over a plate or baking sheet.
• Prepare all of the ingredients for the dish before you begin cooking.
• Use a splash of vinegar to deglaze the pan if the bottom starts to brown.
• Even though this is an Indo-Chinese dish, we follow the shape rule of Chinese cooking - where all components are cut into a similar shape. For this dish, our ingredients are cut into cubes.
• Sesame oil is so flavorful that I used it for the entire dish. But you can use soybean oil, rapeseed oil or even Indian mustard seed oil to stir fry the veggies and protein and then finish with sesame oil for added sheen and flavor.

Tools Needed

• Saucepan
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• Wok
• Wooden spoon
• Garlic press
• Cutting board
• Chefs knife

Ingredients

It’s time to see what ingredients we’ll need! Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE recipe card, with all ingredients and their quantities. You can save this recipe for later and the recipe card will also allow you to scale the entire recipe based on how many portions you want to make. All the ingredient quantities will be automatically adjusted, so you don’t have to figure this out!

• Rice: For this recipe, you’ll want to use your favorite short grain rice, such as Arborio rice. Something long grain like basmati would be too fragile for a stir fry like this, and you run the risk of the rice turning mushy.
• Vegetable broth: This will be added to our rice when it cooks to add some extra flavor.
• Vegetables: I’ll be using ginger, poblano pepper, red pepper, red onion, green beans, and carrots, which will be chopped.
• Oil: Everything will be sautéed in sesame oil. I love the flavor that comes from sesame oil, and it adds a Chinese flair to the dish. If using an alternative, make sure it has a high smoke point. Good options are peanut oil or vegetable oil.
• Sauces: We’ll be adding teriyaki sauce, rice vinegar and chili garlic sauce. These sauces work together to add a nice sweetness and flavor with a touch of spice.
• Garlic: Finely chopped. This will be cooked with our paneer and add a wonderful aroma.
• Paneer: Cut into small cubes. You can either buy it from the store or make your own.
• Spices: Salt and pepper is all we need!

How to Make Paneer Fried Rice

Rinse the rice well and then add to a saucepan. Add 2 1/2 - 3 Cups of vegetable broth or water and bring to a boil. Boil the rice until tender, drain any excess liquid.

Prepare baking sheet or large plate with parchment and spread the drained rice over the parchment in a thin layer. Let it cool down for at least 25-30 minutes.

Heat a wok or large pan on medium high heat and add the sesame oil. Once hot, add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the paneer and toss well with the oil and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

Sear the paneer until it is lightly golden brown and the garlic is roasted. To prevent the garlic from burning, make sure to stir the paneer and garlic every minute or so.

Then add the remaining veggies: the onions, peppers, carrots, green beans and ginger. Toss well to coat the veggies with the oil. If you notice any browning on the pan, add a little splash of water or vinegar to prevent it from burning.

Season with a small pinch of salt to help cook the veggies. Cook until the veggies are halfway done. They should have a shine and still have some of their crispness.

Add the teriyaki sauce, chili garlic sauce and rice vinegar. Mix well.

Add the rice to the wok/pan and toss well to combine. Garnish with green onions, taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Serve hot and enjoy!

Why This Uses Short-Grain Rice, Not Long-Grain

Almost every fried rice recipe you will read insists on two things: long-grain rice, and rice that was cooked the day before. This one does neither. It calls for half a cup of short grain rice, with arborio given as the example and sushi rice as the closest alternative, boiled fresh in two and a half to three cups of vegetable broth until tender and then drained.

The cooling step is what does the job day-old rice normally does. You spread the drained rice in a thin layer over parchment on a baking sheet or a large plate and leave it for at least 25 to 30 minutes. That dries the outside of the grains so they stop clinging to each other, which is the entire point of using day-old rice, without having to plan a day ahead. Boiling it in broth rather than water matters too, because it means the rice already tastes of something before it ever reaches the wok. Chicken broth works if you are not keeping it vegetarian, and water with a bouillon cube is the budget version.

No Eggs, No Soy Sauce, No Green Peas

There are no eggs in this fried rice at all, not scrambled through it and not fried on top. It is vegetarian, and the protein comes from 125 grams of paneer instead, which works out to 24 g a serving. There is also no light soy sauce, which is what most Chinese style fried rice leans on for its colour and salt. The seasoning here is 2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce, 1 tablespoon of chili garlic sauce and one and a half tablespoons of rice vinegar, all added together once the vegetables are halfway cooked. Soy sauce and honey mixed one to one stands in for the teriyaki and gives a similar glaze, and hoisin works if you want it thicker and a little sweeter.

No green peas, no broccoli and no curd either. The vegetables are half a cup of diced onions, a quarter cup each of diced carrots, diced green beans, diced poblano pepper and diced red peppers. If poblano is hard to find, green bell peppers do the job with no heat at all. And there is no red chilli powder, no dried red chillies and no green chilli anywhere in this. The heat is entirely the tablespoon of chili garlic sauce plus whatever the poblano brings, so sriracha is the milder swap and sambal oelek with half a teaspoon of minced garlic is the hotter one. One more absence worth naming: there is no ginger garlic paste. It is a tablespoon each of freshly chopped ginger and garlic, and they go into the pan at different moments rather than together.

The Order of the Wok, and Why It Matters

Use a wok or a large skillet on medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of sesame oil. Not a teaspoon of oil and not a tablespoon: the paneer needs enough fat under it to sear rather than stick. Toasted sesame oil is much stronger, so halve it if that is what you have, and peanut oil is milder but loses the sesame flavour entirely. The garlic goes in first and sautes for 30 seconds, then the half-inch paneer cubes go in, tossed to coat and seasoned with salt and black pepper. Sear until the paneer is lightly golden and the garlic is roasted, stirring every minute or so, because that garlic is sitting in hot oil the whole time and will burn the moment you stop paying attention.

Then the rest goes in together: onions, peppers, carrots, green beans and ginger, tossed to coat in the oil. If you see the pan starting to brown, a small splash of water or vinegar lifts it before it catches. Season with a small pinch of salt to help the vegetables along, and stop when they are only halfway done, when they have taken on a shine but still have some crispness left. They will keep cooking once the rice hits the pan. Sauces in and mixed, then the cooled rice, tossed through to combine. Garnish with green onions, or scallions or spring onions depending on where you shop, taste, adjust, and serve hot immediately. Notice there is no measured teaspoon of salt anywhere in this recipe. Salt goes in to taste at three separate points instead, which is the right way to season a stir fry where two of the sauces are already salty.

Paneer, Swaps, and That Sodium Number

The recipe uses 125 grams of paneer, cubed half an inch thick. Store-bought paneer is completely fine and is what most people will reach for. In my experience the size of the cube matters more than where the paneer came from, because much smaller and the cubes dry out through the middle while you are searing them, and much larger and the outside is done before the inside has warmed. Firm tofu is the closest swap, pressed well so it behaves the same way in the pan, and halloumi works but is a lot saltier, so rinse it first and go easy everywhere else.