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Looking for a satisfying meal that will get dinner on the table in a flash? This 30-Minute Fried Rice with Shrimp is for you!
If you’ve got some leftover rice in the fridge, then you should certainly use it up! Furthermore, you’ll have the opportunity to clean out the veggies that could be hanging around your fridge! I give more details in my free motivational guide to explore Make Cooking Fun!, how using what you have on hand can really lead to some delicious creations, plus you won’t be letting leftovers go to waste!
If you tend to avoid cooking shrimp, then I think you’ll love to incorporate it more often after you’ve tried out this fried rice! Be sure to conquer this pesky protein as part of your Live to Cook one month challenge! You can get the motivation and challenge to get started on your cooking journey for free by signing up to my newsletter, plus you’ll get all new recipes delivered right to your inbox!
To grasp all the concepts presented in this post and follow along with the recipe, be sure to watch the video! I would appreciate it if you would please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and don’t forget to press the bell button to get notified when my video recipes go live! Let’s get cooking!
What Kind Of Shrimp Do I uSe For Fried Rice?▼
I’m using frozen, peeled medium-sized shrimp. This is an excellent way to use your frozen shrimp if you have a lot in the freezer! Shrimp is excellent for a quick meal because it cooks unbelievably quickly - check out the video at the bottom of this post to see it right before your eyes! When you order this fried rice for takeout, you’ll notice that the shrimp are quite small. This allows you to add more shrimp to the dish - and trust me, you’ll want lots of shrimp in here! The large number of shrimp is not only aesthetically pleasing but you’ll love to have a nice juicy tender piece of shrimp in every bite!
If we lived in a perfect world we’d all have access to freshly caught shrimp. Now that’s not realistic so frozen shrimp should do the job! If you want to speed things up to make your prep faster, then opt for peeled shrimp. However, no worries if you can’t find peeled shrimp or already have whole shrimp in the freezer! You can definitely use that, you’ll just have to do the work of peeling and deveining.
How to Peel & De-Vein Shrimp
When I peel shrimp, I like to lightly loosen the outer shell before pinching the tail and pulling the shell clean. Be careful when you pinch the tail to not press too hard or you’ll rip apart the tail meat of the shrimp. If using frozen shrimp, just place the bag or the shrimp themselves in a bowl of cold, running water. Once they are thawed, then proceed with the peeling. Even though stores may sell de-veined shrimp, it is YOUR duty to check because most likely there are a couple of shrimps in the pack that have the disgusting digestive tract! Get rid of it! Rinse the shrimp well and eat tasty shrimp!
What’s the Best Rice for Fried Rice?▼
I recommend that you use day-old white rice for the best results. Old rice is better than fresh since it can get nice and toasted and bind all the other ingredients together.
While the most authentic rice option for a Chinese fried rice is jasmine rice, arborio rice is an excellent alternative in my opinion. I would also recommend medium-grain Spanish-variety rices including valencia bomba or carnaroli because they are robust and will be able to handle you vigorously mixing everything together.
With all that being said, the recipe I used for this recipe was basmati rice. This is the choice I would go for if you don’t have any kind of medium-grain rice!
What If I Don’t Have Old Rice?▼
That’s okay! I actually always have rice in the fridge since there’s a big amount of rice consumption in this house, but if you decided to make this recipe on a whim, then have no fear! However, just account for a little extra time.
What you’ll do is make some white rice, and if you need help on perfecting the best fluffy white rice, check out my guide here. Then, you can place some parchment paper on a baking tray, and spread the rice out on the parchment paper in a single layer. Freeze the rice for about 30 minutes until it is completely solid.
Do I really need to Use Dark Soy sauce for Fried Rice?▼
In short, no you don’t NEED to use dark soy sauce, but if you want to achieve the authenticity of a true Chinese Fried Rice, then it’s recommended!
If you’re curious to learn about the difference between using regular soy sauce and dark soy sauce, let’s define soy sauce. It’s a thin dark sauce that made with wheat, fermented soy beans, salt and fungi. It’s most popular in Chinese cooking but other Asian cuisines such as Japanese, Thai, Korean and Indonesian (including Indo-Chinese/Hakka!), now use soy sauce in their cooking. Often, “light soy sauce” refers to lower-sodium soy sauce because “regular” soy sauce contains a hefty amount of salt due to the preservatives!
On the other hand, when you compare your traditional soy sauce to dark soy sauce, “regular” soy sauce is actually called “light soy sauce.” soy sauce here, whether it is higher in sodium content or not. There is a significant difference between dark soy sauce. Firstly, dark soy sauce is visibly different because it is thicker and - as the name suggests - darker than regular soy sauce. The dark colour of dark soy sauce comes from the fermentation process. Dark soy sauce consists of the soybeans fermenting for a longer period of time than regular soy sauce.
Furthermore, the dark soy sauce actually tastes stronger than regular soy sauce because of the fermentation process. Dark soy sauce also contains palm sugar molasses and dark brown sugar which are not present in typical soy sauce. As a result, the dark soy sauce is more on the sweet side than the regular salty soy sauce.
A key difference between dark soy sauce and light soy sauce is their use cases. Dark soy sauce is ideal for braising, for marinating protein, and for adding colour to a dish. In contrast, while we use regular soy sauce for cooking, it’s an excellent dipping sauce because it is thin.
As a result of light and dark soy sauce being quite different and used for different purposes, fried rice and Asian recipe tend to blend the two together to add flavour with the dark colour. To be honest with you, I actually found dark soy sauce very difficult to find for quite some time, so at first I would only use regular soy sauce and add in oyster sauce to try to achieve a dark colour. Now, I’m going to use only dark soy sauce because it’s got the flavour I’m looking for and you get that dark colour that’s iconic in Chinese takeout!
What Oil Do you Use For Takeout-Style SHrimp Fried Rice?▼
To make this fried rice, I’ll be using vegetable oil. I like to use vegetable oil in all of my fried rice recipes because it’s budget-friendly and neutral - 3 L for about $11 CAD! You may see many other fried rice recipes sesame oil in order to achieve a nutty flavour, however I wasn’t really going for that in this case. You could also use peanut oil.
Do I have to Use a wok for Shrimp Fried Rice?▼
Now, while you don’t NEED a wok to make this fried rice, I would recommend you get one. Fun fact: I was about to share this recipe many months ago but waited until I got my Chinese wok!
Even if you don’t have a Chinese wok, I would recommend you at least use any kind of wok, which will be worthwhile because it can withstand high temperatures. Additionally, a woks non-stick coating allows you to use less oil for cooking. The tall ends and its deep round shape will allow you to toss your food with ease so that you’re guaranteed even cooking. If you want to be regularly making better than takeout fried rice dishes and stir fries, then a wok really is your number one tool! However, if this is a one-off type of dish, then you’ll be fine with any kind of sauté pan.
Tools Needed for Simple Egg Fried Rice
Tips for Restaurant-Style Fried Rice with Shrimp
- I would suggest creating a wok hei effect for this stir fry by heating your wok without oil until smoking hot and only then adding the oil and starting to cook. This prevents the oil from deteriorating at high temperatures while the wok is getting ready to flavor the stir fry.
- Remember to use stale or day old rice for this recipe, planning ahead for this dish is key.
- Prepare every ingredient needed for the stir fry before cooking to ensure everything is at an arm’s length while stir frying.
- Make use of a wok that retains heat well - this will help cook the dish faster and more efficiently.
- A stir fry needs a level of organization, so plan your steps towards the dish before starting to cook since time becomes blurry when the wok gets hot.
- Pat the shrimp dry before you add them to the wok.
- Add in the veggies as soon as the shrimp change color. Adding them at this point will prevent the shrimp from overcooking.
Shrimp Fried Rice Ingredients
The FULL PRINTABLE recipe card with individual ingredient quantities and the recipe instructions can be found at the bottom of this post, or by pressing the “Jump to Recipe” button. Additionally, you can save the recipe for later and scale the recipe based on how many portions you want to make, and the individual ingredient measurements will adjust automatically! No need for ratios and calculations!
- Shrimp: Medium-sized fresh or frozen shrimp. If you are using frozen shrimp, make sure to let them naturally and fully defrost in cold water in a large bowl. Peeled shrimp will make your prep time quicker.
- Rice: Ideally day-old long-grain or medium-grain white rice is the best.
- Eggs: Fluffy eggs really are my favourite part of any fried rice recipe! They’ll be cooked first in oil, then added back in with the rest of the ingredients at the end.
- Oil: Any neutral oil to fry the rice and the vegetables and shrimp.
- Ginger: Thinly sliced ginger to balance out the heat of the green chilies.
- Green chilies: This will add some heat to your egg fried rice. Feel free to completely omit them if you’re very sensitive to spice. On the other hand, if you want a spicier dish, then add more.
- Vegetables: Other vegetables here include green pepper, canned corn and carrots.
- Soy sauce: Dark soy sauce is essential to get a fried rice that looks like it got delivered from an authentic Chinese restaurant!
- Shaoxing cooking wine: Another key element for the best homemade fried rice you can have!
- White pepper: You can use regular black pepper if you don’t have white pepper on hand, but to maintain the authenticity of Chinese egg fried rice, white pepper is the way to go!
- Green onion: Mixed in with our other goodies in the fried rice. We’ll chop the greens and whites from the green onions separately.
You may notice that there’s no salt in this recipe. The dark soy sauce is much saltier than light soy sauce, so we don’t need to add any! You can if you really feel the need to, but I was able to omit it.
How to Make Better Than Takeout Homemade Shrimp Fried Rice
Combine the chopped white parts of the scallions/green onions, ginger, carrots, corn, green peppers and garlic together. Combine the green parts of the scallions with the chopped green chillies and set it aside for garnish.
Create a wok hei effect for this stir fry by heating your wok on medium-high to high heat without oil until smoking hot and only then adding the vegetable oil. Pour about 1/2 - 1 Cup of oil close to the rim of the wok to coat most of the wok with a thin layer of oil. Heat until the oil is smoking. Pour out all the oil to a bowl.
Add 1-2 Tbsp of the oil and then add the whisked eggs to the hot oil. Start stirring to scramble them and once creamy and scrambled, remove the eggs to a clean plate or bowl.
Then add 1 Tbsp of oil, and add the shrimp along with a pinch of salt. Toss well and cook until the shrimp starts to change color.
Add the vegetables and toss well. Add a splash or two of shaoxing wine and toss or mix again.
Once the veggies start to soften, add the day old rice and the eggs from earlier. Add the soy sauce pouring it around the sides of the wok as you add it and then immediately toss or mix everything together, breaking any chunks of egg or rice.
Add the green onion and chillies mix, along with the white pepper and MSG if using. Toss to mix and add more soy sauce.
Serve hot right away.
Enjoy!
Variations for Shrimp Fried Rice
- Switch up the protein: While the title of the recipe is Shrimp Fried Rice, if you don’t feel like shrimp or you don’t have shrimp on hand at the time of reading this but you want to make it ASAP, then try out just a Simple Chinese Egg Fried Rice! Got beef on hand? You’ll love my Beef Fried Rice recipe. It’s got steak strips with a special sauce. You’ll also see how the substitute for dark soy sauce comes into play! Other meat and seafood options that would be delicious to add to your egg fried rice include chicken breast, pork, and shrimp. If you don’t eat meat, you can add tofu, tempeh, or even paneer!
- Switch the veggies: Other amazing vegetables that will be perfect in this Chinese fried rice recipe include peas, bamboo shoots, bok choy, onions, green beans, sugar snap peas or mushrooms.
- Change the rice: Use whatever rice you’ve got or switch up the rice choice to see which is your favourite! You could test out bomba rice, arborio, basmati, or even brown rice to find your favourite! For someone who’s watching their carbohydrate intake, cauliflower rice is not off-limits at all!
- Spice: If the green chilies aren’t enough for you, try topping your egg fried rice with chilli garlic sauce or a drizzle of sriracha!
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