Pulled Pork Fried Rice Recipe - Dish Ditty (2024)

FAQs

How do you make fried rice not mushy? ›

Draining and Drying: If your rice turns out too wet or mushy, start by draining any excess water. You can use a strainer or colander for this purpose. Then, spread the rice on a baking sheet and put it in an oven preheated to 350°F for a few minutes. This helps dry out the rice and improve its texture​​​​.

The red hue on the pork comes from the sticky, crave-able barbecue sauce in which it's marinaded before roasting. Often, this deep crimson hue comes from a combination of Hoisin sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, and fermented red bean curd (aka fermented tofu, bean cheese, or tofu cheese).

The fine, long grains of jasmine rice with its delicate flavour are perfect for fried rice. Precook the rice at least 30 minutes, but preferably one day, before making fried rice and keep it uncovered in the fridge.

Mushy or soggy rice is simply overcooked rice that has absorbed too much water. Water over-absorption causes the rice grains to split open, ruining the texture and creating a starchy, gummy result.

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.

4. Red food colouring – to make the pork red, like you get at the Chinese barbecue shop. This is optional. Authentic Char Siu uses red bean curd for colouring and a touch of flavour – it can be found at Asian stores, use about 2 tbsp of the liquid and no red food colouring.

Soy sauce (usually a mix of light and dark soy sauce), fermented bean paste, red fermented tofu or rock sugar is commonly used to both flavor and impart a reddish brown hue to the items being cooked. Food coloring is sometimes added for a more intense red coloration.

Traditionally, oysters are slowly simmered in water until the liquid caramelizes into a viscous, dark black-brown sauce. But to speed up the process, some commercialized versions are instead made with oyster extracts, plus salt, sugar, corn starch and caramel coloring.

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.

It is key to the authentic flavor of this dish. Peanut oil. this is another ingredient that adds authentic flavor to this recipe, but if you have a peanut allergy in your household you can substitute canola oil or additional sesame oil for the peanut oil.

Should rice be cold for fried rice? ›

Use COLD day old rice: For best results! Cold rice will crisp up in the hot oil. Warm rice will not toast and can even become mushy. If you are in a pinch make the rice first and spread it out onto a baking sheet in a single layer.

After briefly resting the pot on the counter with a dish towel under the lid (to absorb excess moisture), spread the rice on a baking sheet to help it cool more rapidly to room temperature, and pop the sheet in the fridge for just 20 minutes. The resulting fried rice will be ideally dry and the clumps of rice minimal.

6) Let the rice brown a bit on the bottom: If you're like me and love your rice to be a bit crispy, let it rest for a bit in between stirs so that it can brown a bit on the bottom. It also helps greatly to use a non-stick skillet so that the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Use High Heat and Frying Oil

If the heat is too low, you run the risk of steaming your rice instead of frying it. Fry the rice and veggies on high heat to achieve that slight brown look and crispy texture.