To make baked fried rice, just place uncooked rice, stock, soy sauce and a few other flavourings in a baking pan, give it a mix then shove it in the oven. Out comes fluffy, seasoned fried rice that’s so good, you may never wok-toss fried rice ever again!
(Well, maybe not. Nothing beats the real deal, after all. But this emergency version is excellent for the minimal effort required!)
Emergency baked fried rice
OK, you’re right, this isn’t fried rice per se! It’s a baked rice. But I call it a baked fried rice because it’s everything we love about fried rice, without the frying! It will save you on all those nights when you’re scrambling for a quick side dish that will go with almost everything and please everyone.
Unlike the normal way fried rice is cooked, there’s no need to plan ahead and cook rice the day before so that it has time to dry out overnight in the fridge. You don’t even need to chop anything (hello, frozen veg!).
Just dump everything in the pan – uncooked rice, stock, frozen pre-chopped vegetables, raw bacon – then whack it in the oven. There’s no need to stir while cooking – in fact, I forbid it, because it makes the rice mushy!
And for all that effort, you will be rewarded with THIS ↓↓↓ (“this” being a big pan of fluffy seasoned fried rice that’s littered with vegetables and oh wow, even the bacon is nice and golden!!🙌🏻)
Ingredients for baked fried rice
This is an excellent recipe to customise and make your own, with lots of options for changing up add-ins! Here’s what I use in this baked fried rice recipe:
Rice – Best made with long grain white rice because it’s the least sticky. This means you get that nice, crumbly and fluffy fried rice texture with this “dump ‘n bake” cooking method.
Other rice types that work:
→ Basmati rice: Has the same fluffy texture but you get the basmati aroma (it’s not traditional with fried rice seasoning, but it’s rather nice!)
→ Medium and short grain white rice: Works perfectly but these rices are a bit stickier so don’t expect quite the same rice texture you see in the video (it will clump a little more).
→ Jasmine rice: Reduce water by 1/4 cup (water to rice ratio is lower, see here for cooking plain jasmine rice).This recipe won’t work as-written for the following: Brown rice, paella or risotto rice, wild rice, quinoa or other speciality rices. I’d need to figure out special liquid/rice ratios and bake times, which I have not done!
Stock/broth – Chicken stock will give a better flavour (it’s not chicken-y as such, it has just a more deeply seasoned flavour), but vegetable stock works just fine too. Whichever you use, make sure it’s low sodium otherwise the rice ends up a tad saltier than is ideal.
Don’t have liquid stock? Use water plus stock powder. Make up 2 cups according to the stock powder directions and use per the recipe.
Vegetables – Because this is conceived as a recipe for “dinner emergencies”, I’ve used frozen diced vegetables here. Fresh vegetables can be used, but you’ll need to increase the water by 1/4 cup because the liquid to rice ratio factors in the water that comes off the frozen vegetables (a surprising amount!).
Garlic – I can’t ever imagine making any type of fried rice without garlic. And that includes an emergency baked version!
Bacon (uncooked) or ham – Just like we do in wok tossed fried rice! Here, it’s scattered across the surface and it adds flavour into the stock as it cooks.
There’s no need to cook the bacon beforehand, it will brown at the end when we finish the rice off uncovered in the oven.
Soy sauce – I’ve used light soy sauce here which adds seasoning without discolouring the rice too much. All purpose soy sauce will work just fine too.
Dark soy sauce – It’s much more intense in flavour so use half the quantity and be prepared for your rice to be much browner in colour.
Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine) – adds umami / depth of flavour which is important for this method of cooking that skips the usual “sauté garlic and onion” etc.
Best substitute – Dry sherry, followed by cooking sake, followed by mirin (though rice will be a touch sweeter).
Non alcoholic option – Skip the wine and add an extra 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce PLUS add 30g / 2 tbsp of unsalted butter with the sesame (butter compensates for loss of flavour from skipping the cooking wine). It’s not the same, but equally delicious!
Pepper – For a touch of warmth. White pepper is typically used for fried rice because you can’t see it. Substitute with black pepper.
Sesame oil & green onion – For finishing. We add sesame oil at the end to preserve the flavour, and the green onion is tossed through at the end for a hit of freshness and colour.
How to make baked fried rice
Are you ready to see how easy it is??
Put the uncooked rice into the baking pan;
Add everything else except the bacon;
Give it a mix, then scatter the bacon across the surface (because we want it to get some colour when we bake it uncovered);
Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes at 200°C / 390°F (180°C fan);
Remove foil and bake for a further 15 minutes. This gives the bacon some nice colour;
Remove from the oven, cover with foil then let it rest for 10 minutes. To finish the dish, add sesame oil and green onion, fluff with a fork then serve!
Why we rest rice – When you take it out of the oven, there should be no liquid left in the pan and the rice will be cooked through though a tiny bit firmer than ideal. You’ll also notice that the surface of the rice grains will be wet.
When we rest the rice for 10 minutes, the grains finish cooking through using the residual heat, and the wetness on the rice grains gets absorbed. This is an essential step with any rice you cook, no matter what method you use – stove, absorption, boil and drain, oven, microwave or rice cooker!
Here’s a nice close up for you so you can see how the grains are fluffy and separated, and how the bacon bits are lovely and golden.
No mushy, overcooked rice in sight!
What to serve with baked fried rice
Serve to accompany dishes you would with fried rice, which these days is far and beyond just Asian foods! Try it with the Mushroom Stuffed Chicken I shared a couple of weeks ago, or as a side for a fillet of seasoned pan fried fish.
Pair it with something sticky like this Chilli Chicken, Honey Garlic Chicken or a tropical Hawaiian Huli-Huli chicken. For vegetarian options, skip the bacon and instead, pile over juicy and buttery garlic mushrooms or a medley of marinated grilled vegetables.
The rules are: there are no rules! This is a rice side that will go with virtually anything, Asian or not! – Nagi x
PS. I just had a fleeting thought. If you’d like to turn this into a meal, trying stirring through a big handful of baby spinach or chopped English spinach when fluffing it up at the end. By upping the veg in this, it would be great as a meal!
Watch how to make it
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Emergency “Dump ‘n Bake” Fried Rice
Ingredients
Baked Fried Rice:
- 1 1/2 cups long grain white rice , UNCOOKED (Note 1)
- 2 cups chicken or veg stock , low sodium
- 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce (Note 2)
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (dry sherry, mirin or sake, Note 3)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced with crusher (straight into pan)
- 2 cups frozen diced veg (carrots, peas, corn mix, Note 4 fresh veg)
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 1 1/4 cups / 180g bacon (uncooked) or ham , chopped (I use store bought chopped bacon, Note 5)
Finishing:
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 cup green onion , finely sliced (2 – 3 stems)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F (180°C fan).
- Mix ingredients in baking dish: Place all Baked Fried Rice ingredients except bacon in a baking dish (~22 x 32cm / 9 x 13"). Stir, then spread rice evenly across pan.
- Top with bacon: Scatter bacon across surface.
- Bake covered 40 min: Cover with foil. Bake 40 minutes.
- Bake uncovered 15 min: Remove foil. Bake uncovered 15 minutes – this will colour the bacon. Liquid should be absorbed, rice should be cooked (but will seem wet, will absorb and soften while resting).
- Rest 10 min: Cover loosely with foil, stand for 10 minutes.
- Fluff: Add green onion and sesame oil. Fluff rice with fork, marvel at how perfectly cooked the rice grains are. Serve!
Recipe Notes:
1. Rice types – Best made with long grain rice because it’s the least sticky so you get that nice crumbly, fluffy fried rice texture with this “dump ‘n bake” cooking method. Other rice types that work:
- Basmati rice – same fluffy texture but you get the basmati aroma (it’s not traditional with fried rice seasoning, but it’s rather nice!)
- Medium and short grain white rice – works perfectly but the rice is a bit stickier (that’s the way it is) so don’t expect the same rice texture you see in the video (it will clump a little more).
- Jasmine rice – NOT RECOMMENDED. This rice is softer and difficult to get exactly right for this recipe.
- Carrots, peas, corn, onion – use in recipe as written.
- Cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, zucchini, capsicum/bell peppers (chopped) – add them 30 min into bake time.
- Egg – Cook separately and stir in when fluffing rice. Either scramble, or make ribbons (cook a thin omelette using 2 whisked eggs, roll it up like a cigar then finely slice)
- Cooked chicken (or other cooked protein), char siu – dice or shred, toss on top of rice when resting (residual heat will warm up), then mix through well fluffing rice.
- Raw prawns/shrimp – small ones. When you remove the foil, scatter them across the surface, pop into oven for the last 15 min uncovered bake time.
- Baby spinach or chopped spinach – Stir it through at end with fluffing rice, residual heat will make it wilt.
- Spicy! Add a squirt of sriracha or dollop of your favourite chilli paste during cooking, or stir through a big handful of chopped kimchi just before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Weekend car problems. Dozer was keen to help. (Well that’s a big fat lie! We all know he was just snuffling around for treats from the road side assistance man.)
Delicious love this recipe
So easy and delicious! My family loved it! Thank you 🙂
This has quickly become a regular at our house. I use vegan bacon and make an omelette for me as I’m not vegan. Love all of your recipes Nagi 😊
Can I make this with minute rice?
No sorry Linda that won’t work! N x
Can I reheat in microwave?
Yes you can Betty! N x
I would love to make this baked rice dish for dinner party of 6. We are having chicken and beef enchiladas. Do you think this rice dish would be a good accompaniment?
It is a little cross cultural mixing Mexican with Chinese inspired dishes but if you want to then all good! Otherwise try my Mexican red rice which is great with those dishes! https://promotown.info/mexican-red-rice/%3C/a%3E N x
I didn’t use common sense & loosely cover it with parchment paper as I am scared of aluminum due to health reason, it all got dried and burned. Need that tight seal for the steam to cook the rice.
Hi Nagi and Dozer, Hope all is well with you guys. I just wanted to ask when will you be back with us on your webcite and when your book will be out. Anyway, you are missed. Stay safe and well. Hope to see you on line soon.
Thanks Redonia! We sent the first draft of the cookbook off last week but now we have to test all the final recipe versions again so it won’t be straight away. The book is scheduled for October! In the meantime you can search by ingredients and try something new from the 1300 recipes that are on my site! N x
SO easy and delicious served with garlic honey chicken. Winner winner Chinese chicken dinner! 😋
Loved it,
Thanks Carmel! N x
Another winner. Another easy meal. Another reason I think you are the best.
Happy New Year to you and. yours.
So simple and easy to make and tasted as close to the fried version as I think you could get! Your recipes are always my go xx
This is always a hit in our house… so easy, adaptable and consistently delicious. I have tried adding cubed fried chorizo, cubed fried Kransky, store-bought whole smoked chicken breasts (cut into cubes), leftover pork chops cut into cubes, tiny cocktail prawns; never had a bad result. Thanks for the awesome recipe Nagi.
Not a fan of this recipe
Can I omit the bacon and get the same result as far as the texture is cncerned
Hi Paula – texture will be the same but the salt level will be lower so you might need to add a bit more salt or soy to compensate plus another tsp oil to make up for the bacon fat! N x
OMG! I love your normal fried rice recipe Nagi, but always manage to make a big mess unfortunately.🙄 As an older woman with a disability, I wanted to give this a try because it sounded so incredibly easy. And as I said, OMG! It’s not only the easiest recipe you could possibly imagine, it tastes fantastic. Thank you sooo much Nagi, I’ll never do anything but bake my ‘fried rice’ again!😂
I forgot to say that I added one chopped, cooked chicken breast when it was resting as you suggested, and so it made a great meal by itself. In fact if I hadn’t been intending to freeze the rest for my bad days, I would have had two servings.😋
Hi Lorraine – I am working on a chicken version now..keep an eye out for it in future! N x
Absolutely! Thanks Nagi😀👍🏻
Hi Nagi, It’s my 3rd time making them. It’s really good. I was just wondering if I used 2 pans to double the recipe, what would be the temp and time? since I don’t have bigger pans.
Thanks!!!
Hi Darlene – this recipe depends on the pan being the right size to cook the rice. If you have two pans the correct size then yes you can double and cook at one time. Otherwise I would cook one then cook another one afterwards! N x
Love this recipe Nagi! It is the absolute best emergency meal, that is still so delish and satisfying! Def put this in your cookbook!
I have some tinned corn and carrots that need using up. Would canned vegetables work in this recipe Nagi?
Hi Peter – I suspect they might be a bit salty unless they are low sodium canned veggies. If they are low sodium then just drain the liquid and add them! N x
So delicious and so glad to be able to make rice and meals (Chinese) this way.
So easy for me, treating an illness, getting better, just weak, So, this is a God Send..
Dozer is a doll, he would be the best of all company..
Looking forward to more of your recipes, you are a great cook.
Sincerely
Sylvia.
I am glad you are feeling better, Sylvia! n x