Montgomery County Kitchen: Restaurant-Style Fried Rice

Editor's note: Montgomery County Kitchen is a weekly series that features food and recipes from Montgomery County residents. To be featured, send your recipe, along with photos, background information and tips to jeffrey.perkins@patch.com.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX — There are few guilty pleasures like eating fried rice from a Chinese takeout container.

It's also not hard to make on a whim, either, especially if the rice is already cooked and sitting in the refrigerator, and its versatility makes it a great part of many different meals.

Obviously, it goes well with a variety of Asian-style cuisines, especially when making Chinese-inspired dishes such as orange chicken or beef and broccoli. I've also made it as a side to gyoza or potstickers and a variety of egg rolls and spring rolls. It can also be a great meal on its own. Just cook your protein of choice first and set aside until you're combining the flavoring agents at the end. Vegetable fried rice can go beyond the traditional peas, carrots and onions as well with broccoli, bell peppers, corn and spinach all great options to include.

Fried rice is a sneaky good breakfast option, too. Just sub out the scrambled egg and top it with an egg perfectly cooked over easy. Add your favorite hot sauce or sriracha, and it's a winner.

Here are some of my keys to making restaurant-style fried rice.

1. Use chilled rice

If you take nothing else from this list, take this. Using chilled rice results in that perfect, tender texture that is the signature of excellent fried rice. If you make the rice and don't give it proper time to chill, you will end up with a mushy texture that will likely have you calling your favorite Chinese restaurant for delivery.

Leftover rice is the ideal ingredient for fried rice as it's already sitting in the refrigerator and perfectly chilled. In fact, if I'm making a rice dish that calls for the rice to be made according to the package instructions, I'll make plenty of extra, so that I can set some aside for fried rice later in the week. Almost any rice will do, but I most often use basmati rice.

If you're making your rice on the same day, prepare it well before hand and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least four hours. If you need it quicker than that, clear space out in the fridge, spread the cooked rice out on a lined baking sheet and leave it until it is cool to the touch.

2. Butter over oil

In a pinch or for personal preference, you can use olive oil to sauté the vegetables and pan fry the rice, but butter really rounds out the flavor profile and pairs the vegetables, egg and rice together nicely. There's a reason that hibachi places typically use butter for just about everything when they're cooking the rice and meats in front of you.

Using butter instead of olive oil also will help the rice feel less oily when combined with our third tip for fried rice.

3. Sesame oil is key

Soy sauce is a necessary staple and flavoring agent for fried rice, but if you want to get that restaurant-style taste, sesame oil is just as important. A little sesame oil goes a long way, and it's best to include it at the very end to taste. Finding the right balance between soy sauce and sesame oil is possibly the most crucial part of getting the flavor you're looking for. A trial and error process of adding, mixing, tasting and adjusting is the best way to nail the flavor down.

Related: Montgomery County Kitchen: Cajun Pasta From Jeff

Restaurant-style fried rice

Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter, plus more as needed

1/2 cup frozen diced peas and carrots

1/2 medium onion, diced (sweet, white or yellow)

2 cloves or 1 tsp garlic, minced

2 eggs

pinch salt

pinch pepper

3-4 cups cooked rice (4 if you want more rice per serving)

2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce, plus more to taste

sesame oil, to taste

2 scallions, chopped

Method

1. Melt butter in large wok or sauce pan with high walls over medium heat. While butter is melting, beat eggs with salt and pepper and set aside. When butter is melted, add frozen peas and carrots and sauté until soft, a couple minutes.

2. Add diced onion and continue to sauté until translucent, a few minutes. Add garlic and stir frequently for one minute.

3. Move vegetables to one side and pour eggs on the other side. Scramble and chop eggs into small pieces. If pan is dry, add a little more butter for eggs.

4. Move eggs over with vegetables and add rice to other side, turning heat up to medium-high (about 8 on a stove with a 1-10 scale). Again, if pan is dry, add more butter before adding rice.

5. Let rice cook for about a minute before drizzling soy sauce over rice. Stir all ingredients together and continue to let pan fry, stirring frequently, for a couple minutes.

6. Add a few shakes of sesame oil and stir. Taste and add more soy sauce or sesame oil as necessary. If rice starts popping after not being stirred for a short time, take pan off heat.

7. Garnish with scallions.