This restaurant-quality seafood fried rice recipe is one of our faves. It’s quick and easy to make, customizable with your favorite veggie mix-ins, loaded with top quality seafood, and super duper tasty.
Top Tips for Making Fried Rice
Making fried rice is not a complicated task, once you tackle the basics. There are a few fried rice rules I like to follow to ensure tasty results.
Using Day(s) Old Precooked Rice.
This is a biggie. The supreme rule of all fried rice rules, you gotta use precooked rice that’s been allowed to chill out in the refrigerator for a day or two. Freshly cooked rice contains a lot of moisture and, if stir-fried, it will become clumpy, lumpy, and with no chance of crisping. I typically make my rice 2 days in advance. I use a well-rinsed medium grain white rice (not instant) and reduce about 3 minutes from the overall cook time (looking for rice that is a little on the al dente side). Once cooked, I rinse the rice with cold water and, then, spread the rice out in a thin layer on a baking sheet. I place the baking sheet in the refrigerator, uncovered, and let it ‘dry out’ overnight. After this drying out session, I transfer the rice to a sealable container, and store it in the refrigerator until I am ready to fry it up the next day.
Prep Ahead
Fried rice is a quick-cooking process and it pays to have all your ingredients prepped and ready before you begin cooking.
Picking Seafood for Fried Rice
Shellfish is ideal for fried rice. In this recipe we use a combination of scallops, shrimp, lobster, and crab meat but feel free to add in clams or mussels as well. Why, you might ask, is shellfish ideal for fried rice? Shellfish are sturdy (not much of a risk of flaking and falling apart) and adaptable to the high heat cooking of stir frying. And, like the average fried rice, quick cooking. When prepping your seafood, make sure everything is thoroughly thawed, shells have been removed, and everything has been thoroughly patted dry with paper towels.
Picking Veggies for Fried Rice
I’m usually the type that follows the mantra “fresh is best”, but when it comes to my fried rice vegetables, I am a big fan of frozen. The unseasoned stir fry veggie blends are my favorite. I treat my frozen veggies like my seafood. I make sure they’re thawed and thoroughly drained before patting dry with paper towels.
What’s with all this “patting dry” business?
Getting a little repetitive, aren’t I? Well, it all comes down to two things…even cooking and splatter control. Excess moisture will prevent our seafood from searing and veggies to get soggy. We’ll be using a bit of oil in this recipe too, hot oil and watery ingredients do not mix well for exposed bits of skin. Ouch!
Fried Rice Sauce
Since we’re prepping everything for our fried rice ahead of time, we logically (after cooking, cooling, and drying the rice) will want to make our sauce. This sauce can be made multiple days in advance and refrigerated until ready to stir fry.
- 2 tbsp mirin, Chinese cooking wine, or sherry
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1/2-1 tbsp asian hot sauce (sriracha, sambal or chili garlic sauce)
Whisk all of the ingredients together and store, refrigerated, in a sealable container until ready to cook.
Putting it all Together
Would you like to make this recipe?
I know I’m ready for seconds! Yum!!!
In the time it will take you to cook, cool, and dry your rice (remember, it’s the supreme rule of all fried rice rules), you can have award winning seafood delivered right to your door! That is meal prepping on expert mode.
Order all the shrimp, lobster, scallops, and crab meat you need to recreate this recipe and, using our handy shipping guide , schedule your seafood to arrive when you’re ready! It is that easy.
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