Fried rice is one of those dishes that always seems to taste better in a restaurant, so Chowhound decided to talk to an expert and find out why. Billy Dec — CEO and founder of Sunda New Asian, a restaurant chain that focuses on modern Southeast Asian cuisine — has some exclusive words of advice for getting that perfect restaurant-style fried rice with just enough chew and no soggy vegetables or overcooked meat. The secret, he says, is in cooking all of the ingredients separately before combining them into their final fried rice glory.
“When you cook ingredients separately, it helps maintain the perfect texture and flavor,” he explains. “Proteins and vegetables all have different cooking times. We typically sear or sauté the proteins first and set them aside to be folded back in at the end of the cooking process. This trick helps everything stay bright, light, and crisp. No one wants soggy fried rice!”
Another tip to avoid a soggy batch of fried rice comes down to how you prepare the rice. The best grains for fried rice are jasmine, medium grain, or sushi, though any kind of rice will do in a pinch. Dec recommends cooking the rice ahead of time and then keeping it cool at least overnight. “Once cooked, we [at Sunda] store the rice in the cooler uncovered, all to really dry the rice out. Removing the moisture helps the rice absorb more of our flavors — we want it to soak up as much as possible.”
Make it fast and hot
Once you have prepared all of your ingredients separately, Billy Dec says the most important part of cooking fried rice is to make sure you fry it all quickly and at a high heat. Since everything is already cooked, it’s really just a matter of heating everything up and adding in sauces and spices that will upgrade your basic fried rice. He says that the quality of your pan or wok matters, though he doesn’t specify one of the two styles over the other. However, you may find a flat-bottomed carbon steel wok is ideal for making fried rice because it works well on any flat cooking surface, heats up quickly, and provides ample space for big batches of rice. Either way, Dec says to make sure that you’ve preheated it to prevent your rice from sticking.
Dec also recommends getting everything lined up and organized while you preheat your pan or wok. There’s an order to which the prepared ingredients should be put in the pan. “We always add the rice first, then protein, with vegetables last to keep the integrity of the density, color, and crisp,” he says. “Make sure to move quickly once you start cooking. You’re using high heat, so you need to be fast!
