Chahan (Japanese Fried Rice)
Smoky, buttery Japanese-style fried rice tossed with egg, bacon and spring onion in minutes.
Ingredients
Pantry bits
- 3 cups cooked, cooled day-old white rice (short grain)
- 2 rashers bacon, diced
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced (plus extra to garnish)
- 1/2 small onion, finely diced
- 1/2 cup frozen peas and corn mix
- 2 cloves garlic, finely grated
- 2 tbsp neutral oil (vegetable or canola)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Break up the cold cooked rice with your hands so there are no clumps.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large wok or non-stick frying pan over high heat. Pour in the beaten egg, let it just set for a few seconds, then scramble roughly and remove to a plate.
- Add the remaining oil to the wok. Fry the bacon until crisp and golden.
- Add the onion and garlic and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes until fragrant and softened.
- Add the frozen peas and corn and cook for a minute more.
- Tip in the cold rice, breaking up any clumps, and toss well to coat in the oil, spreading it out against the hot pan for a minute at a time to get some colour and toasting.
- Return the scrambled egg to the pan and toss through.
- Drizzle over the soy sauce and sesame oil around the edge of the pan (so it sizzles) and toss to combine evenly.
- Season with white pepper and salt to taste, then stir through most of the spring onion.
- Serve hot, scattered with the remaining spring onion.
About this dish
Chahan is the fried rice you'll find sizzling away behind the counter at almost every Japanese diner and izakaya, usually served alongside a bowl of ramen or gyoza. It's lighter and a little more delicate than Chinese-style fried rice, seasoned simply with soy sauce, a touch of sesame oil and plenty of white pepper, so the rice itself gets to shine rather than being drowned in sauce.
This is proper leftover-rice cooking - the kind of dish Japanese home cooks whip up on a weeknight using whatever's in the fridge. Bacon or ham, a scattering of frozen peas or corn, a couple of eggs and yesterday's rice is really all you need. The trick to getting that classic loose, slightly toasted texture is using cold, day-old rice and a screaming hot pan.
Once you've got the technique down - egg first, rice in, keep it moving - you'll find yourself making chahan whenever you've got cooked rice going spare. It's fast, forgiving and endlessly good.
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