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Forget take-out! This homemade Bacon Fried Rice is way better, so easy to make, and is loaded with crispy bacon!
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So, I can imagine that everyone has that one recipe that they just find completely irresistible. Like, it’s so good that you almost don’t want it around because you know you won’t be able to stop yourself from eating it until you make yourself sick.
This recipe right here? It’s my one recipe. It’s freakin’ dangerous, you guys.
When I make this, I eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until I finally run out altogether. It’s ridiculous and embarrassing, but it’s the truth. This is my kryptonite.
If you’ve never made homemade fried rice before, I promise you it’s easy. Our Bacon Fried Rice is loaded with peas and carrots, scrambled eggs, and green onions…but we all know the best part is the crispy bacon, right?
No bacon? Give our Spam Fried Rice a try instead!
Ingredient Notes:
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Rice – I’m using long grain white rice for this bacon fried rice recipe. You could also use other varieties such as Basmati or Jasmine. The most important part is to make it ahead of time and then refrigerate for at least an hour to dry it out.
Bacon – A key component of our bacon fried rice recipe! You’ll fry this up and reserve a little of the bacon grease to cook the veggies and rice in!
Veggies – Some onion, frozen peas and carrots, minced ginger and green onion make up the veggies in this fried rice dish. These are pretty standard fried rice ingredients, but you can add or modify with other veggies too!
Eggs – All my favorite fried rice recipes have egg in them! It’s optional if you aren’t a fan.
Soy Sauce – Just a touch to add that umami flavor. You can use whatever brand you want if you have a preference! If you’re concerned about the amount of salt, use low sodium soy sauce.
Sriracha Sauce – We also like to mix in a bit of sriracha or Sambal Oelek to spice things up a little.
What Readers are Saying!
“This was really good. I used this as a side dish with your Cheesy Ranch Chicken last night and the two went really well together. Thank you for the ideas!” – Bev
Helpful Tools:
You don’t need any special equipment, just a large non-stick skillet! If you’d prefer to use a wok, this is the one I have and we LOVE it! It allows us to easily make a double batch in one go, which is perfect since we like to eat this for breakfast the next day!
How to Make Bacon Fried Rice:
Rice: Add rice and water to a sauce pan, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let set for 5 minutes and then fluff with a fork, place in the fridge, and chill for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight. Leftover rice from our rice pilaf recipe will also work.
Helpful Tip!
Too much moisture in the rice is how you end up with subpar fried rice! It needs to chill and dry out for a bit in the fridge, uncovered, for at least an hour and up to a day to remove the moisture and get it just right for making the perfect fried rice!
Bacon: Add chopped bacon to a skillet and cook through. Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate, drain off all but a tablespoon of bacon grease into a coffee cup, and fry up the veggies!
Veggies: Begin with the diced onions, cooking them for about 5 minutes or until translucent. They’ll fry up with lots of flavor in the bacon grease! Next add the carrots, peas, and ginger and cook those for 2 more minutes. When finished remove all the veggies from the pan and set aside for now.
Fried Rice: Now to start frying up that rice! Add another tablespoon of bacon grease to the skillet and then pour in the cold cooked rice. Stir the rice up in the bacon grease to coat it and continue cooking while stirring often for five minutes.
Egg: In a small bowl, beat together the egg and a teaspoon of the soy sauce. Then push aside the rice in the skillet to make room for the eggs. Pour those in and stir to scramble. When they’ve cooked through, stir them in with the rice until it is all combined!
Finish: You can now finally add back in the cooked vegetables and the fried bacon! Pour on the rest of the soy sauce and as much sriracha or hot sauce as you like and then mix everything together until the rice, veggies, and bacon are combined.
Serve: This bacon fried rice makes an excellent meal and will serve two people as a main dish or four as a side dish. If you make it as a main, I suggest serving it with some egg rolls or pot stickers.
My sausage egg rolls would be particularly good with this and the egg roll sauce would be great served over the rice, if you wanted a break from plain old soy sauce.
My kids prefer their rice slathered in copious amounts of Yum Yum Sauce. You can find Yum Yum here – they like the original flavor, but I prefer the spicy version.
FAQs:
Keep this bacon fried rice stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 3 to 4 days.
You can reheat this bacon fried rice on the stove, in the microwave, or even in an oven. However you reheat it though you’ll first want to add in a bit of water, oil, or even broth to add moisture or it will dry out!
The most likely cause of mushy fried rice is using hot rice when starting. For the best texture, let your cooked rice chill completely in the fridge for at least one hour and up to one day. The rice should be cold before frying, and it needs to be as dry as possible to get that chewy texture.
Serving Suggestions:
MORE ASIAN INSPIRED RECIPES!
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Bacon Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 2 cups water
- 6 slices thick cut bacon diced
- 1/2 sweet onion diced
- 1 cup frozen peas and carrots
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce divided
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon sriracha
- 2 green onions chopped
Instructions
- Place the rice and water in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and continue cooking for 15 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated and the rice is mostly tender. Remove from the heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes.
- Fluff the rice with a fork and place the rice in a large shallow dish such as a pie plate, and put in the refrigerator to cool for 1 hour.
- When the rice is cool, begin cooking the diced bacon over medium heat in a large, deep skillet. Cook bacon until cooked through, but still chewy and not too crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate.
- Drain the grease from the pan into a coffee cup, leaving 1 tablespoon of grease behind.
- Add the onions to the pan and cook over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots and peas and ginger to the pan and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Add another tablespoon of bacon grease to the pan and heat until sizzling over high heat.
- Add the cold rice to the bacon grease and stir to coat. Continue cooking, stirring often, for 5 minutes.
- Push the rice to the side of the pan to make room for the eggs. Beat the eggs together in a small bowl with 1 teaspoon of soy sauce. Pour into the pan and stir to scramble.
- When the eggs are cooked through, stir into the rice. Return the vegetables and bacon to the pan. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of soy sauce and sriracha to the rice and stir to coat while cooking over high heat. Sprinkle the green onion over the top and remove from the heat.
- Taste and add more soy sauce or sriracha as desired. Serve immediately.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
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Jessica says
I make this all the time, always have to make a double batch. Yummy and so easy to!
Karly says
Thanks, Jessica!
Donna says
could you use brown rice or quinoa instead of long grain rice?
Karly says
Yes, I think using leftover brown rice would work fine. Not sure on the quinoa, but I think it would work.
Brandy says
My mom was known for her southern cooking and she use to make fried rice almost exactly like this! Unfortunately she passed away before handing down her recipe. She always added diced tomatoes and garlic salt which I did with this recipe and it is comparable to hers. Thank you so much for sharing this and bringing back so many wonderful childhood memories!
Bev says
This was really good. I used this as a side dish with your Cheesy Ranch Chicken last night and the two went really well together. Thank you for the ideas! Also the 4/5 meals i’ll get out of these this week lol.
Karly says
Awesome!! Glad you enjoyed!
Nicole says
What can i use in place of eggs? I would like to try this but have an egg allergy
Karly says
You could leave the eggs out entirely.
Linda says
Made this tonight (minus the ginger, carrots & peas) w ingredients I had on hand. It was delicious. Can’t wait to try it again w the veggies. Thank you for sharing.
Karly says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Esh says
Made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! I only had frozen peas with no carrots (not even fresh) but besides that this was literally ALL stuff I had on hand! Even down to the leftover cold rice from yesterday’s dinner! So it worked out perfectly. Thanks so much for sharing !
Karly says
Glad you enjoyed it!