Chinese-American Pork Fried Rice
The takeout classic: jasmine rice darkened with soy and dark soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and Shaoxing wine, tossed with a full pound of red-edged char siu, onion, bean sprouts, scrambled egg and scallions.
Wikipedia says fried rice is a standard of American Chinese food because it is fast and easy to make, that it is usually made with rice cooled overnight, and that the American version uses more soy sauce than versions in China. J. Kenji López-Alt of Serious Eats puts it the same way: in China, fried rice is lightly seasoned with salt and maybe a little soy, with small amounts of meat; in the Chinese-American tradition the meat comes in bigger chunks with much more sauce.
The pork in a takeout box is char siu, Cantonese barbecued pork with a sweet, shiny brick-red crust. This version comes from The Woks of Life, the family food blog; the parents served it as a side at their restaurant, and the recipe uses their method with extra pork. A single teaspoon of dark soy sauce in the sauce is what turns the rice brown. Put a plate of it next to Yangzhou fried rice and you see the whole Americanization in one frame: white rice became brown rice, and a few cubes of pork became a pound.
🇺🇸 This one is American
The takeout classic: jasmine rice darkened with soy and dark soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and Shaoxing wine, tossed with a full pound of red-edged char siu, onion, bean sprouts, scrambled egg and scallions.
🇨🇳 The original
China's famous Yangzhou fried rice stays pale gold: day-old rice with egg, shrimp, ham, roast pork, onion and peas, seasoned with salt and a little Shaoxing wine, with little or no soy sauce. See the Yangzhou Fried Rice (Young Chow Fried Rice) recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Two soy sauces
Regular soy sauce does most of the seasoning, and just a teaspoon of dark soy sauce adds the deep brown takeout color.
Mixed sauce, added once
Stirring the sauce together first lets it hit the rice all at once and coat it evenly, with no pockets of plain or overly salty rice.
Step by step
- Step 1
Stir the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Step 2
Fluff the rice with a fork or damp hands so there are no big clumps. If it is freshly cooked, spread it on a sheet pan to cool and dry a little first.
- Step 3
Heat a wok over medium heat with 1 tsp oil, add the beaten eggs and scramble about 1 minute, until just set. Move them to a plate.
- Step 4
Add 1 tbsp oil to the wok over medium heat and cook the onion about 3 minutes, until translucent. Stir in the char siu for 1 minute.
- Step 5
Add the rice and mix well. If the rice is cold, keep stir-frying about 5 minutes, until heated through; if it is fresh, just mix until combined.
- Step 6
Add the sauce and salt and scoop and fold until every grain is evenly brown, breaking up clumps with the spatula.
- Step 7
Add the bean sprouts, eggs and scallions and toss 1 to 2 minutes, until everything is mixed and the rice is steaming hot (165°F). Serve with hot sauce.
Chinese-American Pork Fried Rice
Serves 6 · 6 plates · 25 min total
Sauce
- 1 tbsp hot water
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
Fried rice
- 5 cups cooked jasmine rice (cooked with 1 tsp oil in the pot)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vegetable oil, for the eggs
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 lb Chinese barbecued pork (char siu), cut into 1/2-inch chunks
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup bean sprouts
- 2 scallions, chopped
- Hot sauce, to serve
Method
- Stir the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Fluff the rice with a fork or damp hands so there are no big clumps. If it is freshly cooked, spread it on a sheet pan to cool and dry a little first.
- Heat a wok over medium heat with 1 tsp oil, add the beaten eggs and scramble about 1 minute, until just set. Move them to a plate.
- Add 1 tbsp oil to the wok over medium heat and cook the onion about 3 minutes, until translucent. Stir in the char siu for 1 minute.
- Add the rice and mix well. If the rice is cold, keep stir-frying about 5 minutes, until heated through; if it is fresh, just mix until combined.
- Add the sauce and salt and scoop and fold until every grain is evenly brown, breaking up clumps with the spatula.
- Add the bean sprouts, eggs and scallions and toss 1 to 2 minutes, until everything is mixed and the rice is steaming hot (165°F). Serve with hot sauce.
Adapted from The Woks of Life, "Classic Pork Fried Rice" (serves 6; first published October 2014, updated 2025). We follow it as written: a sauce of 1 tbsp hot water, 1 tsp each honey, sesame oil and Shaoxing wine, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce and 1/4 tsp white pepper; 5 cups jasmine rice; 1 tbsp oil; 1 onion; 1 lb char siu; 1 tsp salt; 1/2 cup bean sprouts; 2 eggs; 2 scallions; about 5 minutes to heat cold rice and 1 to 2 minutes for the finish. The page lists the eggs already scrambled; the 1 tsp oil and 1 minute for scrambling them, the onion and pork times and the 165°F check are ours. The Woks of Life. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Char siu can be bought at Chinese barbecue shops or made at home from boneless pork shoulder or butt with an overnight marinade and about an hour of roasting, The Woks of Life says; it freezes well.
- Freshly cooked rice works if you spread it out to cool and dry first.
- Bean sprouts go in last so they stay crunchy.
- The Woks of Life says the yellow color of many takeout fried rices usually comes from food coloring; theirs gets it from turmeric.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- American fried rice uses more soy sauce than Chinese fried rice. Documented: Wikipedia; Serious Eats.
- Restaurant fried rice is yellow from food coloring. Folklore: The Woks of Life's statement; we found no survey of restaurants.
- America's first Chinese restaurants opened in San Francisco in 1849. Disputed: Wikipedia gives the date and says it is disputed.
- Fried rice is a leftovers dish. Documented: Wikipedia says the American version is usually made with rice cooled overnight.
Every other fried rice
Yangzhou Fried Rice (Young Chow Fried Rice)
China's most famous fried rice: day-old rice stir-fried with egg, shrimp, ham, roast pork, onion and peas, seasoned with salt, a pinch of sugar and Shaoxing wine instead of soy sauce, and finished with crisp lettuce and scallions.
Thai Crab Fried Rice (Khao Pad Pu)
Jasmine rice stir-fried with golden garlic and marbled egg, seasoned with fish sauce, soy and a little sugar, toasted in the wok, topped with sweet lump crab and served with cucumber, lime and chili fish sauce.
Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice with Shrimp and a Fried Egg)
Cold rice fried with shallots, garlic, shrimp paste, coriander and cumin, shrimp, snow peas and bean sprouts, darkened and sweetened with kecap manis and sambal, then topped with omelet strips and a fried egg.
Chahan (Japanese Fried Rice with Chashu Pork)
Japanese short-grain rice stir-fried with fluffy egg, diced chashu pork belly and green onion, seasoned with soy sauce, white pepper and sesame oil, then packed into a rice bowl and turned out as a neat dome.
Kimchi Bokkeumbap (Korean Kimchi Fried Rice)
Steamed rice stir-fried with sour, well-fermented kimchi, its red brine and gochujang, finished with toasted sesame oil and topped with green onion, shredded gim, sesame seeds and a fried egg.
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Diced Spam fried until the edges crisp with ginger, onion and carrots, then tossed with rice, Shaoxing wine, soy and fish sauce, egg, peas and scallions, the local-style fried rice of Hawaii.
Hibachi Fried Rice (Japanese Steakhouse Garlic Butter Fried Rice)
The flat-top fried rice of America's Japanese steakhouses: freshly boiled long-grain rice fried until it sizzles and pops with soft egg and scallions, glazed with soy sauce and mirin and finished with garlic butter.
20-Minute Leftover Fried Rice
The weeknight method: leftover rice toasted in two batches in a smoking-hot wok, then tossed with onion, carrot, garlic and scallions, a little soy and sesame oil, one egg and a handful of frozen peas.
Hibachi Chicken Fried Rice, Inspired by Benihana
Inspired by, not official: jasmine rice fried with browned chicken, carrot, onion, garlic and soy sauce, crisped in a well of melting butter, then finished with scrambled egg, sesame seeds and scallions, the way the steakhouse chicken rice tastes.
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