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.
Wikipedia says the earliest record of fried rice is from the Sui dynasty (589 to 618) and points to the city of Yangzhou, where it was a way to use leftover rice. Yangzhou's own fried rice has the most famous name of all. Wikipedia's page on the dish says it was first popularized by the Qing official Yi Bingshou (1754 to 1815), a former prefect of Yangzhou, and that it is named for the city rather than invented there. The Australian cook Adam Liaw calls it the most famous fried rice in China and the model for the "special" or "house" fried rice on Western Chinese menus.
In America it often goes by a Cantonese spelling. The Woks of Life explains that early Chinese restaurant owners wrote the name in English the way it sounded in their own dialect, which is how Yangzhou became Young Chow, Yung Chow or Yeung Chow. The build is white, not brown: egg, shrimp, ham and roast pork, seasoned with salt. It has a strange modern footnote too. In October 2015, for Yangzhou's 2,500th anniversary, 300 cooks made 4,192 kg of it, and Guinness World Records disqualified the attempt after about 150 kg was sent off as pig feed (Wikipedia, citing CNN and China Daily).
🇨🇳 The original
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.
🇺🇸 The American version
American takeouts darkened the rice with soy and dark soy sauce, sweetened it with honey and loaded it with red-edged char siu, so it comes out brown instead of pale gold. See the Chinese-American Pork Fried Rice recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Salt, not soy
Seasoning with salt, sugar and a few drops of wine keeps the rice white, so the pink shrimp, red pork and green peas show, and every grain tastes of rice instead of sauce.
Lettuce at the very end
Chopped lettuce added off the boil wilts just enough to stay crunchy, a fresh contrast to the rich meats.
Step by step
- Step 1
If the rice is freshly cooked, spread it out uncovered until it stops steaming, then fluff it. If it is cold from the fridge, break the clumps apart with damp hands.
- Step 2
Heat a wok over medium-high heat, add 1 tbsp oil and the eggs and fold gently about 1 minute, just until scrambled. Move them to a bowl.
- Step 3
Bring a small pot of water to a boil and blanch the shrimp 1 to 2 minutes, until pink and opaque. Drain.
- Step 4
Heat the wok over high heat with the remaining 2 tbsp oil. Stir-fry the onion about 2 minutes, until translucent. Add the ham and roast pork and stir-fry 30 seconds.
- Step 5
Add the rice and stir-fry 2 minutes over high heat, scooping and pressing out any clumps with the spatula. Add the shrimp and peas and stir-fry 2 minutes more.
- Step 6
Sprinkle in the salt and sugar and drizzle the wine around the hot edge of the wok so it sizzles. Mix well. If the rice looks dry, add a splash of water or stock straight onto any clumps.
- Step 7
Add the eggs, scallions, lettuce and white pepper and toss about 30 seconds, just until the lettuce wilts and the rice is steaming hot (165°F). Serve right away with hot sauce or chili oil.
Yangzhou Fried Rice (Young Chow Fried Rice)
Serves 4 · 4 plates · 40 min total
Rice and eggs
- 5 cups cooked white rice, cooked with a little less water than usual and cooled (or day-old)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil, for the eggs
- 2 large eggs, beaten
Stir-fry
- 4 oz (110 g) medium shrimp (40 to 60 count), peeled and deveined
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 1/2 cup (4 oz) Virginia ham, cubed
- 1/2 cup (4 oz) Chinese roast pork (char siu), diced
- 3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
Seasoning and finish
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp Shaoxing wine (optional)
- 2 scallions, finely chopped
- 2 cups finely chopped romaine or iceberg lettuce
- 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
- Hot sauce or chili oil, to serve
Method
- If the rice is freshly cooked, spread it out uncovered until it stops steaming, then fluff it. If it is cold from the fridge, break the clumps apart with damp hands.
- Heat a wok over medium-high heat, add 1 tbsp oil and the eggs and fold gently about 1 minute, just until scrambled. Move them to a bowl.
- Bring a small pot of water to a boil and blanch the shrimp 1 to 2 minutes, until pink and opaque. Drain.
- Heat the wok over high heat with the remaining 2 tbsp oil. Stir-fry the onion about 2 minutes, until translucent. Add the ham and roast pork and stir-fry 30 seconds.
- Add the rice and stir-fry 2 minutes over high heat, scooping and pressing out any clumps with the spatula. Add the shrimp and peas and stir-fry 2 minutes more.
- Sprinkle in the salt and sugar and drizzle the wine around the hot edge of the wok so it sizzles. Mix well. If the rice looks dry, add a splash of water or stock straight onto any clumps.
- Add the eggs, scallions, lettuce and white pepper and toss about 30 seconds, just until the lettuce wilts and the rice is steaming hot (165°F). Serve right away with hot sauce or chili oil.
Adapted from The Woks of Life, "Young Chow Fried Rice" (serves 4). We follow its amounts (5 cups rice, 2 eggs, 4 oz each of shrimp, Virginia ham and Chinese roast pork, 3/4 cup peas, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1 tsp Shaoxing wine, 2 cups chopped lettuce), its 2 minute rice fry and its 2 minutes with the shrimp and peas. The page gives no time for blanching the shrimp or softening the onion; those times and the 165°F check are ours. The Woks of Life. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- The Woks of Life warns that refrigerated rice clumps badly; break it up by hand before it hits the wok, wetting your hands with cold water as you go.
- Too much liquid makes fried rice soggy and too much oil makes it greasy; add either only a little at a time.
- No char siu? Use more ham. No ham? Adam Liaw's version uses cured Chinese ham or Italian prosciutto.
- For a plain Cantonese-style egg fried rice, skip the meats and shrimp and double the eggs and scallions.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Fried rice was born in Yangzhou. Disputed: Wikipedia's fried rice page puts the earliest record in the Sui dynasty in Yangzhou; its Yangzhou fried rice page says the dish is named for the city and did not originate there.
- Yi Bingshou invented it. Disputed: The Woks of Life dates the dish to the Qing dynasty; Wikipedia says only that Yi "first popularized" it, and marks where as unverified.
- Real Yangzhou fried rice has no soy sauce. Documented as Wikipedia's account, which says only some Western Chinese restaurants add soy sauce (and chicken).
- Young Chow is the same dish. Documented: The Woks of Life and Wikipedia both give Young Chow, Yung Chow and Yeung Chow as spellings of Yangzhou.
- The 2015 record. Documented: Wikipedia, citing CNN and China Daily (October 2015).
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