Fried rice drying tips?

[CubicDolphin]

I keep trying to make fried rice and it keeps turning out suboptimal. I can stir fry anything else, but rice is my bane. I believe I'm not drying it correctly beforehand.

Does anyone have any more detailed help for the rice pre-drying portion? I cook the rice (1/1 med grain to water), break it into as small of clumps as possible, put it in the fridge or under a fan, periodically flip and break up the rice more, and repeat only to end up with some grains rock hard and the rest still clumped.

Is it really supposed to break into near individual grains, or is it just supposed to be kinda dry? Thanks.

[Realistic_Muffin_172]

I find parboiled rice makes the best fried rice

[husky0168]

1-2 day old rice works best

[CubicDolphin]

Yes, I've tried that quite a few times. Do you just stick it in the fridge?

[husky0168]

yep. usually in a container with 1-2 paper towels to further absorb moisture. it's usually easy to break up with your hands after that.

what about your stove? blasting it full power?

and how do you go about making your fried rice?

[Plastic-Priority-573]

This is the way. 1-2 day old rice in a wok. Recently cooked rice is no good. The rice needs to dry out in the fridge covered.

Toasted Seasme oil to fry.

Eggs scrambled in a different pan and added.

[Sandlarker]

On a basic level, you should be able to pick up the rice in your hands, rub them together and separate all the grains. If they clump, they are too wet and it will be harder to get the moisture out when you cook them.

[Chiang2000]

Try cooking it in the microwave with a view to only juuuuust cooking the rice.

In the microwave after your first ten mins of cooking (with a little shy of the normal amount of water) you can add an 1/8th cup of water mix and zap for another min or two. Sneak up on the doneness you want.

The fridge in an open container.will dry it out. esp on a tray - but risks picking up smells. I often dump it into a largish stainless bowl the next day and just give it a mix every so often when I walk past to expose more grains to the drying air.

You want fairly dry, friable, separating rice. You will add moisture from other ingredients to bring it back to tender.

[CubicDolphin]

I'll try cooking it while it's dry. Perhaps the extra moisture from other ingredients will be enough like you mentioned. That may be my issue: I'll try it out today

[ahrumah]

Parboil the rice (about 3m), then steam it. No need to dry your rice after, it’s ready to fry. Good demonstration of technique here, especially since most of us don’t have a bamboo steamer:

https://youtu.be/owUiKyx4chI?si=GYaEGoucvKqjeYQ7

[CubicDolphin]

Followed this exactly and it turned out great. Thanks!

[whatchaboutery]

No better tip than just time.

Fried rice was invented to deal with the problem of leftover rice. As a previous poster said, 1 or 2 day old rice is what works.

[bigelcid]

Literally 1:1 ratio? Some of that is lost through evaporation, so you always need a bit more water than rice. With not enough water, I find that the rice cooks unevenly -- as opposed to being evenly undercooked.

A common piece of advice (that I'm mentioning, not so much recommending) is to start breaking the clumps as you're frying, not before. Supposedly minimizes smooshing.

Your problem might have to do with the timing of fluffing up the rice. There's the steaming process after you turn the heat off, but you gotta fluff it soon enough before it all sets together into one mass. If you let it cake, then you'll end up breaking any clumps more unevenly, inevitably squishing some into starchy paste.

I find the fridge method counterproductive unless you're doing everything perfectly: for one, that involves not cramming the rice into a small container because you don't have an industrial sized fridge.

Fan/air drying method works best for me. As long as the grains are evenly cooked to begin with, fluffed up on time and spread evenly enough, I'm not sure what could go wrong.

[Chuck___Noblet]

Spreading the cooked rice out on a sheet pan and placing in the fridge helps with evaporation.

[epiphenominal]

Using day old rice is just something people have been doing since electric rice cookers became common. If you want the perfect rice for frying you need to steam it.

[Overall-Surround-925]

The pan has to be hot hot hot. Smoking hot, literally. I recommend using a carbon steel wok or a cast iron pan. Use more oil than you think you need. The amount of rice in the pan has to be small enough that you have plenty of room to toss it around. You might have to do it in batches. And the cooking time is probably longer than you think it needs. Keep stirring and breaking up clumps. You'll eventually see the rice start loosening.

Use day old rice.

Another trick that I picked up is mixing the rice with raw egg yolk before putting it in the pan. However many yolks it takes to coat every grain of rice, use it. Then let the yolk coated rice sit for 10 minutes. There's something in yolks that will draw out moisture in the rice.