How to Make Delicious Shrimp Fried Rice (Cơm Chiên Tôm)
Making fried rice is every Asian kid’s right of passage. It’s one of the foods that we fall in love with as a kid, and one of the foods that we are first taught to cook. It’s delicious, filling, and can be quickly whipped together with leftover ingredients.
In today’s recipe, I’m making shrimp fried rice, using large 21/25 size shrimp. When cooking shrimp, avoid overcooking to prevent them from becoming tough and rubbery. I start off by cooking the shrimp with a bit of garlic and oil, but I leave them undercooked as I add the rest of the ingredients. By the time I finish tossing the rice, the shrimp would be perfect.
Like all fried rice recipes, it’s best to use day-old cold rice as opposed to freshly cooked rice. Freshly cooked rice will simply turn to mush in the hot wok. If you don’t have day-old rice, you can make rice but use less water than you normally would. The amount of reduced water will vary depending on the brand of rice, but the purpose is to dry it out.
The rice in this recipe is seasoned with a bit of ground white pepper, salt, sugar, soy sauce, and chicken bouillon powder. For those who don’t have chicken bouillon powder, you can leave it out. Others like to use oyster sauce instead of soy sauce. You can also toss in a tablespoon of butter for that buttery flavor.
There are no strict rules, other than using day-old rice. So use whatever leftover ingredients you have on hand and whatever seasonings you like. Fried rice is versatile and solely exists to use up leftover ingredients. In the words of my childhood hero Captain Planet, the power is yours.