Our fried rice recipes beyond the obvious include recipes for a Thai Massaman curry fried rice with crispy onions, crunchy fried potatoes, pan-roasted peanuts, and fresh coriander; a savoury cabbage roll fried rice inspired by my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother’s cabbage rolls; and tonkatsu fried rice with onsen eggs and succulent Japanese pork cutlet breaded in panko crumbs and deep-fried.
As regular readers who would be aware of my rice project Make Rice Not War (A Celebration of Rice Diversity to Inspire Curiosity and Connection) would know, I’m obsessed with rice dishes from around the world in all their many forms. But I also love to create new fried rice dishes.
Don’t get me wrong: I adore classic Chinese fried rice recipes and the many traditional Southeast Asian fried recipes that have evolved from those. But there are few things I hate more than food wastage and throwing out perfectly good leftover food when there are so many going hungry in the world.
Fried rice is not only a fantastic solution for leftover rice, but also for leftover curries, leftover stir-fries, and those vegetables going soft and wilting in your fridge veggie drawer. Plus let’s not forget that fried rice was invented to use up leftover rice, after all.
So from time to time we find ourselves combining leftover steamed rice with whatever else is leftover in the fridge to create a fried rice recipe with a difference, which is how my crazy Thai Massaman curry fried rice with crispy onions, fried potatoes, roasted peanuts, and fragrant coriander came about.
But before I tell you more about our fried rice dishes with a twist, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee. Or you could buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
Another option is to use links on our site to buy travel insurance, rent a car, book accommodation, or book a tour on Get Your Guide. Or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, travel books to inspire wanderlust, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.
Lastly, you could browse our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers, including food themed reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images. Now let me tell you all about our favourite fried rice recipes beyond the obvious.
Fried Rice Recipes Beyond the Obvious if Friday Night is Fried Rice Night For You
Our fried rice recipes with a twist if you’ve got leftover rice to use up and a fridge vegetable drawer to clean out.
Massaman Curry Fried Rice Recipe with Crispy Onions, Crunchy Potatoes and Roasted Peanuts
Topping my list of fried rice recipes beyond the obvious is my Massaman curry fried rice recipe. It makes a fantastic, filling, fragrant fried rice with crispy onions, crunchy fried potatoes, pan-roasted peanuts, and the perfume of dried spices.
I created this Massaman curry fried rice to use up leftover Massaman chicken curry, but you could also make it from scratch. Garnish with fresh coriander to lighten things up.
Savoury rice with crunchy fried potatoes, crispy fried onions, pan-roasted peanuts, and the perfume of dried spices such as cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg, my Massaman curry fried rice recipe makes the perfect bowl of comfort food.
Middle Eastern Rice Recipe with Spices, Pistachios, Cashews and Raisins
This Middle Eastern rice recipe with spices, nuts and raisins makes a spiced rice dish inspired by Arabic rice dishes from the Middle East, such as Arabian machboos and kabsa, Palestinian qidreh and Syrian maqluba.
While authentic in flavour, our rice dish is stir-fried in the speedier Southeast Asian-style of fried rice rather than the slower Middle Eastern pilaf method.
It’s fantastic with smoky kofta kebab or garlicky shish tawook, Middle Eastern vegetable sides and salads such as fatoush and tabbouleh, and it’s one of our best Middle Eastern recipes.
https://grantourismotravels.com/middle-eastern-rice-recipe/
Cabbage Roll Fried Rice Recipe Inspired by my Grandmother’s Cabbage Rolls
My cabbage roll fried rice recipe is next on our list of favourite fried rice dishes with a twist. It makes an incredibly tasty, fragrant fried rice inspired by my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother’s cabbage rolls.
If you love cabbage rolls but you think they’re too complicated or time-consuming to make (they’re not) and you love fried rice, you must make my cabbage roll fried rice recipe next time you have leftover steamed rice and cabbage rolls.
To the fried onion, garlic, carrot, ground pork, and rice mixture normally ensconced within cabbage leaves, I add shredded cabbage, spices, a little tomato paste, and fresh aromatic dill to make a deliciously addictive fried rice that has become one of my favourite dishes.
One of my not-so secret ingredients is finely diced gherkins/dill pickles, homemade, of course. I serve it with more dishes of homemade dill pickles and pickled cabbage on the side, as well as fragrant fresh dill, sour cream, salt and pepper, rye bread, a Russian garden salad, and shots of vodka.
Cabbage Roll Fried Rice Recipe for a Fragrant Fried Rice Inspired by my Grandmother’s Cabbage Rolls
Tonkatsu Fried Rice Recipe with Onsen Eggs
Terence’s tonkatsu fried rice with onsen eggs recipe combines a few of the things we love – fried rice, eggs and tonkatsu, the succulent Japanese pork cutlet breaded in panko crumbs and deep-fried.
Like the original Chinese fried rice that was invented to use leftover rice, this tonkatsu fried rice with onsen eggs recipe is the result of putting leftovers to use, and is another of my favourite creative fried rice dishes.
We had a couple of pieces of tonkatsu in the fridge leftover from testing tonkatsu burgers – and Terence was in the mood for a little experimentation, as he had been testing out onsen eggs.
If you enjoy this tonkatsu fried rice with onsen eggs then you’ll also like our tonkatsu burgers, so make extra. You’ll need this tonkatsu recipe to make the tonkatsu and tonkatsu sauce first before you make this fried rice dish.
Tonkatsu Fried Rice with Onsen Eggs Recipe for a Rice Leftovers Dish You’ll Want to Plan
Chicken Fried Rice Recipe with Southern Fried Chicken Leftovers
This chicken fried rice recipe is another of our fried rice dishes with a twist. It combines our favourite Nashville-style Southern fried chicken by chef Morgan McGlone of Belles Hot Chicken with a classic fried rice.
Like the tonkatsu rice above, this chicken fried rice recipe is the result of experimentation, as the best rice recipes are. This fried rice dish was inspired by the tonkatsu fried rice, after it turned out so well, and a Japanese curry fried rice recipe that Terence made with a little curry powder that was also fantastic.
Important to note if you’re making this: not all curry powders are created equal obviously. In this case, we use the Nguan Soon curry powder brand which is made in Thailand but you can use your favourite curry powder or make your own spice blend.
Our Best Chicken Fried Rice Recipe Is Made With Spicy Southern Fried Chicken Leftovers
Tasty Satay Chicken Fried Rice Recipe
This quick, easy and incredibly tasty satay chicken fried rice recipe makes another of our best fried rice dishes beyond the obvious. I created this one to use up leftover satay chicken skewers and steamed rice – although the satay chicken could be made from scratch to go into the rice or be eaten on the side.
While this tasty satay chicken fried rice recipe was created to use up leftover Thai satay chicken skewers and steamed rice, you could make this fried rice dish with any shredded chicken made from leftover roast chicken or rotisserie chicken.
Vegetarians could skip the chicken completely. Sprinkled with crispy fried shallots and fragrant coriander, it’s a delicious use of leftovers
Tasty Satay Chicken Fried Rice Recipe to Use Leftover Satay Chicken and Steamed Rice
Fried Rice Recipe with Bacon, Potatoes, Blistered Green Beans and Peas
This easy fried rice recipe with bacon, potatoes, green beans and peas is inspired by a Yunnan style fried rice made with Yunnan ham, and it’s another of our fried rice recipes with a twist. The traditional recipe is made with Yunnan air-dried ham, which is like Spain’s jamon Serrano. I use bacon as it’s more accessible and more affordable.
While the Yunnan fried rice is light, our recipe makes a deeply-flavoured fried rice with crispy bacon, browned diced potatoes, blistered green beans, and bright peas. Chinese dark soy adds loads of umami.
My recipe was inspired by a simple, classic Yunnan fried rice with ham, potatoes and peas in Georgia Freedman’s exquisite cookbook Cooking South of the Clouds, Recipes and Stories from China’s Yunnan Province.
https://grantourismotravels.com/fried-rice-recipe-with-bacon-potatoes-green-beans-and-peas/
Published 18 August 2022; Updated with new recipes and republished 5 April 2024
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of these recipes, as we’d love to hear how they turned out for you.
