Restaurant-Quality Chinese Sausage Fried Rice / Com Chien Lap Xuong

What if I told you that you could make fried rice at home that rivals your favorite Chinese restaurant in about fifteen minutes without any specialized equipment like a wok and for a fraction of the price? This Chinese sausage fried rice is one of my absolute favorite dishes, and today, we’re going to break it down step by step and show you all the tips and tricks to make the best fried rice at home!

How to make fried rice:

Step 1 – Prep

Before we begin cooking, we’re going to get all of our prep work done.

Green Onions: Thinly chop up three stalks of green onions, separating the whites from the greens. This is important because we’ll be sauteing the white parts in our fried rice to help release their aromatic properties. At the end, we’ll use the tops of our green onions to garnish our fried rice.

Chinese Sausage (Lap Xuong): My go-to brand is KamYenJan, as it’s the one I grew up eating my entire life. I think part of the appeal of this dish for me is the nostalgia factor, and these specific sausages take me back to my childhood every single time. I prefer the full pork variety for this particular recipe, but you can opt to use the pork and chicken blend or the full chicken version. The pork one has the highest fat content out of the three and, when rendered, will help coat each grain of rice with flavor.

Since these Chinese sausages are our primary protein today, I’m going to slice them into little coins. If I were making house-special fried rice with shrimp and pork, I would cut these into small dice instead. I like the overall aesthetic of the more significant pieces of sausages for this recipe, but feel free to cut them to your own liking.

Seasoning Blend: The primary seasoning component for this dish is equal parts salt, white pepper, and MSG. I’ll combine equal parts of each in a small bowl or dish. Some of this will be used to season our scrambled eggs, and some will be used to season our fried rice later. The Chinese restaurants that I grew up eating at tend to make lighter and drier fried rice, so you’ll notice the exclusion of soy sauce. If that’s your preference, feel free to add a splash and make this recipe your own!

Eggs: We’ll whisk up two whole eggs and season with a pinch of our seasoning blend. Some additional steps you could take are whisking in annatto seed oil to give the eggs a more orange hue and make them really pop and running them through a fine mesh sieve to ensure they are beaten well.

Step 2 – Cook

Heat a nonstick pan on high heat, add a splash of oil, and scramble eggs. If the pan is hot enough, you should be able to finish scrambling your eggs in about 10 seconds, and we’re looking for smaller curds. You don’t want to overcook your eggs; otherwise, they’ll be rubbery, so we’ll pull them from the pan when they’re about 80% cooked through.

This next part is super important, but make sure that your pan is really hot and that the heat is still turned up to high. We’ll add our Chinese sausage and sauté them for just a couple of minutes. Your pan should be smoking a bit at this point, and this is how we’re going to get that “Wok Hei,” or smokey flavor, without using a wok. This happens quickly, and make sure you don’t burn your sausages.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the whites of the green onions, and sauté until fragrant. Add the frozen peas and carrots, and sauté for 2-3 minutes.

At this point, we’ll add our day-old white jasmine long-grain rice, and it’s absolutely crucial that you use leftover day-old rice for fried rice. When rice is cooked and cooled in a refrigerator, the starches in the rice undergo a process called “starch retrogradation,” which essentially allows its molecules to firm up, preventing your fried rice from being too moist or mushy.

Drop your heat to low, add your rice, and break up any big clumps using a spatula or wooden spoon. We want to separate each grain to allow an even distribution of seasonings. We’ll season our fried rice with some chicken bouillon and season to taste with our blend of salt, white pepper, and MSG.

Return your scrambled eggs, mix everything really well, and make any final adjustments to taste. Plate up and garnish with the remaining green onions. This recipe makes 2-4 servings, depending on whether it’s used as a main course or appetizer. Feel free to change the types of protein, veggies, or rice grains used to your preference! Enjoy!

If you liked this fried rice, make sure you check out my Golden Crab Fried Rice recipe!