This shrimp and egg fried rice recipe is very simple to make. Once you have everything prepared, you can serve a very tasty and satisfying dish in just a few minutes.
I made it here with fresh shrimp, which—especially because of their size—add a little something extra to an otherwise very everyday egg fried rice. Cleaning the shrimp, however, does mean one extra step in this case. If you don’t want to fuss with that, use cooked, cleaned shrimp.
Never overcook the shrimp!
Perhaps the most important tip for shrimp fried rice is this: never overcook the shrimp. That is practically the worst thing that can happen to shrimp.
If you are making it with raw shrimp, then—as I write in the recipe—toss it in hot oil for 1½ to 2 minutes. The shrimp is done when it is orange on all sides and curls up loosely. There is no need to cook it any longer, or wait until it curls up completely, because it will become tough and chewy. At this point, set the shrimp aside, then add it to the fried rice during the final half minute.
If you are making it with precooked shrimp, add it to the rice only at the very end, during the final half minute. Just long enough for it to heat through.
Spicy and less spicy versions
You are completely in control of how spicy this shrimp fried rice is. This recipe gets its heat from two things: ginger and crushed red pepper.
If you don’t like spicy food at all, leave out the crushed red pepper completely and add only a minimal amount of ginger. In my opinion, though, the ginger is definitely needed for the flavor, and a little ginger will not make the shrimp fried rice very hot.
You can replace the fresh ginger with dried ginger, and instead of crushed red pepper you can use fresh chile or chile powder.
Quantities for one person
In the recipe, I deliberately give the quantities for one person. This matters mainly when assembling and cooking shrimp fried rice.
Here too, as with every fried rice, you get the best result if you make the portions one by one. It is best if you have a wok for this, but making it portion by portion is also true in a regular skillet. The point of fried rice is for the previously cooked rice to come into contact with heat over as large a surface area as possible. But if you make several portions at once, you can easily end up with one big sticky mass. And that is anything but perfect shrimp fried rice.
This may be the only “difficulty” in this recipe. In other words, it does not take the same amount of time to make it for one person as it does, say, for four. You can prepare the ingredients all at once, but the fried rice itself is worth frying one portion at a time. So the cooking time is multiplied by the number of people you are making it for.
Prep is one of the most important steps
With almost every recipe—but especially with fried rice—it is important to have all the ingredients prepared before you start putting the dish together. The international kitchen term for this is mise en place, and it means that everything is in its place—within reach—before cooking.
For shrimp fried rice, in practice this means chopping the vegetables, onion, and garlic, setting out the sauces and spices as well as the rice, and cleaning and setting out the shrimp. If you start this way, making fried rice with shrimp will be a pleasure. If you skip this step, the cooking itself will become stressful and rushed.
Use jasmine rice that was cooked earlier
For fried rice, the best and most authentic type of rice is jasmine rice. Cook the rice itself at least a few hours earlier, or, if possible, the day before.
Fried rice turns out delicious when the rice has already cooled and is stuck together before use. But when it goes into the hot pan and comes into contact with heat and fat, it will separate into grains, fry that way, and become perfect.
Shrimp and Egg Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 4.2 oz shrimp 120 g
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp oil
- ½ onion
- 1 clove garlic
- about ½ inch ginger 1 cm
- 1 carrot
- ½ cup scant 80 g rice, preferably jasmine rice, cooked the day before. The quantity is before cooking.
- ¼ cup green peas 35 g
- salt
- pepper
- crushed red pepper
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- a few drops of sesame oil
Instructions
- Before making the shrimp fried rice, prepare all the ingredients so they are ready for cooking and within reach. Finely chop the onion, garlic, and ginger. Peel the carrot and cut it into thin strips. If you are using frozen green peas, defrost them in the microwave for about 10 seconds per portion. Beat the egg on a plate or in a bowl. Clean the shrimp. Remove the shell, leaving the tail on. Cut along the back with a sharp knife, and use the tip of the knife to remove the black digestive tract. Set out the sauces and spices.
- Heat a wok or skillet over high heat. Add a little oil, and cook the shrimp until orange, about 1½ to 2 minutes, turning or shaking them occasionally. Remove the shrimp to a plate.
- Lower the heat to medium-high, add 1 tbsp oil to the wok or skillet, and pour in the beaten egg.
- Cook the egg, stirring it a few times. Transfer it to a plate. I usually put it back on the same plate where I beat the egg. It will still get more heat treatment, so there is no need to worry about the raw egg.
- Add the rest of the oil to the pan. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger. Fry for about half a minute, stirring occasionally.
- Add the carrot. Fry this too for about half a minute.
- Now the previously cooked egg can go in. Break the egg into pieces with a spatula, and meanwhile turn the heat up to the highest setting.
- Add the rice, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with crushed red pepper. Stir constantly, and press it apart with a spatula or the back of a ladle. The rice should separate into grains and fry over as large a surface area as possible for about 2 minutes.
- Add the green peas, and shake or stir everything together. Fry for another half minute.
- As the final step, add the shrimp, along with the soy sauce and sesame oil. Shake or stir everything together until the soy sauce turns every grain of rice a pale brown. From this point on, do not cook it any longer.
- Serve fresh and hot.
