Thai Fried Rice | Khao Pad
Use this recipe to make authentic street food style Thai fried rice just like you get in Thailand! Bonus tips for substitutions included.
Ingredients
- 1 - 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 2 Garlic Cloves, minced
- ¼ Large Onion, sliced or diced (Refer to notes)
- 150 g Shrimps , tail-on (Or any protein - Refer to notes)
- 1.5 cups Cooked Jasmine Rice (Refer to notes)
- 1 Egg
- 1 - 2 stalks Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli), sliced crosswise into ribbons (Refer to notes)
- 2 Green Onions, chopped
Sauce Option 1
- ½ tbsp Oyster Sauce
- ½ tbsp Fish Sauce
- ¼ tsp Sugar
Sauce Option 2
- ½ - ¾ tbsp Oyster Sauce
- ½ tbsp Soy Sauce
- ⅛ tsp Sugar
To serve
- Lime wedge
- Prik Nam Pla (Traditional Thai condiment)
- Cucumber slices
- Freshly ground pepper (optional)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients listed for one of the sauce options. Keep this sauce mix aside for later.
- Heat oil in a wok or large skillet on medium-high heat.
- Once oil is hot, add garlic. Stirring continuously, fry for around 15 sec.
- Then, add onion and stir fry for another 20 sec.
- Now, add shrimps and fry for around a minute or until they turn pink in colour.
- Add in half of the rice and stir-fry till well combined.
- Push all the rice to one side of the wok / frying pan. Crack open the egg and pour on the empty side of the pan. Scramble the egg.
- Mix the egg into the rice while it's still runny. Continue stir frying till the egg is fully cooked. (It took me around 25 sec.)
- Add in the remaining rice and mix till combined.
- Now, add the sauce mix you had prepared and set aside in the beginning. Continue stirring till the rice is evenly coated in the sauce.
- Add in the chopped Gai Lan and stir fry till the leaves wilt.
- Then, add in green onions and stir fry for an additional 10 seconds.
- Serve immediately with a wedge of lime and Prik Nam Pla (traditional Thai sauce made of chillies and fish sauce). Additionally, you can also top the fried rice with freshly ground pepper and place some cucumber slices on the side.
Video
Notes
- Onion: If you are using a small or medium-sized onion, you can use half an onion instead of a quarter of a large onion, like I did in the video.
- Rice: Use cold day-old cooked rice. If using freshly cooked rice, be sure to cool it well before stir-frying or use less water when you cook the rice. I use 1:1 water to rice ratio when I cook jasmine rice for fried rice.
- Protein: Use any protein of your choice. Popular choices are crab meat, shrimp, chicken and pork. If using shrimp, leave the tail on to make a fried rice just like the ones you get in Thailand. If using meat, cut it into small pieces so that they cook fast while stir-frying.
- Substitutions for Gail Lan: Bok choy, choy sum, kale, spinach. When making basil fried rice, use thai basil / holy basil / Italian basil instead of other greens.
- Make it vegetarian: Use sauce option 2 and substitute oyster sauce with vegetarian oyster sauce. For the protein, use extra-firm tofu or more egg than mentioned in the recipe card.
- Prik Nam Pla is a traditional Thai condiment made of fish sauce and chopped Thai chillies.
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