Some foods just taste better at a restaurant — like fried rice!
From using the right soy sauce to the virtues of a so-called "flavor bomb," here's why takeout
fried rice is so yummy.
Despite what you may think, most restaurants that make your favorite fried rice don't use
fancy, expensive rice.
You can head right down to your local grocery store and pick up a standard bag of long-grain
white rice to make the dish.
However, restaurants still make a point of choosing the appropriate type of rice.
First off, they almost always use long-grain or medium-grain rice.
Long-grain rice retains distinct grains, while medium-grain has a greater chewiness and maintains
its structure after frying.
Cooks almost never use short-grain rice because it's a lot starchier and stickier than the
other choices.
Because it masses together when frying, it doesn't produce the right results.
With that said, many of the best Chinese restaurants use a combination of American long-grain and
medium-grain Thai Jasmine rice to create the perfect texture.
On its own, long-grain rice can be a bit bland while jasmine rice is a bit too delicate for
the aggressive frying technique.
Together, the two create the right blend of texture, flavor, and aroma to make award-winning rice.
Luckily, there are brands like Mahatma that already sell the blend of the two kinds of
rice so you don't have to combine them yourself.
The first step to obtaining the crisp-yet-fluffy texture that every person craves is to wash the rice.
First, it is important to remove any impurities like sand or husks.
Additionally, rinsing gets rid of the extra starch, which is what causes grains to stick
together during the frying process.
If you want the individual caramelized grains that make this dish so delicious, be sure
to rinse first.
However, it's possible to overdo it.
It's important to get rid of the starch without over-hydrating the rice, which can result
in mushy and un-caramelized grains.
This also means using the right ratio of water for cooking.
This is why many people agree that using leftovers is a fantastic option for fried rice.
Leftover rice is much drier than the fresh stuff, which allows it to cook well with the
other ingredients.
However, Michelin star chef Ang Song Kang recommends always bringing the rice back up
to room temperature before cooking.
He told the Michelin Guide:
"It should be barely warm or at least room temperature when you start cooking, otherwise
it won't be able to absorb the flavors from frying.
It'll be a wasted effort."
"I know it's fried rice but it's not 'fried' rice."
Not all soy sauces are created equal.
When making fried rice, your favorite takeout restaurant doesn't just grab any old bottle
of soy sauce and throw it into the dish.
There are many types of soy sauces from different cultures, and each one has a distinct profile
that looks, tastes, and even feels unique.
This is why nailing the right one is the key to obtaining that takeout-style taste.
For example, if you use a Japanese soy sauce like Kikkoman, you'll get a result that won't
really match that authentic Chinese takeout taste.
The four brands most Chinese restaurants use are Lee Kum Kee, Koon Chun, Pearl River Bridge,
and Kimlan.
These are readily available in most areas and are preferred by restaurants for their
distinct flavors.
However, it's important to note that these soy sauces get categorized into light and dark.
Although the name is misleading, light soy sauce doesn't mean it has a lower level of
sodium content.
It's simply the standard soy sauce used for flavoring and seasoning.
However, it doesn't provide a deep color like dark soy sauce.
The latter is mainly used for coloring and doesn't add much saltiness and flavor — it
is actually a bit sweet.
Restaurants always make sure to have both light and dark versions to nail that complex,
savory flavor.
To make chicken fried rice, most restaurants use breast meat.
The problem is that chicken breast is very lean, which means it can dry out really quickly.
But whenever you bite into a piece of chicken, beef, or other meats from a Chinese restaurant,
you've probably noticed that they are always incredibly tender and juicy.
This isn't a coincidence.
There's a secret tenderizing ingredient that your favorite takeout restaurant uses every
single time: baking soda.
Baking soda neutralizes the acids, raising the pH level of the meat.
This in turn alkalizes the meat's surface, which makes it harder for the proteins to
bond together, resulting in super tender meat.
This means that even the leanest cuts of meat come out juicier than most people are used
to when they cook at home.
Chinese restaurant chefs use about a teaspoon of baking soda and massage it into the protein
they are cooking.
After letting it sit for a few minutes, they move on to marinate the meat, which adds flavor
and can also improve the texture.
This trick is often referred to as "velveting."
It is commonly used for beef and chicken, but can even be used for more delicate meats
like fish and shellfish.
It's also a great way to make cheaper, secondary cuts of meat much more delicious.
If there's one essential ingredient in a bowl of fried rice that sets the takeout stuff
apart, it's "wok hei" — also known as "the breath of the wok."
Basically, it's the irreplaceable, steaming-hot aroma and taste that can only be created at
the highest temperatures with a wok.
Chinese restaurants have high-quality woks and commercial-grade burners that allow them
to cook at high heat.
This helps create the Maillard reaction — a chemical reaction that browns the food and
unlocks new levels of flavor and aroma.
By cooking at wildly hot temperatures with a wok, Chinese chefs are able to harness the
Maillard reaction and wok hei in a short amount of time, creating a powerful result that can't
be imitated.
Of all the techniques that professional chefs use, this one might be the hardest to replicate
at home.
However, there are certain tricks that you can do to imitate the smokiness, such as adding
toasted sesame oil to garnish your final dish.
Monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG, is one of the most delicious yet misunderstood
ingredients out there.
It's a white, odorless powder that enhances the flavor of dishes by adding a satisfying
umami taste.
"Mmm.
The MSG is delicious today."
So why does it have such a bad reputation?
In the 1960s, a doctor wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine noting that
he got sick after eating at a Chinese restaurant.
He went on to say that the culprit was either alcohol, sodium, or MSG.
This created a wave of backlash and misinformation not only against the ingredient but also against
Chinese immigrants and their cuisine.
After decades of controversy, several highly respected health authorities, including the
Food and Drug Administration and the European Food Safety Association, all deem MSG to be
safe for consumption.
The truth is, MSG is a fantastic flavor enhancer — and Chinese restaurants know it.
It provides way more flavor while only containing a third of the sodium of table salt.
It activates the taste receptors on your tongue by packing an umami blast of savoriness with
every bite.
Ultimately, you get a long-lasting aftertaste that seems to coat your palate.
When it comes to the best takeout fried rice, restaurants always build a powerful combination
of aromatics and seasonings.
To begin, they'll use a foundation that includes garlic, shallot, ginger, scallions, onion,
and chili peppers.
These ingredients infuse flavor into the oil and transport it to every other ingredient
in the wok.
When it comes to seasonings, people who attempt to cook fried rice at home often make the
mistake of drowning it in soy sauce, resulting in a salty, mushy mess by the end.
In reality, restaurants use a combination of light and dark soy sauce, as well as a
sweet element like sugar to balance everything out.
They use the right amount to flavor the dish while keeping the rice dry enough to caramelize.
Speaking of caramelization, another technique restaurants use is to pour the sauce around
the side of the wok rather than directly on top of the ingredients.
This allows the liquids to sear independently, resulting in the intense, smoky, "wok hei"
flavor of fried rice.
At the same time, it helps the wok maintain a consistent temperature to avoid steaming
the ingredients.
Getting that browned soy sauce flavor from the edge of the wok significantly contributes
to that addictive, takeout taste.
"They gave us plain rice instead of fried rice."
"No fair.
I soul cycled this morning.
I'm entitled to a pile of fat rice."
It's no secret that eggs make pretty much everything better.
Although there are hundreds, maybe thousands of different iterations of fried rice, you'll
typically find egg included in most.
Besides the obvious purpose of adding delicious and nutritious protein to the dish, they play
a more important role in the dish as well.
According to the Michelin Guide, the egg mixture added to the fried rice coats every single
grain of rice to give them a beautiful golden hue.
It may seem like a relatively unimportant ingredient in the dish compared to the rice,
veggies, seasonings, and aromatics, but that's far from the truth.
No matter how it is utilized, it adds a delicious richness and color that can't be replaced.
If you've ever tried to improve your cooking technique, you've probably heard of "mise
en place."
For the uninitiated, it means having all of your ingredients and dishes prepared and ready
to go before you begin cooking.
Although it's important for cooking in general, it's especially important for fried rice.
The process of cooking fried rice goes by lightning fast.
If restaurants don't have everything they need while cooking over a volcano-sized flame
and a heavy wok, the ingredients will burn up and quickly go to waste.
This means that cooks chop, measure, and set apart every single ingredient they need before
service because there's literally no time during the cooking process to prep more ingredients.
Once they get going, chefs can handle the wok and flame while throwing in ingredients
like it's second nature.
"And pick the peas out of my fried rice.
And the rice.
I just want carrots."
You've probably seen videos of expert chefs maneuvering heavy woks over powerful flames
with ease, masterfully tossing in ingredient after ingredient until a beautiful, steaming
dish seems to appear out of thin air.
They truly create the essence of what a one-pot meal should be.
But it's important to note that these master chefs can only do this because of the wok
and the extremely high temperatures their burners reach.
Chinese restaurants have special wok stoves that seem to have the power of a jet engine
when shooting out a flame.
To put this into perspective, most Chinese restaurants have wok burners that reach well
over 100,000 BTUs, which is about 10 times as hot as the typical stove you find in homes.
They also have round openings that cradle the wok perfectly.
If you're trying to replicate it at home, chances are you'll need to cook all of the
ingredients separately in order to make sure you cook them through properly.
Cooking food in small batches ensures every ingredient is just right, bringing you closer
to the inimitable flavor of takeout fried rice.
The best takeout restaurants always make sure to finish off with powerful flavor enhancers
that make the dish taste even better.
One ubiquitous ingredient in Chinese cuisine is Shaoxing wine.
This rice wine is a key ingredient when it comes to creating that authentic takeout flavor.
When added to fried rice, it infuses depth, flavor, and hints of acidity and sweetness.
It's used near the end of the cooking process to deglaze the fried rice but it is essential
for brightening the dish and tying the flavors together.
Another great ingredient used to finish fried rice is toasted sesame oil.
It brings an incredibly fragrant, nutty flavor that further enhances the complexity of the dish.
The smokiness is a great additive and substitute for the wok hei that comes from the powerful
burners and woks of a Chinese restaurant.
These ingredients bring additional complexity to the dish that takes it to the next level.