Did you know that making your own Panda Express fried rice is super easy?
The budget-friendly, one-pan, copycat fried rice prepared at home has its perks, and I love it with Black Pepper Chicken.
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Ingredient Notes
- rice — your favorite classic long-grain rice brand. I like to use the basmati rice type for extra flavor.
- eggs — scrambled into the dish during the cooking process.
- carrot — cut into matchsticks so that they cook through fast.
- green peas — fresh, frozen, or canned.
- green onions — aka spring onions. Stalks and bulbs are separated because the bulbs are stir cooked first and the sliced stalks are used as a fresh green topping.
- soy sauce — The most common soy sauce type, as in Kikkoman liquid soy sauce. As an alternative, you can use mushroom soy sauce or soy sauce as per your special dietary needs, such as low-sodium soy sauce.
- vinegar — A mild vinegar adds some tang to the dish. Use rice vinegar or another flavor-neutral vinegar. If your vinegar is too overpowering, mix it with some water.
- oil — A neutral oil as in canola or sunflower oil OR a flavorful Asian cooking oil, such as sesame oil or peanut oil.
Process Overview
Step 1
Keep fresh ingredients ready-cut, including cooked rice.
Stir-cook spring onion bulbs and carrot.
Step 2
Break the egg, cook it, and shred it into pieces in the pean. Mix it up.
Add green peas and cooked rice.
Step 3
Pour the vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil over the rice.
Stir and cook over high heat until done. Serve up!
📖 Recipe
Panda Express Fried Rice Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Long Grain Rice uncooked, *see Notes
- 1-2 Tablespoons Oil
- 2 Green Onions aka spring onion
- ½ cup Carrot cut into matchsticks
- 2 Eggs
- ½ cup Green Peas
- 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Vinegar
- ½ Tablespoon Sesame Oil optional as a topping
Instructions
- For the rice, either cook it halfway through so that the rice grains are semi/almost cooked or, even better, use leftover rice that was chilled in the fridge. Leftover fridge rice tends to get a bit hard in the fridge, and that's what we want. It's easy to stir-fry the rice that way, or it will get soggy.1 cup Long Grain Rice
- Heat up a pan or wok with oil. Keep a higher heat setting all the time.1-2 Tablespoons Oil
- Add the sliced green onion bulbs and stir-fry for a minute or two until the onion bulbs have turned soft.2 Green Onions
- Then add the carrot pieces and stir-fry for a minute as well.½ cup Carrot
- Break the eggs into a small bowl and scramble eggs.2 Eggs
- Push the carrot and onion slices to the side of the pan so that we can cook the egg. Pour the egg into the pan and let it cook. Then break the eggs into pieces.
- Mix the whole content of the pan.
- Add in the green peas. I use cooked soft green peas. Mix everything well.½ cup Green Peas
- Now you can add the cooked rice.
- Stir-fry and mix the rice with the other ingredients on high heat. Use two wooden frying spatulas for that purpose, or Chinese cooking chopsticks.
- Pour the soy sauce and vinegar over the fried rice. Mix and stir-fry again for a minute.2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce, 1 Tablespoon Vinegar
- Pour the sesame oil over the panda express fried rice for extra Chinese food flavors.½ Tablespoon Sesame Oil
- Mix everything well, garnish with the sliced green onion stalks.
Notes
- Use long-grain rice such as Basmati rice.
- Use rice vinegar or regular white vinegar. A mild vinegar variation works best.
- The sesame oil is optional. It lends the dish typical Chinese flavors.
- To stir-fry on high heat, use only PFOA & BPA-free Non-Stick frying pans or use a stainless steel wok. A wok will make your fried rice extra crispy, but if you don't have one, then a frying pan will do the job too (just the way I prepare it too).
- Please watch my how to recipe video to see how I prepare this Panda Express copycat fried rice from scratch.
Nutrition
Tips
You can use fresh or frozen peas and carrots. The panda food chain uses frozen ones. The Panda Express copycat fried rice ingredients mentioned above can be adjusted if you prefer a little more or fewer veggies or rice.
The whole point of preparing fried rice at home is to have the freedom to do what you enjoy. Right?
Other perks of preparing your copycat fried rice at home include that you know what's in your meal, making it a healthier (without MSG), budget-friendly dinner option. That's why this fried rice will be better than takeout!
Use long grain white rice, such as basmati or other Asian rice variations. It doesn't really matter which long-grain rice; what matters is that the rice doesn't get mushy when you try to stir-fry.
Wash your rice in clear running water a few times before cooking it to get rid of excess starch.
The trick for amazing fried rice is simple. Use leftover fridge-cold fried rice. This is the easiest way to succeed in preparing fried rice every time! OR boil fresh rice to the bite; that means undercook it.
Thus, when you intend to fry the rice, you will be able to cook it without the rice sticking to the pan or getting all mushy and ugly.
If you want to add another healthy element to your copycat rice, try switching the rice with brown rice. But keep in mind that it will greatly differ from the original Panda Express rice.
Serving
The copycat panda rice is a side dish just like the Panda Express chow mein and steamed rice.
The fried rice was created to be served with typical Panda Express meals such as orange chicken and black pepper chicken, just to name a few.
I, personally, love the fried rice with a chicken cabbage stir-fry or any other wok stir-fry.
You are welcome to enjoy the veg egg fried rice without anything else. In that case, the Panda Express fried rice makes a neat vegetarian dinner meal idea.
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