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.
More fried rice recipes
This tastes nothing like PE fried rice. The vinegar, no matter the type used, is either too much or should not be in there at all. I’ve had a lot of fried rice in my life and I’ve never had one taste of vinegar, let alone have it be the stand out flavor. The sesame oil naturally has a bite/bitterness to it, so adding the vinegar just killed it for me.
As a recipe in general, it’s not my cup of tea, but it’s not terrible. It was edible, but not delicious. As a copycat, the only resemblance I found was that they both have rice. The flavor was way off the mark if you’re going for the Panda Express flavoring.
Hi Shea, thanks for sharing. This is my take on the PE fried rice. Fried rice in Asia always includes vinegar to balance out the salty soy sauce flavors and the sweet sugar. I don't know which vinegar you used. Rice vinegar is a preferred way to season fried rice in Asia because it's mild and not that strongly flavored. I recommend you try that out next time. Moreover, not every sesame oil is the same. There is the cheaper regular almost translucent yellow tint sesame oil (used for frying because it has a higher smoking point) and there is the thicker and darker sesame oil which is toasted sesame oil. It should be cold pressed and this sesame oil is better used as a topping because it has a lower smoking point. Toasted sesame oil is also more intense in flavor. Now, it highly depends on which sesame oil quality you buy because they are not all the same.
Could you explain how to make the rice so it is individual grains like that? Every time I make rice it ends up being kinda sticky or mushy, and after being in the fridge it often just clumps into the shape of the container it was in
So it comes down to a few things. I have made sticky mushy rice in the past too, and I learned that a few things can make the difference. Use quality rice, cook over a lower heat setting and keep an eye on your rice. Use enough water, but don't over do it when cooking rice. Because if you leave the cooked rice by accident for too long in excess water, the rice will suck in the extra waters, and it will turn out mushy. The moment your rice is cooked, strain the rice. There shouldn't be any excess water left. Then keep the hot steaming rice in the pot and don't cover it or else steam will get trapped, and the rice will turn out sticky again. Try to avoid over cooking your rice. Stick to the same brand, quantity of water, heat setting and cooking time, once you got it right, and you will always make perfect non-sticky rice.
Are you living in the mountains or on a higher sea level? I found it more challenging to cook rice in altitudes above 500 meters. I'm uncertain if it is the hard water or the altitude. I tested it most recently with Indian rice, which cooked perfectly in India but turned out mushy in the alps.
Look and sound great!! What type of vinegar do you use, rice, cider, white? Is the vinegar for flavour?
Hi Linda, I like to use rice vinegar but sometimes I use white wine vinegar too. Use a vinegar that isn't too overpowering, it should be mild. You can also mix a strong-flavored vinegar with some water to achieve that. Rice vinegar has a 4% acidity level, so you can use that as a baseline if you want to use another vinegar. The vinegar adds acidity and a tad of flavor. Rice vinegar tastes more neutral, hence why it's more suitable to use that. But don't limit yourself, you are free to test other vinegar too.
You can add shrimp,chicken,pork,or beef.
Good but definitely better with a bit of chilli added 😊
My husband loves serving his with sriracha sauce 😀
I added chicken with mines
great idea!! 🙂
looks good ! does it HAVE to be sesame oil ? or
can you use olive oil ?
The sesame oil is optional at the end and it gives the rice flavor. You can use peanut oil too or just skip the oil altogether. Olive oil would not be suitable but if you want, you are free to use that too.
thanks so much for getting back to me !!!
sure thing 🙂
Made this the other night and was pleased. Quick and satisfying. I will make it again.
Looks like a great meal for weeknights!
Totaly!
I had everything to make this so I made it tonight! It may be a copycat, but I liked it so mjuch better! Not greasy at all... we devoured it!!
Happy to read that you enjoyed the fried rice as much as we did! 🙂