Turn left over rice into most flavorful kimchi fried rice in minutes! This spicy, tang, salty fried rice is packed with so many flavors than the regular Chinese fried rice. Top it with fried egg it can be a perfect meal by itself.
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What is kimchi fried rice
Fried rice with Korean twist. This vegetarian Korean fried rice is one-pan meatless satisfying simple meal which is quick and easy to make. Swap Chinese fried rice with flavor packed Korean fried rice.
Kimchi is spicy pickled and fermented condiments made usually of Napa cabbage along with other spices and aromats. It can be quite intense in flavors.
Don’t get intimidated with the color, it’s actually not that spicy. Kimchi adds flavor to the rice, along with soy sauce, gochujang this fried rice has balanced flavors of spicy, tang, salty.
Kimchi fried rice is popular Korean fried rice recipe. Unlike Chinese fried rice, Korean fried rice is friery-red in color and packs a punch of flavors to it. It’s ultimate comfort food that is made from leftover cooked rice and kimchi.
You can easily make this fried rice “spicy” as you want or dial it down depending on your preference.
Ingredients needed
- 1 + 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (like canola oil or sunflower oil)
- 1 cup yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
- 1 cup carrot, shredded
- 1 cup shiitake mushroom
- 1 cup kimchi, roughly chopped and 2 tablespoon juices reserved
- 3 cups day old jasmine rice, refrigerated
- 1 tablespoon gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 4 fried eggs
- ⅓ cup nori strips
- 2 green onion, sliced thin
- 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
Rice: best to use day old rice refrigerated. Use leftover refrigerated/chilled jasmine rice for kimchi fried rice recipe.
If you can’t find jasmine rice, use any white rice short or medium grain rice like basmati rice.
Kimchi: good kimchi makes good fried rice. Try to get the authentic Korean kimchi that is made of Napa cabbage.
Gochujang (Korean red pepper paste): is optional. It adds that umami flavor to the dish. It’s a spicy paste, but you won’t need much.
Mushroom: I used re-hydrated shiitake mushroom. Feel free to use any mushroom like enoki, king oyster mushroom or shiitake mushroom. If you are huge mushroom fan, add a mix of all mushroom.
Korean restaurants usually use enoki mushrooms in their fried rice recipe.
Sesame oil: Korean and most Asian recipes uses sesame oil. It’s the flavor of the oil that Asian love.
Aromats: yellow onion, ginger, garlic to make it more flavorful and tasty.
Carrot: shred carrots for better texture.
Ingredients additions and substitutions
Kimchi fried rice topped with fried eggs is comforting meal.
Add or substitute other vegetables-
- Use enoki mushroom or oyster mushroom or golden mushroom in place of shiitake mushroom. Or use a mix of all of it.
- Add in peas (fresh or frozen) along with carrots.
- Feeling fancy? Add in edamame for something extra.
- Broccoli works.
Include protein to make it nutritious meal.
- Small cubes of boneless chicken cooked with pinch of salt and pepper in oil can be added to fried rice.
- Add cooked shrimp.
- Finish off the dish with crispy bacon bits for extra oomph.
- Add chunks of tuna fish to Korean fried rice.
How to make kimchi fried rice
Kimchi fried rice recipe is so much different from it’s counterpart Chinese fried rice. Unlike Chinese fried rice which is mostly flavoured from soy sauce, Korean fried rice uses kimchi, juices from kimchi and gochujang which gives it fiery-red color and extra kick of flavors.
Though gochujang is optional to use, highly recommend you don’t skip it. You won’t need much and it won’t make the dish spicy. Kimchi fried rice recipe gets its flavor from gochujang and the juice from kimchi.
For best results use day old cooked rice like jasmine rice or other short/medium grain rice. Rice stored in refrigerator works best.
Shred carrot. Mince ginger and garlic. Roughly chop kimchi. Reserve it’s juice.
Note: you want to remove all juice from kimchi before adding to fried rice so fried rice does not turn soggy.
- Add juice from the kimchi to gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) along with light soy sauce and sesame oil. Mix well, set aside.
- In a large wok heat canola or sunflower oil or sesame oil.
- Cook diced onion on high heat tossing constantly until onion turns translucent.
- Add minced ginger and garlic. Toss cook for few seconds.
- Cook shredded carrot, shiitake mushroom and kimchi to the wok. Move it around and cook until mushrooms are soft.
Mix in refrigerated cooked jasmine rice to the wok.
Pour in prepared sauce of gochujang-kimchi juice-light soy sauce-sesame oil to rice.
Toss well to ensure rice fluffy and fully coated in the sauce and each grain of rice is red.
Remove wok from stove.
In another small pan heat 2 teaspoon of oil. Fry an egg in oil. You can fry cook egg the way you prefer – runny yolk egg or well cook egg.
Serve kimchi fried rice in serving bowl with fried eggs. Garnish it with green onion, black sesame seeds, nori strips.
Enjoy immediately hot.
Recipe tips
- Day old rice is best because the grains are dry and crumbly. Fresh cooked rice will be wet and have surface moisture which will make it too sticky and might turn fried rice into a mush. While fresh cooked rice can be used, the results may not be the same.
- Useful hack – No leftover rice? Need some for emergency to make fried rice? Cook jasmine rice, spread on a large tray and cool it and then pop in freezer so it’s dry. Note rice triples in volume when cooked. 1 cup of medium or long grain rice will yield 3-4 cups rice.
- Mise en place – the most important step in any stir fried dish you get all the ingredients chopped and ready near the stove to be thrown into the pan and tossed.
- Keep tossing – Do not let the ingredients sit for long while cooking.
How to serve kimchi fried rice
You can serve it as side dish with any Korean and Asian meal.
If you liked to serve it as a meal, don’t forget to top it with sunny side up (fried egg) on top.
How to store kimchi fried rice
This Korean fried rice keeps well. You can store leftover rice (completely cooled) in air tight container refrigerated for up to 5 days.
You can even freeze the fried rice for longer storage, but I find the texture of the frozen fried rice not that appealing. It’s super simple and fast to make, this fried rice comes together in 20 minutes, so I don’t recommend freezing. You can definitely refrigerate the rice.
To reheat rice, remove it from fridge add splash of water and reheat it in microwave.
FAQS
You can use any white rice variety short, medium or long grain rice.
Kimchi is spicy pickled and fermented condiments made usually of Napa cabbage along with other spices and aromats. It can be quite intense in flavors.
You can find it easily in any Asian store. It can also be purchased online.
Not very spicy, but it definitely has a slight kick to it. Since this recipe uses gochujang (Korean red pepper paste). Gochujang is actually spicy but we won’t need much, just a tablespoon would do.
If you like fried rice spicy, feel free to increase gochujang by ½ tablespoon more. Still not enough spicy, add pepper flakes or chili powder to make it spicy. Gochujang is fermented pepper paste and has salt in it. Simply increasing the amount of gochujang blindly will increase the salt in the dish.
OTHER RICE SIDE DISH RECIPES:
- Easy rice pilaf
- Homemade seasoned rice
- Steamed rice
- Thai pineapple fried rice
- Turmeric yellow rice
- Best Cilantro Lime Rice
- Instant Pot Mexican Rice
- Garlic Rice
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📋Easy Kimchi Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil like canola oil or sunflower oil
- 1 cup yellow onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger minced
- 1 cup carrot shredded
- 1 cup shiitake mushroom
- 1 cup kimchi roughly chopped and 2 tablespoon juices reserved
- 3 cups day old jasmine rice refrigerated
- 1 tablespoon gochujang Korean red pepper paste
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 4 fried eggs
- ⅓ cup nori strips
- 2 green onion sliced thin
- 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
Instructions
Prep kimchi:
- Shred carrot. Mince ginger and garlic. Roughly chop kimchi. Reserve it’s juice.
- Note: you want to remove all juice from kimchi before adding to fried rice so fried rice does not turn soggy.
- Add juice from the kimchi to gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) along with light soy sauce and sesame oil. Mix well, set aside.
Make fried rice:
- In a large wok heat canola or sunflower oil or sesame oil.
- Cook diced onion on high heat tossing constantly until onion turns translucent.
- Add minced ginger and garlic. Toss cook for few seconds.
- Cook shredded carrot, shiitake mushroom and kimchi to the wok. Move it around and cook until mushrooms are soft.
- Mix in refrigerated cooked jasmine rice to the wok.
- Pour in prepared sauce of gochujang-kimchi juice-light soy sauce-sesame oil to rice.
- Toss well to ensure rice fluffy and fully coated in the sauce and each grain of rice is red.
- Remove wok from stove.
Serve:
- In another small pan heat 2 teaspoon of oil. Fry an egg in oil. You can fry cook egg the way you prefer – runny yolk egg or well cook egg.
- Serve kimchi fried rice in serving bowl with fried eggs. Garnish it with green onion, black sesame seeds, nori strips.
- Enjoy immediately hot.
Video
Notes
- Day old rice is best because the grains are dry and crumbly. Fresh cooked rice will be wet and have surface moisture which will make it too sticky and might turn fried rice into a mush. While fresh cooked rice can be used, the results may not be the same.
- Useful hack – No leftover rice? Need some for emergency to make fried rice? Cook jasmine rice, spread on a large tray and cool it and then pop in freezer so it’s dry. Note rice triples in volume when cooked. 1 cup of medium or long grain rice will yield 3-4 cups rice.
- Mise en place – the most important step in any stir fried dish you get all the ingredients chopped and ready near the stove to be thrown into the pan and tossed.
- Keep tossing – Do not let the ingredients sit for long while cooking.
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