What kind of rice should I use for frying?
Which properties should I look for or avoid in rice when I'm planning to fry it (the day after cooking)?
Best Answer
It depends how you like your rice. Personally I like my fried rice to have a few sticky lumps through it to add texture. Others may like it completely 'separated'. It's really up to you. I usually use a combination of long grain and Basmati.
Another point is to make sure your rice is safe - it needs to be cooled relatively quickly, and kept cool, to prevent the growth of Bacillus cereus, which can cause serious (no pun intended) food poisoning.
As it happens, fried rice is much better when cooked with cold rice and very hot oil anyway, so it's a good idea to keep it cool in any case.
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Quick Answer about "What kind of rice should I use for frying?"
Long-grain white rice is perfect for fried rice. It cooks up fluffy and not sticky, with individual grains remaining firm and distinct.Which white rice is best for fried rice?
Homemade Fried Rice Ingredients: Cooked, chilled rice: Any kind of white or brown rice will do. Just be sure that it is cooked (I always cook mine in this rice cooker, which works like a charm) and thoroughly chilled (in a sealed container in the refrigerator) before adding it to your hot skillet.Can you use basmati or jasmine rice for fried rice?
HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT FRIED RICE. Use the right rice, such as a long grain like Basmati rice, a medium grain like Jasmine rice or even sushi rice. Plan ahead and cook the rice the day before or even in the morning.Is Jasmine rice good for frying?
What is the best rice to use for fried rice? Long grain rice, such as basmati or jasmine, is a good choice because it is light and fluffy. This type of rice will absorb the flavors of the other ingredients in the dish without becoming too mushy.Do you cook rice before frying it?
Frying previously cooked rice is much quicker than frying uncooked rice and it is also an excellent means for using up leftover rice.What's the best rice for fried rice?
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Answer 2
Technically you could probably use whatever rice you have there. But if you're looking to make a typical Chinese style Fried rice, traditionally a long grain white rice is used. The long grain rice has the lowest amount of amylopectin which is what makes some rice "sticky". Typically when fried rice is made, you want individual separable grains of rice. So I'd go with the longest grain rice you have.
Answer 3
The most important property is that it's cold. Really.
Cold, slightly dry rice of any variety will do, except for highly glutinous rice (like mochi-gome). Mochi-gome, while used for mixed rices like sekihan (rice and red beans), is generally steamed together with other ingredients, not fried, because it'll just be uncooperative.
Japan, China, Korea, and Thailand all have some form of fried rice, and the variety of rice is generally the same as whatever the most common variety is in that country. Japan and Korea usually use a short-grain japonica variety which tends to clump a bit, and China and Thailand mostly use medium grain which generally doesn't. Generally, because the rice dries substantially during cooling, the clumping is greatly reduced when you toss that pre-cooled rice around in your frying pan/wok/cooking vessel with a bit of oil.
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