Thai fried rice eats like a meal. Big tastes. Satisfying. I don’t know why. But it works. A culinary mystery I guess. Khao pad is street food. So there aren’t a lot of ingredients. And it cooks in no time at all. But there are subtleties here. This isn’t throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and toss it in an oven. There’s a few things you need to consider.
You need to get the rice right
Makes sense. This is a rice dish. So the rice matters. This is a jasmine rice dish. Pretty much always jasmine rice for Thai. You can get it at Asian groceries. Or you can pay more and just pick it up at a regular grocery store. Up to you. It’s nice when it’s easy like that. The rice needs to be pre-cooked and cold. Warm rice is a sure fire way to make bad khao pad. Best to cook it the day before. It dries out a bit. So you don’t get soggy, clumpy Thai fried rice. At a minimum you should have time to let it cool completely. But day old works better.
Rice cookers make life better
I can cook jasmine rice. Turns out OK. 1 cup of rice. 1 1/4 cups of water. Bring to a simmer. Cover. Cook somewhere around 11-14 minutes depending on the rice. Let it sit 5 minutes. Gently fluff the rice. Works pretty well. Most of the time. Or you can get a rice cooker. I resisted for a long time. It’s an expensive one-trick appliance. Takes up space. I am generally opposed to things like that. I’m anti-kitchen gadget. Don’t have a slow cooker. Or an air fryer. But I caved. I bought one. And I am so happy that I did. Perfect rice. Every. Single. Time. And I’m not ashamed I did it either. I did it after I read Andy Ricker saying he uses one. Recommends it even. If it’s good enough for the guy that runs one of the best Thai restaurant in North America…
Use a wok – it’s just easier
You could try to make Thai fried rice in a big frying pan. But that would just be making things difficult. Woks are cheap. And they are useful. If you don’t have one think about getting one. It’s not just about having rice all over your stove either. That’s messy. But not the end of the world. Not that hard to clean up. What matters is toasty rice flavour. You need to push the rice against the hot sides of the wok as you stir fry. And the best way to get that is to keep as much rice in contact with as much hot wok surface as possible.
Temperature matters for Thai fried rice
Blazing hot heat makes for better fried rice. Stir frying in general is about high heat. And this is not different. But you need to be a little bit careful. Timing matters here. Fry the chicken over relatively high heat. You want it to brown a bit. Some of that Maillard magic for flavour. Always good. Then you want to tone things down a bit. You don’t want the garlic to burn. But once the rice goes in it’s time to crank the heat. High. Once you get things toasty slow it down again. To cook the eggs. It’s almost impossible to cook the eggs and keep the rice moving. So it’s going to brown a bit. Getting a bit of crust on the rice isn’t a terrible thing though. Think paella. Or bibimbap. I like it. A gas burner makes this all a lot easier. But I’ve cooked on electric as well. The trick it to lift the pan off the burner. Or have two burners going at once. One on high. One on medium low. Move the pan. That works.
Prik nam pla – the classic Thai fried rice condiment
Prik nam pla is fish sauce and red chilies. That’s it. The simplest hot sauce ever invented. But it’s what adds a bit of zing to Thai fried rice. I like to add lime juice to mine. Lime juice dilutes the fish sauce a bit. Fish sauce is really salty. Diluting a bit makes it easier to control. Nam prik pao is the other secret ingredient. It adds a ton of flavour. And complexity. Worth it if you want to go the distance. If you don’t then you can use sriracha or sambal oelek. Not the same but still good. Thai fried rice. If you like rice. And you like Thai. Then you should think about making it. It’s hands down my favourite fried rice. Maybe it will become yours…
