Bacon Fried Rice

Bacon Fried Rice!

Brace yourself. This is a good one.

And I’m not just talking about my (fairly lame) attempt at fancy food styling with the green onions and chopsticks either.

I’m talking BACON!

This was my first attempt at fried rice and can I just say, WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG?

Yes, I’m yelling. Because it’s bacon. In fried rice. Easy and amazingly tasty.

Here’s what you need:

Rice (leftover rice is the best), Onion, Garlic, Red Bell Pepper, Carrots, Spinach and/or Peas, Bacon, Eggs, Soy Sauce, and Sriracha Sauce. Vegetable or Olive Oil suggested but optional (not pictured).

Click here for a Bacon Fried Rice Shopping List

Bacon makes everything better. (Unless you are a vegan.)

Cut 5 or 6 slices of bacon into small pieces and place them in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. I’m using my big non-stick skillet to make clean up easy.

Render the fat out of the bacon and get it nice and crispy and golden.

Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon leaving most of the bacon grease in the pan. If you have more than about 2 Tablespoons of bacon grease, pour the excess off but save it in case you need more later.

Try not to eat all the bacon while you prepare the veggies. If you’re me, that means hiding the bacon in the oven or microwave so it’s out of sight.

Chop up 1 medium onion, 1 red bell pepper, and 4 carrots. Add them to the bacon grease, turn the heat up to medium high, and quickly sauté or stir fry the vegetables until they are tender-crisp, about 5 minutes.

For the last minute of cooking, add 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic.

Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.

Turn the heat on the pan up to high. Add either 1 Tablespoon of vegetable or light olive oil or 1 tablespoon of reserved bacon grease to the pan. When the oil is hot, add 4 cups of cooked white rice. Day old or leftover rice is the best for this dish because it has a chance to dry out and be less sticky.

Note:  4 cups of cooked rice is about 1½ – 2 cups of dried rice cooked with twice that amount of water. 

Fry the rice, turning occasionally with a spatula, until it is slightly crispy – about 5 minutes. Your pan really needs to be pretty hot or else your rice will just sit there like a blob and not fry up.

Add the veggies and the bacon back to the pan. I love peas so I added 1 cup of frozen peas. You could also use 1 cup (or more) of baby spinach. I was going to use both but my ratio of veggies to rice was getting a little out of control.

Break 4 eggs into a medium bowl and whip them lightly with a fork. Add a few drops of Sriracha sauce to the eggs to perk things up.

Scramble the eggs in a medium non-stick skillet. You can add a little butter, bacon grease, or oil if your pan is too dry.

The key to good scrambled eggs is to keep the heat low.

If the pan gets too hot, the eggs cook too quickly and get that weird plastic texture around the edges.

Season the fried rice with 2-3 Tablespoons of soy sauce.

Give it a good stir to combine all the flavors.

I can’t eat eggs so I dished some out for myself and I’m here to report that eggless fried rice is still fabulous.

All you egg eaters, add the eggs to the rice and gently fold them in to combine.

Serve in a bowl with sliced green onions as a garnish. Serve with the Sriracha sauce on the side for a little extra kick.

Next time you’re cooking rice, plan ahead and make DOUBLE the rice you need so you can have Bacon Fried Rice.

You won’t be sorry!

Here’s the recipe:

 Bacon Fried Rice

(I can’t remember who gave me the idea for bacon fried rice so if it was you, speak up and I’ll give you credit!)