Who needs take-out when you can make this quick & tasty wok charred shrimp fried rice at home!
What do you cook when it’s close to dinner time but nothing is ready? One of the dishes I often turn to is this quick and easy Shrimp Fried Rice.
With just a few basic ingredients from the pantry, I can cook up an amazingly delicious dinner that my whole family loves. All done under 20 minutes! Plus, who could resist wok charred fried rice with sweet succulent shrimp and fluffy egg?
Watch How to Make Shrimp Fried Rice
Delectable wok charred fried rice tossed with shrimp, egg, and green onion!
Better Than Take-Out Shrimp Fried Rice
Whether it’s at a Chinese restaurant or Asian take-out eateries, there is no question that shrimp fried rice is a favorite. A simple concoction can feel extra indulgent with the addition of juicy shrimp. But if you were to eat fried rice, it is so much easier and better to make it at home!
I often have frozen shrimp and leftover rice in the freezer. It’s one of the kitchen hacks for any home cook. Since they defrost quickly, these items are seriously handy when comes to emergency meals. Throw them together in a hot wok, crack in an egg, your dinner is done faster than driving to a restaurant and waiting in line for a $9 per plate fried rice.
Can you make the fried rice as tasty as the restaurant? Of course, you can! Read on for tips & tricks on how to make the perfect fried rice at home.
Tricks and Tips to Make the Perfect Fried Rice at Home
1. Wok
You need a large wok or frying pan that has enough space for the rice to move around. The key is to make sure each rice grain comes in contact with the oil and heat. Give the rice and all the ingredients some good tossing. To prevent big clumps, do not overcrowd the ingredients. And cook 1-2 servings at a time.
2. Heat
Fried rice at the restaurant tastes good because it has that smoky flavor from the high temperature and the seasoned wok. Cooking over high heat is required and a layer of oil on a hot surface will form a non-stick coating on the wok. If the wok is not hot enough, rice will start sticking everywhere. Since you will be cooking on high heat, make sure all the ingredients are prepped and ready to throw in. If you decide to use a non-stick frying pan, don’t use high heat as you will ruin your pan.
3. Oil
You will need a decent amount of oil to cook the fluffy egg. I know you might prefer to use as little oil as possible. But you don’t want your fried rice to stick on your pan and ruin your dinner right? Don’t worry about oily egg because you would be adding the egg back into the wok later on. The oil on the egg will coat the rice and help rice separate from each other.
4. Rice
You can’t make fried rice with freshly cooked rice. Use day-old cold rice because it is more firm and has no excess moisture. Again, we want the rice to separate and not get mushy. If you don’t have leftover rice in hand and still wish to make fried rice. Then cook the rice ahead and let cool in the refrigerator for at least a few hours to reduce the moisture content.
5. Ingredients & Seasonings
Use ingredients that do not contain too much moisture. Extra moisture or too much saucy seasonings will turn the fried rice mushy. Other than that, be creative and use any leftover meats and veggies you find in the fridge (but keep it simple)!
Fresh Cooked Fried Rice for Family Weeknight Meals
When making this shrimp fried rice at home for the family, you get to use better quality oil, ingredients, and less salt. Bookmark the recipe so you won’t be tempted for take-out next time!
Looking for more easy family weeknight meals? Browse these Under 30 Minutes Recipes.
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Shrimp Fried Rice
Video
Ingredients
- 4 oz shrimps (6 shrimp; shelled and deveined)
- 1 leaf iceberg lettuce (1 oz, 30 g)
- 1 green onion/scallion
- 2 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, rice bran, canola, etc)
- 1 large egg (50 g w/o shell)
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- 1 tsp sake
- ¼ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
- 2 cups cooked Japanese short-grain rice (preferably day-old cold rice)
- ⅛ tsp white pepper powder
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp soy sauce
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- If your shrimp is not shelled and deveined, please see How To Devein and Clean Shrimp. Cut shrimp into ½ inch (1.3 cm) pieces.
- Cut iceberg lettuce and scallion into small pieces.
- Gently whisk the egg in a small bowl.
- Heat wok until surface almost smoking, add the oil and spread it around till it coats the surface evenly. Add the egg and cook over high heat. The egg will not stick to the pan as long as you put enough oil. Quickly mix it with a spatula and when it’s 80% cooked, take it out and put on a plate.
- In the same wok, add shrimp and then sake and salt. Cook until shrimp change color outside. The inside doesn’t have to be cooked through at this time. Take shrimp out onto the plate.
- Add sesame oil and cook scallion, stir until nicely coated with oil.
- Add the rice and break up the chunks of rice. Toss the wok and mix well together.
- When rice is coated with oil, put the egg and shrimp back in the wok again and toss all together. Add lettuce, white pepper, freshly ground black pepper, and soy sauce. Toss the wok frequently and mix it all together. Serve immediately.
More Quick & Easy Fried Rice Recipes You’ll Love:
- Classic Fried Rice (Gluten-Free)
- Salmon Fried Rice
- Kimchi Fried Rice
- Japanese Garlic Fried Rice
- Japanese Fried Rice with Edamame, Tofu & Hijiki Seaweed (Trader’s Joe copycat recipe)
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on May 14, 2014. The content has been updated in January 2020.
After my misadventure with deep frying agedashi tofu, I managed this dish a little better. We are surprised by how fragrant this dish turned out! I used negi instead of spring onion/scallion. I also realised that deshelling and deveining prawns isn’t as challenging as I had expected =) Will definitely be cooking this again! We are fried rice lovers =D Thank you for this recipe!
Hi Natalie! Glad your fried rice turned out well! And yeah, it’s pretty easy to devein shrimps. Our favorite is salmon fried rice. Hope you will give that a try too. Thank you so much for your kind feedback. 🙂
Love your website. We are going to Japan (3 couples) and I served a Japanese dinner when we met for final travel plans. Each recipe was easy to follow, delicious and eaten with chop sticks. I will return to your site for more recipes after our trip!
Hi Betty! Thank you so much for your kind words! So happy to hear you enjoy cooking my recipes. Thank you! Have a safe and wonderful trip to Japan!
Hello. Thank you for answering my questions about your garlic fried rice recipe. From reading this recipe I see that using warm rice is just for the garlic fried rice. Now I understand. I do have another question. This recipe says to first cook the eggs 80%, and then remove. This seems to be the norm. However, with my burner being 25,000 BTU, it is very hard to cook the egg and remove in time. Instead I wait until the end, use my spatula to make a hole in the rice, put some oil on the wok in the hole, and then pour in the egg, and swirl it. It cooks very quickly. Is there a problem with doing this? Thanks.
Hi Carl! Not at all, there are a lot of people make the fried egg that way, creating a hole in the rice. Only difference is that you will have to cook the egg while the rice is in it. My favorite part of this technique is that when the egg hits the oil in the wok, egg fluff up from the edge and sort of like float on top of the oil. It makes amazing fluffy egg. Then I quickly lift up the egg from the ruffle (edge of egg) and take it out. When I make a weld and pour egg in the hole, I can’t make the egg as fluffy (more like scramble egg). I forgot exact BTU but mine is similar probably around 20,000 BTU? I can make the egg really nice and fluffy, just need to adjust the heat so you won’t over cook it?
Omg! This is one of the best dishes ever! Loved it thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for trying this recipe, Sam! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it! 🙂
Hi Nami, Just discovered your site and cannot wait to try all these recipes! Would love to make this shrimp fried rice ahead of time for a dinner party, but do you think I can make it and then keep it in the rice cooker on the “warm” setting for a few hours until ready to serve?
Hi Herminia! Thank you for finding my site! To be honest, if you keep fried rice in a rice cooker (at warm setting), rice may get mushy instead of fluffy… My first choice would be spreading out the rice in aluminum serving tray (for pot luck etc) and cover with the aluminum foil and put it in the oven (at warm setting). Spreading out helps, so it’s not “packed” in the small container/rice cooker. Hope this helps!
Great idea! Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. Will try it this weekend 🙂
No problem! Hope you enjoy the recipe! xo
Turned out so well! This is going to be a staple in our home.
Hi Herminia! Thanks for trying this recipe! I’m so glad to hear you enjoy this recipe. 🙂
Hi Nami San, I am wondering if I should defrost the shrimps when I the frozen ones. Or should I just cook frozen ones? I would appreciate your advice. Thank you!
Hi Fumiko-san! If it’s frozen, I’d defrost so that cooking time is shortened and we make sure shrimp is cooked through. 🙂
Thank you for your reply! I made it for lunch today. It was delicious. The combination of shrimp and lettuce is great. I always use cabbage for chahan but I like the cunchness of lettuce.
Hi Fumiko! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it! Lettuce is commonly used in Japanese chahan and I like that texture too. 🙂
Really enjoyed this simple dish! Thank you for another wonderful recipe. I’ve been using store bought oyster sauce to add to pretty much every fried rice I make, and your recipe proved to me that I don’t need that, especially since its ingredients list is not very healthy. I’ll be making this fried rice again soon!
Hi Alvena!
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed this dish.🙂
I made the Shrimp Fried Rice
It was delicious. My 13 year old grandson who hates eggs and refuses to eat them and loved the rice even the eggs!!!
Hi Jane, Yay! We are glad to hear your grandson enjoyed this fried rice too. Thank you very much for trying this recipe!
Do you have a preference on wok brand? I’ve tried this on a non stick skillet, but it’s definitely missing that smoky high heat taste.
Hi Alex, Thank you very much for trying this recipe! Nami uses this wok.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08G8XSW5Q?ref=exp_justonecookbook_dp_vv_d&th=1
We hope this helps!