Amazing 30 Minute Instant Pot Fried Rice

I was really, REALLY skeptical about this one. I mean, how can you get a reasonably good FRIED rice without frying? There’s that whole thing where you use day old cooked rice so that it’s partially dried out before you start cooking and everything!

I’m here to say … bullocks. You CAN make an amazing fried rice from scratch in no time at all, right in your Instant Pot.

I wanted to do stir fry and fried rice this weekend, so I went hunting for some new recipes. Something that didn’t involve a bottle of teriyaki or stir-fry sauce from the grocery store.

I started by looking for a fried rice recipe for the Instant Pot, since it’s the fastest/best way I know to get great rice pretty much without fail. There are a LOT of them out there.

One stood out to me, because it used a very different process from all of the others. Big shout out to Indigo Nili and her video on YouTube. I NEVER would have thought to fry the rice in scrambled eggs before cooking them.

It honestly comes together very quickly, and the results REALLY surprised me. It came out a lot darker than I expected. I suspect not using a light soy sauce is the culprit there. Still, it wasn’t super salty, or strongly soy flavoured. And that’s good, since I’m not the biggest fan of the taste of soy sauce.

It also passes my greatest test of Chinese food – it’s FANTASTIC the next day!! Maybe even better? Maybe.

I made this at the same time as a delicious Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry, and together they were AMAZEBALLS! Completely complemented each other. It was worth the prep time and constant dashing back and forth around the kitchen to get them to be completed at the same time. Or within a couple of minutes of each other at least!

Anyway, here is the recipe. Cheers!

Amazing 30 Minute Instant Pot Fried Rice

Make this and you may never want to order fried rice again! Quick, easy, and delicious!
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: carrot, egg,, fish sauce, fried rice, green onion, peas, sesame oil, sesame seeds, soy sauce, sriracha
Author: Chris Pollard

Equipment

  • Measuring cups/spoons
  • Small bowls
  • Instant Pot
  • Wooden spoon
  • Fine mesh strainer

Ingredients

Preparing the rice

  • 2 tbsp cooking oil Avocado, olive, vegetable, etc
  • 1 ½ cups Jasmine rice rinsed and drained
  • 2 large eggs scrambled
  • 1 ½ cups chicken broth

The sauce

  • 3 tbsp Soy sauce
  • 2 tsp fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp sriracha
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • ½ tsp granulated garlic

Finishing the rice

  • cup peas frozen
  • cup shredded/julienned carrot (about 1/2 a large carrot)
  • 4 green onions sliced, whites and greens separated
  • 2 large eggs scrambled
  • toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Instructions

  • Rinse rice under cold running water in fine mesh strainer. Shake off excess water and set aside.
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, fish sauce, sriracha sauce, sesame oil, and granulated garlic.
  • Set Instant Pot to saute on high.
  • Add 2 tbsp of cooking oil of your choice.
  • While oil is heating, scramble two eggs in a mixing bowl. Add the rinsed rice and stir until all grains of rice are coated in egg.
  • Add the rice/egg mixture to the hot Instant Pot.
  • Stir constantly to allow the egg to cook and each grain of rice to separate. Break up any small clumps that form while cooking. Continue frying until the rice looks dry again. You may hear sizzling and popping when it's ready.
  • Add the chicken broth and stir, scraping anything that may have been stuck to the bottom of the Instant Pot.
  • Once confident that there is nothing left on the bottom of the pot, add the bowl of sauce from step 2.
  • Switch Instant Pot from saute to Manual cook, high pressure, for 4 minutes.
  • While that is doing its pressure thing, scramble the other two eggs, slice up your green onions, get a scoop of frozen peas, and about the same amount of shredded/julienned carrots. A julienne peeler here is PERFECT!
  • When pressure cooking is over, natural release for 5 minutes, then do a quick release until the pin drops.
  • Take the lid off your Instant Pot, give it a stir, and remove to a bowl quickly.
  • Set the Instant Pot back to saute on high.
  • Add a swirl of cooking oil to the pot, the whites of the onions, frozen peas, and carrots. Fry for a minute or two, then push to one side of the pot.
  • Add another drizzle of oil to the empty side of the pot and add the scrambled eggs.
  • Allow the eggs to cook for a bit, until they start to solidify. Give them a stir to break them up and when almost fully cooked, stir into the peas/carrots/onions.
  • Add the cooked rice back into the Instant Pot and stir together.
  • Remove from heat quickly to serving bowl. Add the sliced green onion tops and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds (optional).
  • Serve! (Pictured alongside chicken stir fry.)

Notes

If you want to see this come together in video form, check out the original on YouTube
This recipe is the PERFECT compliment to my Chicken And Veggie Stir Fry. If you get all your prep work done in advance, you can absolutely make the two dishes at the same time and have them ready together! It gets a little tricky here and there, particularly the parts where you need to do some stirring with the fried rice, but it works! Let the chicken fry while you’re frying the rice/egg mixture before pressure cooking. The chicken is fine frying while you’re stirring the rice, and you can dart to the stove to stir the chicken without harming the rice. I HIGHLY recommend the two together!

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