Rice – Reducing the moisture in cooked rice for making fried rice

chinese-cuisinerice

I am aware that in order for fried rice in Asian dishes to have the typical consistency and texture, it is best to use rice that has been cooked and stored for at least 24 hours.

However, it's often difficult for me to plan anything a day in advance for certain reasons, and so I was wondering if there are any tricks to either improve the texture, or to speed up the process that happens to the rice, that reduces the moisture?

(Should it be relevant, I cook the rice in a rice cooker, using a cup of rice and 1.5 cups water. I have tried using less water than advised, but understandably this produces an unpleasant result.)

Best Answer

Kenji López-Alt from Serious Eats dealt with the exact same issue (section Rule #2: plan in advance if you can, but don't worry if you don't). To sum up his findings:

  • Rice only need to be dry, not stale (hence making rice one day in advance is not necessary)
  • Drying the freshly cooked rice by spreading it on a tray and putting it under a fan for one hour does the trick. Kenji's recommends this method (even more than day old rice!)
  • If you don't have an hour to wait, you can spread still hot rice on a tray and let the surface moisture evaporate.
  • Day old rice makes excellent fried rice (stored at least 12 hours are ideal) but it tends to clump. Internally it is dryer than fresh rice which makes stir-frying at bit more difficult because you have to be faster to ensure the rice does not dry out.

Besides the time factor: Make sure to rinse the rice well to remove as much surface starch as possible to prevent clumping.

But here's the thing: even freshly cooked rice worked great. In fact, it worked better than rice that had been stored loosely covered in the refrigerator for 1 to 6 hours.

[...] Freshly cooked rice spread out on a plate will steam a great deal as its surface moisture is evaporated. That's the important part. It's the surface moisture that is going to cause your rice to rapidly suppress the temperature of the wok. It's the surface moisture that's going to cause your rice to stick together.

That explains why fresh rice and rice that's been placed underneath a fan work well. With rice placed in the refrigerator, on the other hand, you slow down the evaporation process. Meanwhile, internal moisture from the grains will start to move outwards, adding moisture to the surface of each grain and making them more difficult to fry. Eventually that surface moisture will evaporate again and the rice will become easier to fry.

If you use much less water than actually needed to cook the rice, you'll rather end with dry undercooked rice than just with dry rice.

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