Chinese sausage fried rice 臘腸炒飯 is an ideal dish for a quick meal. This dish is also a welcome respite from the elaborate cuisine and binge eating during the Chinese New Year. 

Therefore, I have made this simple fried rice with some Chinese sausage, and hope that this is the recipe you are looking for after preparing all the complicated Chinese New Year dishes. 

Chinese sausage can be served simply by steaming it and cut into thin slices, prepare creatively for a variety of delicious meals. For example, it can be used to make clay pot rice along with cured meat and mushrooms. However, a much simpler way is to use Chinese sausage as the main ingredients of fried rice. This method of cooking is extremely useful after everyone has got bored eating those typical Chinese New Year dishes. It is also a wonderful way to use up the leftover sausages and other foods in the refrigerator.

In this article, I want to explain how to prepare Chinese sausage fried rice, which only takes 20 minutes to prepare.

This Chinese sausage fried rice recipe only required some essential ingredients that are available in most of the Chinese kitchen pantry. 

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Since my cooking style has the influence of Hong Kong cuisine and Malaysian cooking, you will notice that I coat the rice with raw eggs before turning up the heat to produce the Hong Kong styled golden-colored fried rice （黄金炒饭）. I also use the shallot oil and sprinkle the crispy shallots on top of the fried rice, which is a Malaysian influenced method. As you may know, fried shallot is frequently used in soup noodles and rice dishes in Malaysia.

The result is a dish of fried rice with colorful elements and a deep savory flavor resulting from the Chinese sausage, fried shallots, and scallions. 

Let me dive in straight to the details and show you how to prepare it step-by-step.

1. Pre-cook the rice

What type of rice is most suitable for stir-frying? 

I use local long grain rice for this recipe. Long grain rice is the staple for the Chinese, which is also my favorite. It is less sticky than short-grain rice (such as Arborio and Japanese rice) and therefore requires less oil to prevent sticking during stir-frying. 

Basmati rice is a super long grain, but the cost is higher. I do not use it regularly but have tried it once, which turned out wonderfully. 

That said, if you intend to prepare Japanese fried rice (not this recipe), use the short-grain rice and stir-fry over a less intense heat to avoid sticking to the wok. 

Should I use overnight rice for this Chinese sausages fried rice? 

Most of us prepare fried rice at home by using leftover rice. It is a popular way to use up all the leftover food in the refrigerator. Overnight rice has an obvious advantage over fresh rice for stir-frying because it is dryer and, therefore, less sticky. 

If you are boiling the rice specifically for stir-frying, do the following to mimic the overnight drying process :

• We usually rinse the rice only two to three times or until it is clean. However, if it is only for frying, rinse the rice until the water runs clear to remove as much starch as possible. This way will reduce the sticky problem during stir-frying.
• Cook the rice with slightly less water so that the rice has a firmer texture. Experienced home cooks can make a reasonably accurate estimation. If you are new to cooking rice, the water I use to cook rice for frying is 1.6x of the dry weight (before rinsing) of rice. Add this amount of water to the drained and washed rice and cook in the rice cooker  (Note: Use 1.75x if you cook it as steamed rice, not for stir-frying.) 

How to avoid the rice clump together during frying 

The common problem while stir-frying rice is that it will stick together to form lumps. Here are my two tricks to ensure the rice will not clumps together during stir-frying. 

• Spread the rice on a tray and blow it under the fan for 15 minutes. The rice will become firmer and dryer. 
• Wear a pair of disposable gloves to break the lumps of rice before stir-frying. The rice is easier to fry by breaking it up first. The rice grains will be mashed if you break the lumps in the wok with the spatula. 

2. Deep-fried shallots

This step is optional. You can skip this section and use any ordinary cooking oil to stir-fry the rice. 

Since I’m living in Malaysia, my style of Chinese cooking has been localized to a certain degree. Deep-fried shallots and oil are popular in many local cuisines. 

• Deep-fried the shallot until crispy. The crispy shallots add a layer of flavor and double as a garnish 
• The shallots oil is flavorful. I will use it along with the sausage oil to fry the rice. 

Here are the steps:

• Cut the shallots into slices. 
• Heat the oil in a pan, over medium heat
• Put the shallots into the hot oil. 
• Deep-fried shallots until light brown. Bear in mind that the color of the deep-fried shallots will become darker after removing from oil. 
• Pour the oil and the shallot through a wire mesh strainer. Keep the fried shallots in an airtight container to preserve the crispiness. The remaining oil will be used to stir-fried rice. 

3. Cut the sausage and other ingredients 

Chinese sausage had a strong savory flavor as a result of the curing process. Therefore, the seasoning in this recipe should be light, and let the flavor of the Chinese sausage stands out. You can, of course, include other favorite ingredients if you prefer. 

What are other suitable ingredients can be included in the recipe? 

The primary purpose of this recipe is to demonstrate the entire cooking process, and therefore I keep it simple.

If you have any leftover cured meat 腊肉, Char Siu, or barbecue pork after the Chinese New Year, add to the rice during stir-frying. Other ingredients that are suitable for fried rice are shrimps and squids. Some people like to add green peas, carrots, and corn, although certain people deemed it is non-traditional. In my opinion, it is not a concern as long as it tastes good. 

Pre-treatment for the sausage before stir-frying

The casing of the Chinese sausage is edible but it tastes better after removing it. Place the Chinese sausage in boiling water for twenty seconds. The casing will bulge out and detached. Remove it from the pot and let it cools. You can strip off the casing easily now since it is no longer shrink and adhere to the sausage. 

You can either cut the Chinese sausage into thin slice diagonally or into small dices. 

Stir-fried the Chinese sausage separately

I like to render the oil from the Chinese sausage, and use it to fry the rice. The flavor of the sausage will infuse into the rice more effectively this way. 

• Add a small amount of oil into the wok. 
• Sauteed the Chinese sausage slowly until it turns aromatic and the oil rendered. 
• Remove the Chinese sausage and keep the oil in a wok. 

4. Get ready other ingredients

Coarsely chop a few cloves of garlic, and cut a few stalks of scallions into short pieces. 

Get ready the seasonings- light soy sauce, ground white pepper, and some salt.

The seasonings I use in this recipe are quite simple. You may want to switch it up by adding some dark soy sauce should you prefer a darker color. Since I want to keep the color of the fried rice to bright yellow, I will only use light soy sauce, which is comparatively more umami than the dark soy sauce. 

You can substitute parts of the light soy sauce with Vietnamese fish sauce. 

Another welcome addition is adding some sesame oil right before serving. 

5. Cook the Chinese sausage fried rice 

Once we have everything ready, the stir-frying process is quite simple. 

Here are the steps:

• Heat some shallot oil in the wok. 
• Saute the chopped garlic until aromatic. 
• Pour the beaten egg into the wok. You can either scramble the eggs before adding the rice or coat the rice with the uncooked egg. 
  • If you scramble the egg first, remove the egg, then add the rice to the wok to continue frying. 
  • If you mix the uncooked egg with the rice, stir-fry it over low heat until the egg is fully cooked and encase each grain of rice inside. 
• Seasoned rice with light soy sauce, salt, and ground white pepper. 
• Now turn to high heat (all the way to the end) to stir-fried rice until aromatic. 
• Return the scrambled egg to the wok ( if you are using this method) and throw in the chopped scallions. 
• Dish out immediately. Garnish with more chopped scallions and fried shallots.