Whereas it is extremely troublesome to mess up a dish of fried rice, America’s Test Kitchen factors out that making the dish completely comes right down to the feel of the rice that’s used, and leftover rice — as a result of it has been allowed to bear retrogradation whereby the rice grains dry out and agency up — gives a greater texture to work with versus contemporary rice, which is just too delicate to not flip mushy throughout the frying course of.
Whereas medium-grain rice works finest for cooking fried rice as described, most recipes — whatever the oil, flavoring, and add-ins — name for using leftover rice. As Culinary Lore explains, freshly cooked rice is fluffy and sizzling and ideal for consuming as is, however comprises an excessive amount of moisture. The feel of leftover rice (dried out), then again, is the right texture for a dish like fried rice due to the reintroduction of moisture. Recent rice will end up mushy or soggy attributable to having an excessive amount of moisture in every particular person grain of rice.
This mentioned, you possibly can nonetheless make killer fried rice with freshly cooked rice. Simply keep in mind to take the rice, unfold it out on a baking sheet and let it cool a bit earlier than utilizing. (America’s Take a look at Kitchen recommends 10 minutes to realize room temperature, then one other 20 minutes within the fridge.) Doing this permits the freshly cooked rice to imitate the standard of leftover or day-old rice; the rice grains dry out and are able to grow to be a part of a taste symphony that’s far larger than the sum of its components.
