Peri-Peri Fried Rice — The Best Use of Leftover Rice You Will Ever Find

This one came out of a Friday night situation where the fridge had leftover rice, a couple of eggs, and a bottle of STOKE. What landed on the plate ten minutes later was something we have made on purpose every week since. Peri-peri fried rice is not a recipe you will find at a restaurant because it should not be — it is a home cook dish, built for speed, built for using what you have, and built for the kind of eating you do when nobody is watching.

The key to fried rice that is actually good rather than just vaguely acceptable is day-old rice. Fresh rice has too much moisture and it will steam in the pan instead of frying. If you want to make this with fresh rice, spread it out on a tray and let it dry in the fridge uncovered for at least an hour.

What You Need (Serves 2)

• 2 cups cooked rice, ideally from the day before and cold from the fridge
• 2 tablespoons STOKE peri-peri sauce
• 2 large eggs
• 3 spring onions, sliced (whites and greens separated)
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil (not olive oil — it will smoke too quickly)
• Optional: a cup of whatever is in the fridge — frozen peas, leftover chicken, prawns, corn, diced capsicum

How to Make It

The whole cook is under 10 minutes and it goes fast, so have everything ready before you turn on the heat.

Get your wok or largest frying pan ripping hot. Genuinely hot — the pan should be smoking slightly before anything goes in. Add the oil. Add the white parts of the spring onion and the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant. Do not let the garlic burn.

Push everything to the side of the pan and crack the eggs into the empty space. Let them sit for 15 seconds until the edges just start to set, then scramble them loosely. Before they are fully cooked through, break them up and mix them through the garlic and onion.

Add the cold rice in one go. Press it down flat against the pan and leave it for 90 seconds without stirring — this is how you get the slightly crispy bottom layer that makes proper fried rice taste the way it does. Then stir and fold everything together. Let it sit again, stir again. Repeat this a couple of times over 3 to 4 minutes until the rice is hot all the way through and starting to get a bit of colour.

Add the soy sauce and the STOKE. Toss everything together thoroughly. If you are adding extras — leftover chicken, prawns, frozen peas — they go in now with enough time to heat through.

Off the heat, taste for seasoning. Sometimes it needs a tiny bit more soy or a squeeze of lemon juice depending on how sharp you want it.

Scatter the green parts of the spring onion over the top and eat immediately. Fried rice does not improve with sitting.

The Flavour

What STOKE does to fried rice is give it smoke where there was none. Standard fried rice is savoury and a bit flat without a lot of other components. The peri-peri sauce in the mix brings heat, acid, and most importantly a background smokiness that makes the whole bowl taste like it was cooked over something more interesting than a domestic gas ring.

Variations That Work Well

• Peri-peri egg fried rice with prawns — Add 12 raw peeled prawns at the garlic stage and cook them through before the eggs.
• Peri-peri chicken fried rice — Shred any leftover roast or braai chicken and add it with the rice.
• Peri-peri vegetable fried rice — Diced capsicum, frozen peas, corn, and sliced mushrooms, all added before the rice.

The Leftover Situation

Honestly, this recipe exists because of leftovers. Rice from Sunday. Chicken from the braai. A bottle of STOKE on the bench. The fact that it takes 10 minutes and consistently produces something you would happily eat for dinner three nights in a row is the whole point.

Get your STOKE and make this tonight. It is faster than ordering delivery.