Ham Fried Rice Recipe

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Ham Fried Rice Recipe is an easy one-pan recipe that can be made with leftover holiday ham, cold-stored rice, and frozen vegetables.

This dish is loaded with umami flavors thanks to the addition of soy sauce, garlic, and fresh ginger to satisfy your cravings for Chinese takeout any day of the week!

From our tasty Ramen, Chicken Broccoli and this Bacon Cabbage stir fry is definitely on par with these but definitely the easiest and fastest to make.

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Why We Love This
Ingredients
How To make Ham Fried Rice
Tips
FAQs
Easy Dinner Recipes
📖Recipe
Stir Fry Recipes

Why We Love This

Fried rice with ham is budget-friendly, made with pantry-staple ingredients, and incredibly quick to make for a midweek family meal!
This dish is a great option for using up leftover foods such as holiday ham, stored cooked rice, and vegetables.
It’s a one-pan meal that’s sure to satisfy those Chinese takeout cravings!

Ingredients

Rice - This recipe calls for chilled cooked rice which means that you can either make your rice a day in advance or use refrigerated leftovers. As rice chills in storage, it starts to lose moisture which is exactly what you want for this fried ham with rice.
Ham - Medium, diced. This is a great way to use up any leftover holiday ham! If you don’t have leftover refrigerated ham then buy a ham steak at your local grocery store.
Vegetables - I’ve used frozen peas, brown onion, and corn (either sweet corn or freshly cooked corn on the cob kernels) for this dish. Other vegetables you could include are sliced carrots, mushrooms, or chopped green onions.
Eggs - I’ve used 2 large eggs.
Garlic - You can use freshly minced garlic from 1 garlic clove, or minced garlic in a tub.
Ginger - It’s much easier to grate your ginger root when frozen and it stays fresh for months when stored in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. Use a microplane zester to grate and peel fresh ginger.
Soy sauce - I use the low sodium variety to keep this dish healthier.
Salt and black pepper - This dish already has loads of flavorful ingredients so you will only need a very small amount of salt and black pepper.
Sesame oil - This is a typical oil used in this type of dish. You could also use canola oil or vegetable oil.

For the full list of ingredients, please scroll down where you'll find the recipe card.

How To make Ham Fried Rice

Cook the rice according to package directions. Set aside to cool.

In a nonstick skillet saute onion until translucent, add in garlic, ginger and ham.

Scramble the eggs.

Cook for a couple of minutes and add corn and peas.

Stir in the rice and add soy sauce and sesame oil. Season with salt and pepper if needed.

Garnish with fresh parsley and serve hot.

Tips

Always allow your fried rice with ham to completely cool before storing it in the refrigerator or freezer
It’s really important that you use cold rice for this recipe. The cold rice will contain less moisture which makes it easy to break apart and not form clumping or sticking. With that in mind, make your rice the day before you plan to make this dish and store it in the refrigerator.
If you forgot to make your rice in advance, add freshly cooked rice to a baking sheet, spread out, and allow it to cool for 20-30 minutes. If there’s time, add the rice, covered, to the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. Be sure that you don’t ever let cooked rice sit out at room temperature for longer than 1-2 hours for food safety reasons.
You can add your peas to the skillet from frozen. No prior thawing is required. If you have a frozen vegetable mix of corn, peas, and carrots then simply add this to the sauteed brown onion, garlic, ginger, and ham.
For other flavor profiles try adding Thai chili paste or red curry paste like I did in Drunken Noodles recipe.

FAQs

Can I use freshly cooked rice for this dish?

Yes, you can, although leftover cooked rice that’s had time to chill in the fridge works the best for this recipe. If you need to use freshly cooked rice for making this dish then spread your hot cooked rice over a baking tray and let it cool for about 20-30 minutes. It’s even better if you can let the cooked rice sit in the fridge, covered, for an additional 1-2 hours.

What type of rice works best for this recipe?

Long-grain white rice is typically used in fried rice recipes but you could even use brown rice instead if you want a more nutritious option. Keep in mind that brown rice will be chewy in texture but still delicious.

Is this fried rice with ham gluten-free?

Most types of soy sauce are not gluten-free. That said, you can easily turn this into a gluten-free recipe by using something like tamari soy sauce which is made without wheat. Another option is coconut aminos which is a dark sauce similar in taste to soy sauce and is also gluten-free. All other ingredients in this recipe are gluten-free.