Chicken Fried Rice (Easy & Healthy)
This one-pan, healthy Chicken Fried Rice packs lean protein and veggies into every bite. Flavorful and balanced, it works great for athletes, busy families, or anyone craving a quick, wholesome dinner. Ideal for meal prep, with freezer-friendly instructions included.
Why I Make This Over and Over
I’ve been making (and tweaking) this healthy Chicken Fried Rice and our Egg Fried Rice for years for a few reasons.
- The Sauce, Baby! Most fried rice recipes just use soy sauce for seasoning, which can be rather one dimensional, IMO. The delicious, complex-tasting sauce in my recipe has salty savoriness in the foreground and a little heat and sweet in the background. You’ll definitely want to use all of it!
- Big Batch: I can use my time wisely in the kitchen, making this for family dinner one night and eating (or freezing) leftovers for lunches for days.
- Make Ahead: It’s easy to make ahead for the week or to freeze in small containers for lunches. My teen son (who’s a cross country runner) takes this for lunch in a thermos many days a month and never tires of it.
- Super Nutritious: It’s packed with protein, fiber, and nutrients from brown rice, chicken, eggs, and variety of vegetables.
Ingredients Needed
Grab these wholesome ingredients to get started.
A Few Ingredient Notes:
- Low sodium soy sauce – For gluten-free sub: coconut aminos or gluten-free Tamari Sauce.
- Sriracha sauce – Cut in half if sensitive to heat! If you don’t have Sriracha, use a pinch of red pepper flakes.
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts – Diced into bite-sized pieces.
- Oil – I recommend using avocado oil because it has a high smoking point, but you could use olive oil or sesame oil instead.
- Carrot and Broccoli – Finely chopped.
- Minced garlic – Use pre-minced garlic for less prep time
- Cooked, refrigerated brown rice – It’s optimal to cook this a day ahead and refrigerate for at least a few hours for best texture. You can also replace all or part of the rice with cooked, drained cauliflower rice.
What Brand of Brown Rice Should I Buy?
I highly recommend Lundberg Organic Brown Rice, as it’s grown in California and is a brand that actively cares about avoiding dangerous arsenic levels in their rice. (Read more about how rice–especially when it’s grown outside California, Pakistan, and India–is contaminated by arsenic here.)
Testing Notes from Rachel’s Kitchen
- Important Prep Note: This recipe goes fast once you start cooking. Be sure to cook and cool the rice ahead of time and pre-chop the chicken and veggies. Have them waiting next to the skillet.
- Shortcuts: Use frozen cooked rice, frozen stir fry veggies, and rotisserie chicken to make this even faster (although fresh always has better texture IMO).
- Rice: It’s optimal to cook this a day ahead and refrigerate for at least a few hours for best texture. You can also replace all or part of the rice with cooked, drained cauliflower rice.
- Veggies: Aim for cutting up the vegetables pretty small and in evenly-sized pieces. Feel free to add in what you have on hand like asparagus, snow peas, water chestnuts, or other stir-fry veggies you like.
- Heat Level: It does have noticeable heat from the Sriracha but not too much. Feel free to cut back on the Sriracha if you have sensitive eaters. You can always add more to individual bowls at the end.
- Making in Bulk: If you plan to double this recipe, I found it easiest to combine everything in a very large mixing bowl or stock pot at the end. It really does make a lot for freezing or for leftovers, but it’s gone fast around our house.
How to Make Healthy Chicken Fried Rice
After you chop your ingredients like the chicken and vegetables, this healthy chicken fried rice recipe comes together fast! (Find the full printable recipe at the bottom of this post.)
Make Sauce
Add all the sauce ingredients to a small pot. Warm over medium-low heat and make sure it doesn’t boil over. Keep warm while moving to next steps.
Cook Eggs & Saute Chicken
Cook Eggs: Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large (12-inch or bigger) non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until shimmery. Pour in the beaten eggs. Cook for 2 minutes or just until set, stirring frequently and breaking up the eggs into small pieces. Remove to a plate and set aside.
Saute Chicken: Add the chicken and stir fry until no longer pink inside, about 4 minutes, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper on all sides while it cooks. Remove to a plate and set aside.
Saute Veggies & Fry Rice
Saute Veggies: Wipe pan out and add 2 tablespoons more oil to coat the pan. Once the oil is shimmery, saute the broccoli and carrots until tender, about 5-7 minutes, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper as they cook. Add the garlic and stir for 1 more minute.
Fry the Rice: Turn the heat down to medium. Gently stir in the peas, rice, chicken, and eggs. Drizzle only about 3/4ths of the sauce over the rice and toss to combine. Cook undisturbed for 2 minutes to “fry” the rice. Stir once more and leave it undisturbed for an additional 2 minutes.
Serve
Taste and add more sauce and top with thinly sliced green onions, if desired.
Can You Freeze Fried Rice?
Heck ya! I make a double batch of this recipe once a month and freeze a LOT of portions in these 2 cup Pyrex containers for my family. The kids love to warm it in the morning and take it in a thermos in their lunch box.
Here’s how to freeze and rewarm the fried rice:
Freeze For Later: Prepare as directed, fully cool, and then freeze flat in a gallon-sized freezer bag or in individual freezer containers with lids.
Prepare From Frozen: Thaw in the refrigerator overnight or thaw in the microwave using the defrost setting in a microwave-safe bowl. Warm gently in the microwave or over low heat in a skillet, stirring occasionally.
Recipe FAQs
This particular chicken fried rice recipe is a pretty darn healthy meal, thanks to lean protein from the chicken and eggs, lots of veggies like carrots, onions, broccoli, and peas, and brown rice which adds fiber and nutrients. I also opted to use avocado oil (a healthier cooking oil) and either low-sodium soy sauce or coconut aminos instead of high-sodium soy sauce.
In an air-tight container, leftovers will last 3-5 days in the refrigerator. Follow our freezing instructions if you can’t finish it in that time frame.
Sure! You could use easily sub shrimp or ground beef or turkey in this dish.
You could absolutely leave the chicken out. We have an Egg Fried Recipe you can follow!
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How to Video
Chicken Fried Rice (Easy & Healthy)
Ingredients
For the Sauce:
- 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce (gluten-free sub: coconut aminos)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce (plus more to taste)
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
For the Fried Rice:
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil (sub: olive oil)
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (diced into bite-sized pieces 1/2-inch or smaller; sub: boneless skinless chicken breasts)
- salt and pepper
- 1 1/2 cup carrot (finely chopped)
- 1 1/2 cups broccoli (finely chopped; about 1 small head)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (sub: 3 garlic cloves, minced)
- 4 cups cooked brown rice (cold, day-old rice is best; see cooking notes for details)
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- Optional for Garnish: thinly sliced green onion
Instructions
- Make Sauce: Add all the sauce ingredients to a small pot over medium-low heat. Keep warm while moving to next steps.
- Cook Eggs: Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large (12-inch or bigger) non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until shimmery. Pour in the beaten eggs. Cook for 2 minutes or just until set, stirring frequently and breaking up the eggs into small pieces. Remove to a plate and set aside.
- Saute Chicken: Add the chicken and stir fry until no longer pink inside, about 4 minutes, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper on all sides while it cooks. Remove to a plate and set aside.
- Saute Veggies: Wipe pan out and add 2 tablespoons more oil to coat the pan. Once the oil is shimmery, saute the broccoli and carrots until tender, about 5-7 minutes, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper as they cook. Add the garlic and stir for 1 more minute.
- Fry the Rice: Turn the heat down to medium. Gently stir in the peas, rice, chicken, and eggs. Drizzle only about 3/4ths of the sauce over the rice and toss to combine. Cook undisturbed for 2 minutes to "fry" the rice. Stir once more and leave it undisturbed for an additional 2 minutes.
- Serve: Taste and add more sauce and top with thinly sliced green onions, if desired.
Freezer Instructions
Notes/Tips
- Important Prep Note: This recipe goes fast once you start cooking. Be sure to cook and cool the rice ahead of time and pre-chop the chicken and veggies. Have them waiting next to the skillet.
- Shortcuts: Use frozen cooked rice, frozen stir fry veggies, and rotisserie chicken to make this even faster (although fresh always has better texture IMO).Â
- Rice: It’s optimal to cook this a day ahead and refrigerate for at least a few hours for best texture. For at least 4 cups of cooked rice, you’ll need to cook about 1 1/2 cups dry rice. You can also replace all or part of the rice with cooked, drained cauliflower rice.
- Veggies: Aim for cutting up the vegetables pretty small and in evenly-sized pieces. Feel free to add in what you have on hand like asparagus, snow peas, water chestnuts, or other stir-fry veggies you like.
- Heat Level: It does have noticeable heat from the Sriracha but not too much. Feel free to cut back on the Sriracha if you have sensitive eaters. You can always add more to individual bowls at the end.
- Making in Bulk: If you plan to double this recipe, I found it easiest to combine everything in a very large mixing bowl or stock pot at the end. It really does make a lot for freezing or for leftovers, but it’s gone fast around our house.
Nutrition
Photos and video by Whitney Reist of Sweet Cayenne.
I have made this with chicken as well as pork sausage, but I’m wondering about making it with beef… Your thoughts on that? Would you recommend ground beef or steak cut into smaller-than-bite-size pieces
Hi Lois. Great question. We haven’t made it with beef. I think either could work. Let us know how it turns out if you do make it. And thanks for letting us know you’ve liked it with both chicken and pork sausage!
I don’t typically love fried rice, but I LOVE this recipe and so does my family. I always have to double it! I error on the side of extra veggies in it and my family still likes it!
This is such a great recipe to use up veggies! Thanks for leaving a review Amber.
I’ve made this one several times now. I love how healthy it is and the little kick of heat in the background. Freezes great!