Season Your Fried Rice With Chinese Five Spice For A Gourmet Upgrade
It wouldn't be official, but it would certainly not be wrong to call fried rice the ultimate comfort food. Although, if you find that your homemade version falls a little flat (how does your favorite takeout place get their fried rice so flavorful?), look no further than Chinese five spice to take your sizzlin' skillet to the next level.
If you've never tried it before, Chinese five spice powder (aka wǔxiāng fěn, 五香粉) typically combines cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, and Sichuan peppercorns. Different blends commonly use some combination of other warm, pungent spices like anise seeds, ginger root, nutmeg, turmeric, cardamom, licorice, orange peel, or galangal, all in varying ratios. Whatever your blend, this knockout fried rice upgrade is wicked easy and doesn't require any extra steps or fancy cooking techniques, either. To do it, simply sprinkle the powder directly over the rice right after adding it to the hot pan, stirring to coat. The seasoning will bake into the rice as it heats and fries, packing every grain with bold flavor.
It's an intense ingredient, so proceed with caution as you add Chinese five spice powder to your fried rice. A little goes a long way. Start with ½ teaspoon per batch, adding more to taste if desired. How nuanced or pungent that sweet, spicy, earthy, wildly aromatic five-spice kick will be is totally up to you.
Five spice fried rice belongs in your mouth (and is pretty fun to say, too)
Chinese five spice powder is often used to season meats with high fat content, or any mild dish that could use a little oomph. This could be especially helpful if you're chowing down on milder tofu, veggie, or chicken fried rice, which might need a layer of umami depth to round out the dish. For a major flavor-fantasia, add five spice to this pineapple shrimp fried rice, tantalizing the taste buds with those floral, lemony Sichuan peppercorns.
The ingredient has been a pillar of Chinese culinary style for centuries, with roots in traditional Chinese medicine, used to balance yin and yang. It combines the five primary flavors — sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami — instantly creating balance and complexity in any dish. Your tried and true, reliable fried rice deserves this level of red carpet treatment.
You can find Chinese five spice in many supermarkets, specialty Asian grocery shops, and from a variety of online retailers. Or, you can make it yourself at home with a mortar and pestle. If you opt for the homemade route, then you can totally customize the ingredient ratios for a spice blend made to suit your taste for an impactful, shelf-stable seasoning to stock in your spice cabinet. With just a dash, homemade-takeout nights never looked so restaurant-worthy.