Bite-sized pieces of savoury spam mixed with golden fried rice and flakes of fluffy eggs. This golden spam fried rice recipe only takes 30 minutes or less to make but is packed full of flavour!

What is Spam Fried Rice?

What do you do when you have some leftover rice from the night before but don’t want to eat it?

You make fried rice of course!

Growing up in a Chinese household, that’s exactly what my parents did with leftover rice that we didn’t finish the night before.

Using some day-old leftover rice, my parents were able to turn it into a delicious mouth-watering plate of fried rice that everyone in the house easily wolfed down.

Now while there are many variations of fried rice out there, such as the ever-so-famous Yangzhou fried rice, shrimp fried rice, chicken and salted fish fried rice or my version of bacon fried rice, there’s another popular yet rarely mentioned version of fried rice called luncheon meat fried rice or more colloquially known as Spam fried rice.

This version of fried rice usually consists of fried rice with spam and sometimes whatever vegetables someone can find around the house such as frozen peas or corn.

Now while spam isn’t known for being low in sodium or calories, it actually goes surprisingly well with fried rice due to all of that umani flavour that is packed inside of it.

And in my version of Spam fried rice, we’re going to up the ante and also incorporate egg into the mix as well.

Yawn!!! 🥱

What’s so special about adding in egg into the fried rice, you might ask.

But not so fast. It’s not whether or not we add in the egg, but how the egg is used to cook the fried rice that matters.

And in my version of Spam and egg fried rice, I’m going to teach you a secret technique of elevating your fried rice game.

We’re going to turn our fried rice golden yellow!

Have I gotten your attention now? 😆

In addition to making our fried rice yellow, my method will also produce flakes of fluffy egg bits that will really allow you to taste the egg. Each spoonful will have tiny slivers of egg whenever you take a bite.

Sound good?

Now before I show you how to make my fried rice with spam and eggs, Let’s discuss an important but highly controversial topic.

Should You Use Leftover Rice When Making Fried Rice?

This is a highly debatable topic. If you speak to a lot of Chinese chefs, they will say, no, use fresh cooked rice.

Why?

Because freshly cooked rice gives off a nice fragrant smell to the rice when you’re eating it which you don’t typically get when using leftover rice. There’s just this freshness you get when using fresh cooked rice.

Now on the other hand when you ask a typical Chinese household, most people would say yes, use leftover rice. It is a quick way of cooking up something delicious with some leftover rice from the night before, plus it’s much easier to make fried rice as it tends to not stick to the wok due to its lower moisture content.

Here’s what I suggest:

If you’re a beginner and aren’t comfortable stir-frying yet, use leftover rice or more specifically leftover rice from the night before that has been stored in the fridge. This will make your rice dryer and much less likely to stick to the wok.

Now on the other hand, if you’re after flavour and texture or you want to challenge yourself, then you can try to cook with fresh cooked rice. You won’t always have the luxury of having leftover rice from the night before so you might as well learn how to make fried rice with freshly cooked rice.

Now the key to ensuring success with using fresh cooked rice is in how you cook the rice.

Use too much water and you end up with overly sticky and soggy rice when stir-frying it, which tends to stick to the wok. Use too little water and now you have overly dry rice that tastes dry and kind of hard, isn’t very pleasant to consume, not to mention making you want to gulp down litres of water.

Typically when making rice, you want to use a 1:1 ratio of rice to water, however, I have found through my years of trying out different brands of rice that there will be slight variations in this. Some brands might require a little more water in order to get that nice fluffy texture from the rice, while other brands might require a little less water or you’ll end up with overly soggy and wet rice. You’ll need to experiment with your own brand of rice to find out the optimal ratio. Typically though, you’ll find the instructions on how to best cook your brand of rice in the packaging so just follow that or do some experimenting.

Once you’ve come up with the optimal ratio of water to rice, you’ll find that your rice not only is much more fluffier, but will also be much easier to stir-fry in the wok as it won’t be as likely to stick to the wok.

One other thing to note here: That 1:1 ratio that I listed as a general guideline only applies to long-grain Jasmine rice which is often used in Chinese cooking. If you’re using another type of rice then that ratio might be very different.

How to Make Spam Fried Rice

This spam and egg fried rice recipe is very simple to make and only requires a few simple ingredients which you most likely already have around the house.

To make this spam and egg fried rice recipe, you’ll need the following ingredients:

Spam Fried Rice Ingredients

1 can of Spam
3 cups of cooked long-grain Jasmine rice
1 green onion stalk
1 tsp of light soy sauce
1 tsp of white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
Pinch of table salt
1 tsp of table salt (added to eggs when whisking)
1/2 tsp of white pepper
Cooking oil

Ingredient notes

Rice: For this recipe, you can opt for using either leftover rice or freshly cooked rice. If you’re a beginner to making fried rice then I suggest using leftover rice as that is easier to work with. Just leave your leftover rice in the fridge until you are ready to use them. If your opting to use fresh rice, you need to make sure when cooking your rice that the ratio of water to rice is balanced to prevent cooking overly wet and soggy rice which will be a nightmare to cook with as it will tend to stick to the wok. There’s also no need to put the freshly cooked rice in the fridge prior to use. You can just leave it out at room temperature for a few minutes prior to using.

Spam: For this recipe, we’re going to be using good old Spam. I’m using the original in this recipe but you can use the low-sodium version if you want to.

Substitutions

Spam: The most likely candidate to substitute the spam would be luncheon meat or some other type of canned meat such as chicken. You can also opt for the low-sodium version of spam as well if you don’t like overly salty spam. Chinese sausages is also a very common ingredient that is cooked with fried rice that can be substituted as well. In addition, you can also use cooked Ham sliced into bite-sized cubes.
Rice: Japanese short grain rice, brown rice (if you’re a health nut), I suppose basmati rice might work too although I haven’t tried it yet.
Eggs: If you’re currently on a diet then you can substitute whole eggs with egg whites. If you can’t eat eggs then just leave them out.
Vegetables: You can also choose to add in additional vegetables to the fried rice dish, however, I omitted it as I wanted to make the spam, eggs and fried rice the highlight of the dish. If you’re choosing to add in vegetables then I recommend frozen mixed vegetables such as corn, peas, and carrots.

Directions

Start by slicing your spam into small cubes about an inch wide. Once done set this aside.

Grab your scallions and slice them into small pieces about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and set them aside.
Now crack your eggs into a bowl, season your eggs with some table salt and white pepper and then whisk everything well together and set it aside.
Now heat up a wok over medium heat. Once the wok is hot enough, add in about a Tbsp of oil to the wok.
Then add in your cut spam from earlier. Cook the spam for about a minute then add in your soy sauce and sugar to caramelize the spam.
Cook the spam until it has turned into a golden brown colour on all sides and you can smell how aromatic it has become. Trust me, you’ll know 😉

Once the spam has turned golden brown, remove it from the wok then add in about another Tbsp or so of cooking oil to the wok.
Heat up the oil and then add in your eggs, followed immediately by the rice. You can just dump the rice right on top of the eggs.

Mix everything well together, making sure to scoop underneath the eggs and bring it on top of the rice rather than trying to break the eggs apart. It should look like a scooping up and down motion.
You’ll notice as you do this that the rice will start to become coated with the eggs and turn yellow, and you’ll start to have little flakes of eggs in the wok.

Now press the rice down into the wok to flatten it with your spatula and to quickly heat up the rice.
You should hear the rice sizzle as you do this.
Now add in a pinch of salt to the rice and eggs and mix everything well together.
Finally add back in your spam that you cooked earlier to the rice and mix everything well together.
Turn up the heat to medium-high and continue stir-frying all of the ingredients together for a few minutes until you start to see the rice getting dry and losing its moisture.
Now it’s very important to taste your fried rice with the spam and adjust it based on your own preferences. Make sure when tasting it that you actually spoon up some pieces of spam as well, otherwise you might think that the fried rice is too bland and end up adding way too much salt only to later realize that the spam is already salty.

When you start to see the rice jump up, add in your green onions. Yes, that’s right, you can actually make rice jump up, cool eh?
Give everything a quick few tosses and then remove everything from the stove and serve while hot.

Tips

Try to coat the rice in the eggs as soon as you drop the rice into the wok, this will help prevent the rice from sticking to the wok and gives you that nice golden yellow colour in each grain of rice.
For the best texture and taste, I recommend using Thai Jasmine long-grain rice. There’s a reason why Chinese restaurants use this rice.
If you’re a beginner and not comfortable frying rice using freshly cooked rice, use leftover rice that has been sitting in the fridge. The leftover rice is easier to cook with as it’s dryer.
If you’re using fresh cooked rice, make sure that you use the correct ratio of rice to water otherwise you’ll either end up with overly wet and soggy rice or overly dry rice. This is usually a 1:1 ratio, however from my experience, different rice brands will require slight adjustments so you will need to experiment with your rice brand to find the optimal ratio.
Remember to taste taste taste when seasoning your fried rice with salt and don’t forget to taste the fried rice with the spam as well to get a real idea of how salty it is, otherwise you may think the rice is too bland and add too much salt only later to realize that the spam is already salty. Adjust based on your personal preferences.

Common Mistakes Beginners Make

You used overly wet rice to cook fried rice causing it to become sticky and soggy when stir-frying it in the wok.
You used overly dry rice to cook fried rice which tasted dry and hard causing you gulp down 2 liters of water just to soften your palette.
You cooked the eggs for too long before adding in the rice, resulting in regular-looking rice and not golden-coloured rice.

Storage Tips

You can store any leftover fried rice in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. When ready to eat, simply reheat in the microwave.

Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.S)

What Type of Rice Should I Use for Making This Dish?

Use long grain Jasmine rice, especially the ones from Thailand. Just trust me on this one 😉

Do I Need to Use Leftover Rice to Make Fried Rice?

Absolutely not, you can use freshly cooked rice to make this dish, just make sure that you cook the rice with the right ratio of water to rice to make your life easier when stir-frying the rice.

Why Is My Rice All Stuck Together When Stir-Frying?

Did you break the rice grains apart when stir-frying in the wok? Use the back of your spatula and press down on the rice against the wok to separate the rice and heat them up faster. The rice may also stick together because it has too much moisture.

Why Is My Rice Sticking to the Wok and My Spatula?

Did you use too much water in your rice when cooking the rice? This is usually caused by stir-frying rice that is still overly wet and has a tonne of moisture in it.

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