Once you make a batch of salty, savory, seafood-packed XO sauce, the possibilities are limitless! It’s a simple everyday luxury that’s at your fingertips to liven up noodles, rice, and vegetables. Chicken is an excellent blank canvas for XO sauce, and this XO Sauce Fried Rice combines both for a delicious new spin on familiar chicken fried rice.

The Perfect Mix of Textures

One of the reasons we love this fried rice is the mix of textures. Tender, juicy seared chicken, caramelized bits of XO sauce, silky egg, and ever so slightly crunchy onion and bean sprouts. There are strong flavors all around, and yet it works beautifully!

The onion note may seem minor. But my mom and I noticed that often, you put onion into fried rice and it just disappears into the background—too cooked to be very distinguishable from the rice.

This is a shame of course, so keeping the onions cut into bigger chunks and cooking them less gives you the sweetness of onion, and a crunchy texture.

A spoonful of XO Sauce Chicken Fried Rice

The Egg Debate

Every time I make fried rice, I have an internal debate with myself. To pre-scramble or to pour over? I’m talking, of course, about the eggs.

Let’s discuss.

My dad is a fan of the pre-scramble method (scrambling the eggs separately first, and then adding it to the fried rice later). This definitely has its merits—big chunks of fluffy egg interspersed throughout your rice.

I usually prefer the pour over method, where you spread your rice out in a thin layer and pour the beaten egg over the top. You end up with small egg tendrils and bits that I think make for a more delicate fried rice.

Of course no method is wrong. It all depends on the taste you’re going for, and we use both methods across our recipes with solid results.

But this time around, neither method felt 100% right. I realized that the key is to pre-scramble, but to leave the eggs suuuper runny. So when you add them back into the fried rice later to finish them off, you end up with a great disbursement of perfectly cooked egg with both silkiness and fluffiness to it. I’m not looking back from here!

I think I’ve rambled long enough about fried rice minutiae. All in all, this is definitely one of my new favorites! Let’s get to cooking.

Ginger, garlic, eggs, scalions, mung bean sprouts, and onions

XO Sauce Fried Rice: Recipe Instructions

Combine the sliced chicken breast, water, cornstarch, oil, and oyster sauce. Mix well, until the chicken has absorbed all the liquid marinade ingredients. Set aside.

Take your cooked/leftover rice. If using leftover rice, break up clumps with a spoon or the flat side of a measuring cup. If using freshly cooked rice, fluff it with a fork to let some steam off and let it cool slightly.

Heat your wok over medium high heat, and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the eggs, and scramble until 70% cooked. There should still be some parts that are viscous and uncooked. Immediately transfer back to the bowl you beat them in and set aside.

Heat the wok until just smoking. Spread another tablespoon of oil around your wok. Sear the marinated chicken in one layer for 20 seconds. Cook the chicken until about 80% done (it will be cooked again). Remove from the wok, and set aside.

With the wok over medium high, add the final tablespoon of oil. Add the ginger, and cook for 30 seconds.

Then add the garlic, and cook for an additional 30 seconds (neither should turn dark).

Add the onions.

Cook for 30 seconds, and add the rice. The onions should still be crunchy and mostly raw at this point. You want them to have a fresh taste in the final fried rice.

Use your metal spatula to flatten out and break up any large clumps. If the rice is cold from the refrigerator, continue stir-frying until the rice is warmed through (steam will begin to rise from it), about 5 minutes. Fresh rice cooks faster. If it is sticking to the wok, add another tablespoon of oil.

Spread the rice in a single layer, and let it fry until hot.

Spreading rice out in a single layer in wok

Add the light soy sauce, white pepper, sugar, and salt. Mix with a scooping motion until the rice is evenly coated with sauce, and repeat the step of spreading the rice out in a single layer to let the rice fry.

Stir in the XO sauce.

Then add the cooked chicken, along with any juices from the bowl. Stir-fry for 1 minute.

Add the eggs, and stir to distribute.

Add the bean sprouts and scallions, and continue stir-frying for another 30 seconds.

Then gather all the rice to the middle of the wok to let the sides of the wok heat up.

After about 20 seconds, spread the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok and stir-fry the rice together for another 20 seconds. This step gives you a little of that extra “wok hei.” Serve!