Our best rice recipes make everything from comforting rice porridges to luxuriant fried rice dishes, from Japanese rice bowls and Southeast Asian congees to a classic restaurant-style Chinese special fried rice. We also have fusion East-West rice dishes, such as our fried rice with Southern fried chicken, tonkatsu fried rice, and our bacon and eggs breakfast rice.
In between working on our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history (nine years in the making so far!) and a cookbook of my family recipes, I’ve been developing a rice cookbook that emerged from a ‘rice war’ that broke the internet and resulted in these stories on Make Rice Not War, A Celebration of Rice Diversity to Inspire Curiosity and Connection and How to Cook Rice Around the World: 66 Rice Dishes by 65 Rice Lovers.
We have always cooked a lot of rice, long before we settled in Southeast Asia, but since that rice war that motivated me to take a deeper dive into how rice is cooked around the work, we’ve been making loads of rice dishes – everything from an aromatic Burmese coconut rice to a fragrant Cape Malay yellow rice; both fantastic with a Burmese curry and Cape Malay curry, respectively (links below to all) – as well as developing new rice recipes.
I’ve been experimenting with perfuming rice in the rice cooker and perfecting my Uzbeki plov recipe (I have family in Uzbekistan), while I’ve also been making fried rice dishes to use up leftover rice – which is exactly why fried rice was invented – from a Massaman curry fried rice to a cabbage roll fried rice. (I’ve added those links below.)
With rice on the brain at the moment, we thought it time we share a collection of some of our best rice recipes. But before I do, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; or book a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers.
Looking for more cooking inspiration? We’ve got thousands of recipes in our archives from around the world from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. And note that you can save your favourite recipes in a private account by clicking on the heart on the right of the post. Now let me tell you about our best rice recipes.
Best Rice Recipes for Fried Rice Dishes, Savoury Rice Porridges, Rice Bowls, Rice Soups and Mango Sticky Rice
Before I share our best rice recipes, I have a few important tips to share: if you make rice frequently, buy a rice cooker for steaming rice and making fragrant flavoured rice dishes, and a carbon steel wok for making fried rice dishes.
We also recommend stocking your kitchen with Asian pantry essentials, such as condiments, sauces and seasonings, including various fish sauces, sesame oils, soy sauces, crunchy fried garlic and shallots, sesame seeds, and chilli flakes. I also encourage you to make batches of our homemade Sriracha, chilli oil, and furikake Japanese seasoning.
The ingredient I use most in my rice dishes is fish sauce – I bet you thought I was going to say soy sauce – and we often get asked which fish sauce we use. We’ll use a Cambodian fish sauce with Cambodian food, Thai fish sauce with Thai food, a Vietnamese fish sauce with Vietnamese food etc.
But if you don’t have access to a variety of sauces, we recommend Thailand’s Megachef for quality and consistency. Our American friends also like Red Boat Fish Sauce. We’ll be sharing a guide to fish sauces and our fish sauce tasting results very soon. Now let me share about our best rice recipes with you.
Turmeric Rice Porridge Recipe with Fried Egg, Fragrant Herbs and Crunchy Shallots
Inspired by our many years living in Southeast Asia and eating countless bowls of rice porridge, my recipe for a gently spiced turmeric rice porridge with fried eggs in chilli oil is another of our best rice recipes, even if I do say so myself.
In China, traditional congee garnishes include pickled vegetables, bamboo shoots, century eggs, etc while in Southeast Asia, they can include crunchy fried garlic, spring onions, slithered ginger, sliced omelette, and ground peanuts.
This rice porridge brims with flavour and texture, thanks to eggs fried in homemade chilli oil which I cook in this adorable mini fry pan and garnishes, such as fresh fragrant herbs, crispy fried shallots, and a sprinkle of chilli flakes, along with a squirt of homemade Sriracha.
It’s not only delicious, it’s healthy due to the turmeric, which contains curcumin, an antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties that can help relieve depression and anxiety. More recipes with turmeric here.
Turmeric Rice Porridge Recipe with Fried Eggs and Chilli Oil, Crunchy Shallots and Herbs
Easy Rice Cooker Congee Recipe for a Corn and Crab Rice Porridge
Our rice cooker congee recipe makes a corn and crab congee drizzled with sesame oil and chilli oil, sprinkled with crunchy fried shallots, and garnished with fresh coriander and spring onion. It’s a cheat’s congee recipe and it’s addictively delicious, incredibly comforting, and super versatile.
This is the recipe I use when I need comfort food and I’m too tired to do anything but add rice and water to a rice cooker, open a couple of cans, and prep a few ingredients. But you can easily elevate this congee by swapping the canned crab and corn kernels for fresh crab meat and corn sliced off boiled corn cobs.
Or skip the corn and crab and make this basic rice cooker rice porridge recipe with prawns or fish, shredded chicken, pork, or vegetables, and top with your favourite fresh herbs and condiments.
Easy Rice Cooker Congee Recipe for a Corn and Crab Rice Porridge
Oyakodon Recipe for a Japanese Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl
Published as part of our Weekend Eggs recipe series of quintessential eggs dishes from around the world, Terence’s easy oyakodon recipe makes another of our best rice recipes.
This Japanese chicken and egg rice bowl consists of silky-soft scrambled eggs with sweet spring onions and tender chicken simmered in dashi, served atop a bowlful of steamed Japanese rice.
You’ll need bonito flakes and kombu to make the dashi stock. Also source some shichimi togarashi – a blend of seven spices with chilli as a base – to sprinkle over the top of this dish. One of the most popular brands of Japanese togarashi is S&B brand.
There are specially-made oyakodon pans to cook this dish in. Terence uses a 15cm pan as we find the bigger size makes a rice bowl that is far too filling for us. Chefs in Japan just slide the eggs into the bowl in one motion, but Terence finds a silicone spatula is essential to help it on its way.
Easy Oyakodon Recipe for a Japanese Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl for Weekend Eggs
Katsudon Recipe for a Japanese Pork Cutlet and Egg Rice Bowl
Another popular Japanese donburi or rice bowl meal, katsudon consists of a crunchy tonkatsu, a Japanese pork cutlet, cooked in eggs and spring onions, served atop a bowl of rice and sprinkled with slices of scallions. It’s another one of our best rice recipes.
The name ‘katsudon’ is derived from ‘katsu’, which means ‘cutlet’ – a breaded piece of pounded meat dredged in flour, egg and bread crumbs (in Japanese cooking, it’s panko breadcrumbs) before being fried – in this case, ‘tonkatsu’ (pork cutlet), and ‘don’ from ‘donburi’, Japanese rice bowl.
Some restaurants top katsudon with extras such as finely sliced ginger, an egg yolk, some use Japanese chilli powder, or a big squeeze of Japanese mayonnaise, but we find that there’s a good balance of flavour in this katsudon recipe as it is.
Katsudon Recipe for a Japanese Pork Cutlet and Egg Rice Bowl for Weekend Eggs
Pork and Crab Congee with XO Sauce Recipe by Chef Christine Manfield
Congee takes different forms across Asia, from having a watery rice soup to a thick silky texture. In its simplest form, it’s white rice boiled in water until it breaks down into a thick porridge, which might be seasoned with white pepper and soy sauce or fish sauce . For a more flavourful congee, the rice is boiled in stock, rather than water.
This pork and crab congee with XO sauce recipe is Australian chef Christine Manfield’s luxurious version and it’s another of our best rice recipes. Christine’s congee features rich ingredients such as fresh crab and pork belly, a drizzle of chilli oil and dollops of umami-packed XO sauce.
XO is expensive, as you’d expect from a product made with sumptuous ingredients such as dried scallops (you’ll find Japanese dried scallops on Amazon), dried shrimps, and aged ham.
While not cheap, XO is worth the investment. It has so much flavour, you don’t need a great deal of it, so it will last a while. We recommend Meal of Emperor XO Sauce, which sells for US$33 for a 2-pack of 80g jars on Amazon. More affordable, though not as rich in flavour, is this 80g jar of Lee Kum Kee Hong Kong XO.
Pork and Crab Congee with XO Sauce Recipe by Chef Christine Manfield
Comforting Cambodian Rice Soup Recipe with Pork Meatballs for Borbor Sor
This Cambodian rice soup recipe with pork meatballs is a comfort food favourite that’s typically eaten for breakfast – and breakfast here in Siem Reap is one of our favourite meals as there’s so much to choose from.
Options include nom banh chok, the fresh rice noodles doused in coconut-based curries served with edible flowers, leaves and herbs; kuy teav, a noodle soup with a clear broth and beef, pork, offal, or chicken; smoky, grilled pork and rice; and, of course, borbor, Cambodia’s rice soup or rice porridge, commonly known as congee across Southeast Asia.
Called ‘borbor sor’ or ‘white rice porridge’ in Khmer and made with leftover jasmine rice, it’s one of several ways to make Cambodian congee. ‘White’ used here distinguishes it from rice porridges and rice soups made from the herb and spice paste called kroeung which have a yellow-green colour depending on the type of kroeung used.
Comforting Cambodian Rice Soup Recipe with Pork Meatballs for Borbor Sor Using Leftover Rice
Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe for the Cambodian Congee Borbor Sach Moan
Our Cambodian chicken rice porridge recipe makes the Cambodian congee, borbor sach moan. It’s long been thought that this chicken rice porridge is a dish of Chinese origin and part of the Cambodian-Chinese culinary heritage rather than a Khmer dish, but no matter its provenance it’s become a comfort food favourite of all Cambodians.
We’ve observed Cambodians tuck into big bowls of this borbor for breakfast, brunch, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner (particularly if someone is feeling ill), and a late night supper, i.e. hangover cure.
Here in Siem Reap we can find borbor made with chicken, pork, fish, dried fish, seafood, snails, and frog legs, and it’s served with an array of condiments, from dried fish floss and pickled vegetables to fish sauce, chilli flakes, and fresh fragrant herbs.
Cambodian Chicken Rice Porridge Recipe for Borbor Sach Moan, Cambodia’s Congee
Cambodian Vegetable Congee Recipe Adapted for Rice Cookers + Tips for Vegans
This Cambodian vegetable congee recipe makes a delicious, healthy vegetable-driven rice porridge or borbor in Khmer, with a base of kroeung, a Cambodian spice paste. This is a vegetarian congee but we have tips for vegans in the post.
This rice dish was traditionally made in a large pot on a clay brazier, over an open fire or on a gas burner. While most households in Southeast Asia probably have a rice cooker, not all Southeast Asians make rice in a rice cooker as ‘Uncle Roger’ would have you believe. In Cambodia, for example, steamed rice is still mostly cooked in a pot on a clay brazier or directly over an open fire.
When we moved to a village on the edge of Siem Reap at the start of the pandemic, we’d watch our neighbours light a fire in their yard each day on which they’d place a large metal pot to cook their rice and soups. I’ve adapted the recipe for rice cookers.
Cambodian Vegetable Congee Recipe Adapted for Rice Cookers – Vegetarian with Tips for Vegans
Bacon and Eggs Breakfast Congee Recipe for a Comforting East-West Savoury Rice Porridge
Rice porridges are probably the most widely consumed type of porridge, eaten everywhere from Asia to Europe and the Middle East – from Portugal to Turkey, The Levant to Taiwan – yet they might just be the most ubiquitous in Asia.
Originating in India – in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, plain rice porridge is called kanji, which comes from the word for ‘boiling’ – China is perhaps the country we most associate with rice porridge or congee, although I’d wager that most Asian countries have a congee.
Our hearty bacon and eggs breakfast congee recipe makes a comforting East-West savoury rice porridge that’s inspired partly by the classic Australian breakfast of bacon and eggs with sautéed mushrooms, and partly by Chinese and Southeast breakfast porridges with pork and boiled eggs, and we reckon it’s one of our best rice recipes.
You will need a mortar and pestle to lightly pound the lemongrass, ginger and garlic a few times, just enough to release the aromas, not to make a paste.
Bacon and Eggs Breakfast Congee Recipe for a Comforting East-West Savoury Rice Porridge
Burmese Coconut Rice Recipe – A Traditional Recipe Adapted for the Modern Rice Cooker
This easy Burmese coconut rice recipe makes a deliciously addictive turmeric-tinted rice, scented with cinnamon and cloves, that’s made for rich Burmese curries.
I’ve adapted it from a traditional Burmese recipe in Mi Mi Khaing’s cookbook, Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way (1978), which calls for cooking over embers, but indicates it could be made with an electric rice cooker. I accepted the challenge.
While it might lack the smoky aromas had I cooked the rice “over embers only and put red-hot coals over lid”, it still has plenty of perfume and flavour from the coconut milk, cloves, cinnamon, and bay leaves. The author recommends serving it with this Burmese Indian style chicken curry.
If you enjoy this, you might also like these other recipes from Myanmar, including recipes for Burmese fried chicken, Shan vermicelli noodle salad, Shan tomato salad, Burmese raw cabbage salad, Burmese egg curry, and ohn no khao swe, one of our favourite Myanmar soups.
Burmese Coconut Rice Recipe – A Traditional Recipe Adapted for the Modern Rice Cooker
Cape Malay Yellow Rice Recipe for the Perfect Accompaniment to a Cape Malay Curry
This Cape Malay yellow rice recipe makes the perfect accompaniment for a richly spiced Cape Malay curry. Add buttery roti and refreshing tomato and onion and cucumber sambals and you’re set for a Cape Malay feast.
The recipe will make you a very moreish sweet and savoury rice to accompany this classic Cape Malay chicken curry recipe that we learnt to make some years ago in a very memorable Cape Malay cooking class in Cape Town’s historic Bo-Kaap neighbourhood, the heart of Cape Malay cuisine and culture in South Africa.
If you’re not familiar with Cape Malay food, you can learn more about it on that cooking class link. As with the curry, we recommend making more than you need, as this rice is another of our best rice recipes and it’s fantastic as leftovers.
This Cape Malay Yellow Rice Recipe Makes the Perfect Accompaniment to a Cape Malay Curry
Chinese Special Fried Rice Recipe, a Fantastic Filling One Pot Meal
Our Chinese special fried rice recipe makes use of that leftover steamed rice you have in the fridge and that wonderful char siu pork you cooked. Fantastic and filling, it’s our go-to recipe when we’re looking for an easy one-pot dish to make and it’s easily another of our best rice recipe.
Long-known to us as a classic Chinese special fried rice of the kind we’d eat in Chinese restaurants growing up in Australia, this fried rice dish is sometimes called Yangzhou fried rice, because its provenance is the city of Yangzhou in Jiangsu province in China, one of the culinary hotbeds of Huaiyang cuisine.
The traditional version of this Chinese special fried rice dish includes cooked rice, char siu pork, shrimps, scallions, scrambled eggs, peas, and carrots. Sea cucumber and crab meat were other additions.
Growing up in Australia, fried rice was always served in the Cantonese restaurants that were in every city and town’s Chinatown, at suburban Chinese restaurants, and at food court all-you-can-eat buffets. While this dish probably tastes just fine after sitting in a bain-marie for a few hours, it really shines when made fresh and steaming hot.
Chinese Special Fried Rice Recipe, a Fantastic Filling One Pot Meal
Cambodian Fried Rice Recipe for the Best Bai Cha
This Cambodian fried rice recipe makes the best Cambodian bai cha (fried rice), a lighter version of the popular Chinese fried rice, and another of our best rice recipes. Thanks to many centuries of Chinese trade and migration, Chinese fried rice is found across Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, there are many variations of fried rice, bai char being the most ubiquitous.
Bai cha (also written as bai tcha, bai char, bai chaa, bay cha) is simply ‘fried rice’ – ‘bai’ is rice and ‘cha’ is to stir-fry – and it’s distinguished by two quintessential breakfast ingredients, sausage and eggs, Siem Reap sausage in particular, the local take on lap cheong, the Cantonese name for a smoked, sweetened, red Chinese sausage.
Sometimes you’ll see a fried egg plopped on top in addition to the egg combined through the rice. You’ll also see fried rice made with pork and shrimps; fried rice with mixed seafood, mainly found on the Cambodian coast (look for bai char Kampot and bai char Kep, named after the coastal towns where they originate); and the luxuriant bai char kdam (fried rice with crab).
Shrimp Fried Rice With Shrimp Paste Recipe for Cambodia’s Bai Cha Kapi
This shrimp fried rice with shrimp paste recipe makes Cambodia’s bai char kapi – ‘bai’ is rice and ‘cha’ is to fry or stir-fry and kapi is shrimp paste. It’s a classic fried rice distinguished by sweet plump prawns and the pungency of shrimp paste and it’s another of our best rice recipes.
If you love the salty, funky flavours of shrimp paste and fish sauce, you’ll love this. You don’t? Then leave out the shrimp paste and you’ve got a fantastic shrimp fried rice. It is super easy to make if you have leftover steamed rice in the fridge – day-old steamed rice is good, but a couple of days old is even better.
You won’t see this on menus all over Cambodia, as most Cambodians prefer fish sauce and their beloved fermented fish paste called prahok to shrimp paste, however, you’ll come across this shrimp fried rice dish wherever you find shrimp paste made and sold, whether it’s made from river prawns or ocean prawns.
We use a local shrimp paste, but you’ll probably have greater luck finding a Thai shrimp paste than a Cambodian shrimp paste outside the country. You could also add a little fish sauce to this if you really love funky, fishy flavours.
Shrimp Fried Rice With Shrimp Paste Recipe – How to Make Cambodia’s Bai Cha Kapi
Tonkatsu Fried Rice with Onsen Eggs Recipe for a Rice Leftovers Dish You’ll Want to Plan
This tonkatsu fried rice with onsen eggs recipe combines a few of the things we love – fried rice, eggs and tonkatsu, the succulent Japanese pork cutlet breaded in panko crumbs and deep-fried.
Like the original Chinese fried rice that was invented to use leftover rice, this tonkatsu fried rice with onsen eggs recipe is the result of combining leftovers – we had a couple of pieces of tonkatsu, the deep-fried Japanese breaded pork cutlets, and some steamed rice in the fridge – as well as a little experimentation, as Terence had been making onsen eggs.
It’s one of our best rice recipes. If you enjoy this, you’ll also love these tonkatsu burgers, so make extra. You’ll need this tonkatsu recipe to make your tonkatsu and tonkatsu sauce first.
Tonkatsu Fried Rice with Onsen Eggs Recipe for a Rice Leftovers Dish You’ll Want to Plan
Our Best Chicken Fried Rice Recipe Is Made With Spicy Southern Fried Chicken Leftovers
This chicken fried rice recipe combines our favourite Nashville-style Southern fried chicken by chef Morgan McGlone of Belles Hot Chicken with a classic fried rice. Like the tonkatsu rice above, this chicken fried rice recipe is the result of experimentation, as the best rice recipes are.
Whenever Terence make batches of Southern fried chicken, we always have leftovers. Often, we’ll reheat the chicken the next day and have it for lunch or a snack. However, after making tonkatsu fried rice and it turning out so well, we thought Terence should try making fried rice with spicy fried chicken.
One of his attempts at this chicken fried rice dish really stood out, borrowed from a Japanese curry fried rice recipe. He made it with a little curry powder and it was magic.
Not all curry powders are created equal obviously. In this case, we use the Nguan Soon curry powder brand which comes from Thailand but you could use your favourite curry powder – or even make your own curry powder blend.
Our Best Chicken Fried Rice Recipe Is Made With Spicy Southern Fried Chicken Leftovers
Cabbage Roll Fried Rice Recipe for a Fragrant Fried Rice Inspired by my Grandmother’s Cabbage Rolls
My cabbage roll fried rice recipe makes an incredibly tasty, fragrant fried rice inspired by my Russian grandmother’s cabbage rolls. If you love cabbage rolls but you think they’re too complicated or time-consuming to make (they’re not), and you love fried rice, you must make this.
To the fried onion, garlic, carrot, ground pork, and rice mixture normally ensconced within cabbage leaves, I add shredded cabbage, spices, a little tomato paste, and fresh aromatic dill to make a deliciously addictive fried rice that is my new favourite dish and one of our best rice recipes.
Every time I’ve made the savoury minced meat and rice mixture for stuffed cabbage rolls in recent years I’ve found myself contemplating the idea of creating a cabbage roll fried rice recipe. Well, I finally did it and I’m so pleased I did. It’s absolutely delicious and incredibly addictive, so take that as a warning.
Cabbage Roll Fried Rice Recipe for a Fragrant Fried Rice Inspired by my Grandmother’s Cabbage Rolls
Massaman Curry Fried Rice Recipe for Fried Rice with Crispy Onions, Crunchy Potatoes and Pan-Roasted Peanuts
This Massaman curry fried rice recipe makes a fantastic, filling, fragrant fried rice with crispy onions, crunchy fried potatoes, pan-roasted peanuts, and the perfume of dried spices, such as cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and it’s another of our best rice recipes. Garnish with fresh coriander to lighten things up.
I created this Massaman curry fried rice recipe to use up leftover steamed rice and Thai Massaman curry leftovers we had in the fridge from the previous night. As regular readers, who would be aware of my rice project, Make Rice Not War (A Celebration of Rice Diversity to Inspire Curiosity and Connection), would know, I’m obsessed with rice, and Terence and I love to invent new fried rice dishes.
There are also few things I hate more than food wastage than throwing out perfectly good leftover food when there are so many hungry people in the world. Fried rice is not only a fantastic solution for leftover rice, but also for leftover curries and stir-fry leftovers. Fried rice was invented to use up leftover rice, after all.
Easy Southern Thai Chicken and Rice Recipe for Khao Mok Gai, a Thai Style ‘Biryani’
This easy Southern Thai chicken and rice recipe for khao mok gai makes braised chicken cooked in a spicy curry-like gravy and served with turmeric rice and crispy fried shallots and it’s another of our best rice recipes.
‘Khao’ means rice, ‘gai’ is chicken, and ‘mok’ means to bury underneath or within in modern Thai. Interestingly, ‘khmok’ is also an old Khmer word that means to cook within banana leaves, which is how this dish was probably once cooked, and to find out more about that you’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook.
A Thai Muslim specialty from Southern Thailand, it’s considered to be a Thai-Malay street food dish and is often called a Thai biryani or Thai style biryani. Like a biryani the chicken can be cooked with the rice or separately. Either way, it’s wonderful.
Southern Thai Chicken and Rice Recipe for Khao Mok Gai, a Thai Style ‘Biryani’
Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe with Fried Egg for Kimchi Bokkeumbap
This easy Korean kimchi fried rice recipe makes kimchi bokkeumbap, rice stir-fried with Korea’s famously fiery fermented cabbage kimchi and spicy chilli paste gochujang that’s topped with soft fried eggs and sprinkled with roasted seaweed, sesame seeds, and, if it’s not spicy enough for you, the Korean chilli flakes called gochugaru. It’s fantastic, filling and comforting and it’s another of our best rice recipes.
If you enjoyed our Korean spicy noodles recipe for stir-fried udon noodles with kimchi, bacon, pork, and fried eggs, and you’re a lover of fried rice then you’re going to love this easy Korean kimchi fried rice recipe with fried eggs. It’s equally delicious and just as easy to prepare.
The recipe makes a simple kimchi bokkeumbap. There’s no pork or bacon in this kimchi fried rice as there is in those spicy noodles, however, you could always add them if you like. It’s a very versatile rice dish. I ran out of kimchi the other day and add braised cabbage to the little kimchi I had left.
This is also a vegetarian kimchi fried rice and if you skipped the fried egg, it’s essentially a vegan fried rice. Peas, beans and broccoli also work with this.
Easy Korean Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe with Fried Egg for Kimchi Bokkeumbap
Satay Chicken Fried Rice Recipe
My tasty satay chicken fried rice recipe was created to make use of some leftover Thai satay chicken skewers, Thai peanut satay sauce and steamed rice that we had in the fridge.
You’ll need to make the Thai chicken satay skewers recipe for sate gai first, which will make you Thai satay chicken in the Southern Thailand style that you’ll find at street food stalls all over Thailand.
While you’re doing that, prepare our authentic Thai satay sauce recipe, which will make you a genuine Thai peanut satay sauce from scratch to go with Thai satay skewers.
A warning: it’s a slightly tweaked recipe from chef David Thompson’s Thai Street Food cookbook, so it’s a bit of a cooking project.
David’s recipe calls for dried chillies to be soaked, coriander and cumin seeds to be roasted – separately, and a spice paste to be pounded in a mortar and pestle, before you even make the peanut sauce. I provide a few short-cuts in my recipe.
Make sure to sprinkle the fried rice dish with crispy fried shallots and fragrant coriander before serving.
Tasty Satay Chicken Fried Rice Recipe to Use Leftover Satay Chicken and Steamed Rice
Thai Mango Sticky Rice Recipe by Chef David Thompson
Making chef David Thompson’s Thai mango sticky rice recipe for the much-loved Thai dessert kao niaw mamuang from his Thai Street Food cookbook became my mission after the mango rains started. I had been ogling the green mangoes that hung from the towering mango trees in our neighbourhood for weeks.
But one of the reasons for my delay in making this recipe wasn’t only that it was a tad intimidating (it’s very detailed), but that I couldn’t find yellow mung beans (essential to the recipe to add a little crunch), nor fresh jasmine flowers to perfume the rice (desirable). I used jasmine essence, which horrified the chef.
I thought the result was a tad sweet the first time I made this and asked the chef if all the sugar was necessary with sweet fresh coconuts or sweetened tinned coconut cream. I was told it was! You do what you think is best. I promise not to tell…
This Thai Mango Sticky Rice Recipe by Chef David Thompson Is Not As Intimidating As It Looks
Please do let us know if you make any of our best rice recipes in the comments below, as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
Great collection of recipes, guys – made quite a lot of these. Will be making a big massaman for friends on Saturday night and will hopefully have some left to try the massaman curry rice. That looks very nice!
Hi Sharon, so pleased to hear this! Thanks for taking the time to drop by and let us know :)