My definition of Hawaiian Island Style Fried Rice is a fried rice full of leftovers that you found in the refrigerator that you dumped in the wok to create a whole new meal!
Last week when I was doing my weekly meal prep that I do the day before I go back to work, I made Crispy Chinese Black Pepper Chicken Wings. And when I made those wings, I made this Hawaiian Island Style Fried Rice.
Well, I have completed my work shifts for the week – saving lives, and comforting the sick & shut in…. And now I’m off for a few days, and can share the recipe with you all.
What Is Hawaiian Island Style Fried Rice?
My definition of Hawaiian Island Style fried rice: A fried rice full of leftovers you found in the refrigerator that you dumped in the wok to create a whole new meal.
Because you better not let that food go to waste! Times “is” hard…. (in my granny voice)……
Key Ingredients
What I had left over in my fridge was some char sui pork I bought from a local specialty store, and a big pot of rice….. The rest of the ingredients included are major essentials/staples I always keep in my kitchen to make meals.
Other key components of island style fried rice is bacon, sesame oil, oyster sauce, a little fish oil, and ginger….. Something I learned from a few of my friends in Hawaii…. This gives the fried rice flavor.
I have even had fried rice at different restaurants that also had ham, and Spam meat in it… Which is another Hawaiian island style way of fried rice.
How to Make the Perfect Fried Rice
And if you have read my Mexican Rice recipe, you will know that I suck at cooking rice and have learned how to prefect techniques that work for me.
If you are part of the “I suck at cooking rice club” too, here are a few key tips to make the perfect fried rice:
- You want to cook the rice on high heat to keep the rice from getting soggy and mushy.
- Try to cook the other ingredients separately then add them back to the wok after the rice has cooked, to decrease the liquids in the pan (because more liquids cause the rice to get soggy and mushy).
- As mentioned less is more when it comes to adding liquids to keep the rice from getting soggy. Just add a small amount of soy sauce, and a few dashes of fish oil while cooking. People can add more soy sauce to their rice while they eat to accommodate their soy sauce/salt preference.
Cooking Steps
Now let’s get to making our Hawaiian Island Style Fried Rice, shall we?
Dice up your Portuguese sausage and char sui meat like this. You can find these meats at specialty stores if you are not near the islands. The Portuguese sausage is pretty much like smoked sausage if you are looking for a substitute.
Char Sui pork is a marinated piece of pork (preferably pork belly). This can be made homemade or bought at a local specialty store or Asian stores.
When I try a homemade recipe for char sui pork, I will link it back to this post…. I don’t want to post any recipes I haven’t personally tried..
Scramble your eggs for the fried rice.
Dump all of your cooked ingredients into a bowl or plate as you cook them and set them aside.
Make sure your rice is nice and cold, and is at least a day old. This helps to decrease some of the moisture.
The rice will probably be clumped up like this. Make sure to crumble the rice before cooking, so that the rice is loose and fries evenly during the cooking process.
Your Hawaiian Island Style Fried Rice is ready. Try it out and let me know how you liked it.
Meal Planning Tip
Complete the meal with Crispy Chinese Black Pepper Chicken Wings. The recipe for those wings are located HERE.
Menu Planning Tip
Complete this meal with Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp.
Enjoying Hawaiian Island Style Fried Rice?
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Culinary Hill have a great Hawaiian fried rice recipe, too.
Made This Recipe?
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Hawaiian Island Style Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cup char sui pork meat
- 5 ounces Portuguese sausage
- 5 slices of bacon (chopped, diced)
- 1 pound large shrimp (cleaned, peeled)
- 1/2 white onion (diced)
- 5 large garlic cloves (minced, finely chopped)
- 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
- cooking oil
- sesame oil
- 6 cups of cold cooked white rice
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
- fish oil
- 1/8 cup Shoyu or soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons green onion diced
Instructions
- Heat up your wok using medium high heat. Once the wok becomes hot, add the bacon to the wok, and cook bacon until crisp. Once bacon is cooked, remove bacon from the wok and place on a plate with paper towels to drain excess grease.
- At this point you can remove some of the bacon grease from the pan (reserve some of the bacon grease for cooking the other ingredients if you like), leaving just enough of the grease in the pan to brown and heat the Portuguese sausage (you probably only need just enough oil that is equivalent to a drizzle of oil).
- Add the Portuguese sausage to the wok. Cook the sausage for about two minutes. Then remove the sausage from wok and place the sausage on the plate of bacon to drain excess grease.
- Next, remove excess oil from the wok (leaving just a drizzle of oil in the wok). Then, add the shrimp to the wok. Cook the shrimp for about 2 minutes or until shrimp are pink and cooked through. Once shrimp are cooked, remove them from the pan and set aside.
- Then, add a few drizzles of cooking oil or the reserved bacon grease to the wok. Once the oil is heated through, add the eggs to wok. Scramble cook the eggs. Once the eggs are cooked, remove the eggs from the wok, and set aside (I usually just add it to the plate of cooked shrimp to decrease the amount of dishes being used).
- Then, add a few drizzles of cooking oil or the reserved bacon grease to the wok. Once the oil is heated through, add the garlic and onion to the heated oil. Cook the onion and garlic for a few minutes until the onions are translucent. Once the onions and garlic are cooked, remove the onion and garlic from the pan. (I usually add the cooked onion mixture to the plate of cooked shrimp, & eggs to decrease the amount of dishes I use.)
- Now add about 2 to 3 tablespoons of sesame oil to the wok. At this point make sure you are using high heat, because high heat is needed to cook the rice. While the oil is heating, you can break up the cold rice, making sure there are no clumps of rice, this ensures even cooking of all the rice.
- After the oil has become nice and hot, add the cold cooked rice, ginger powder, and about 3 splashes of fish oil to the wok. Let the rice cook for about 8 minutes or until you get a nice golden fried brown rice. Make sure to stir the rice a few times during the cooking time to ensure the all the rice gets fried.
- Now add your cooked meats, char sui meat, onions, garlic, and eggs back to the wok, and mix everything together. And cook the rice mixture for about 2 more minutes.
- Sprinkle/garnish the fried rice with additional diced green onions before serving.
Notes
- I read somewhere that darker soy sauces, gives the rice a more darker color if you want to the rice to look darker.
- Also I use aloha brand soy sauce, because it does not taste as salty to me as other soy sauces. If you are not near the islands or a local specialty store that sells this soy sauce, try a low sodium soy sauce instead.
- Make sure to crumble the rice before cooking, so that the rice is loose and fries evenly during the cooking process.
Nutrition
Please note that I am not a nutritionist, and the nutritional information is an estimate only. It varies based on the products and brands used.
Thanks for stopping by! Welcome to the Savory Spicerack! In my kitchen, there is no such thing as a bland meal. Each of my creations are just the way food should be – packed with flavor and created with love. 
this taste just like the fried rice I had in Hawaii and love the Portuguese sausage.
Great to hear!!
I love exploring Hawaiian cuisine – so many amazing recipes!
I make my fried rice just like this! I like to cook the bacon first so the rest of the ingredients will take on the bacon flavor as they are added to the pan. Like you, I fry each ingredient separately and add everything back in when the rice is finished frying. That prevents overcooking of delicate items like shrimp and eggs. I also add microwaved frozen peas, diced white onion, celery, and fishcake. I always add enough meat to the dish so it becomes a satisfying meal. Our family fights over leftovers, if there are any.
Peas sound like a great addition!
What a gorgeous presentation of fried rice, you have created here! Thanks for the wonderful recipe!!!
Thanks a million!
I adore fried rice, and this recipe looks amazing! Shrimp, that sausage, bacon, wow! So full of flavors.
It’s the meat lover’s of fried rice! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
I have some leftover ham in the fridge. Think I could substitute that for the sausage?
Absolutely! Hawaiian Style fried rice definitely has ham in it at some restaurants! Thanks for stopping by!
Excellent fried rice Sharee! We often do the same, meaning we stir fry leftovers with rice:) Your recipe however has bacon and shrimp. OK. Bacon and shrimp… It goes without saying that WE WILL try this ASAP:!!!):):)
We usually mix the eggs while cooking the rice ourselves, but your method looks very interesting and we really wanna try it as well!
Have a beautiful weekend,
Panos and Mirella
xoxo
Yes bacon and shrimp! I was introduced to this way of fried rice in Hawaii and never looked back! I have added the egg while frying the rice as well. But I don’t like to add anything else to the rice while I am cooking the rice…. Just my style to make sure I don’t screw it up! XOXOXOXO