This breakfast fried rice features crispy bacon, grated potatoes, and eggs for a delicious and hearty morning meal. It’s a quick recipe — just 30 minutes— and a great way to use up day-old leftover rice. You can also customize this fried rice with bacon recipe with any other veggies you have in your fridge, it’s flexible like that!
Breakfast fried rice is what I turn to when I want a quick, hearty breakfast and have bits and bobs of random leftovers cluttering up my fridge. Especially if I have leftover rice.
If I don't have leftover rice, I make this breakfast pizza with egg on top OR this single small batch pancake, if I want something a little more sweet.
But if you want a great recipe with leftover rice... cold, dry, leftover rice is perfect for making fried rice. And fried rice is one of the easiest, most versatile recipes you can have in your recipe index. This breakfast fried rice includes shredded potatoes crisped up in bacon fat with garlic and ginger, and is finished with crumbled bacon and thinly sliced scallions.
I first made fried rice — regular fried rice — in college. I didn't do much cooking back then, but it was one of the first times I looked at a restaurant dish and recognized it to be the sum of incredibly familiar parts: Rice. Veggies. Onion. Soy and/or teriyaki sauce. A scrambled egg. Maybe some sort of meat protein like chicken or pork.
I can make that, I thought.
When you grow up a white, Jewish suburban kid with parents who flinch at the word "fried" you don't think of fried rice — especially fried rice with bacon — as something you can make at home. It's certainly not something you'd eat for breakfast (unless you're slightly hungover and shoveling it from a takeout carton directly into your mouth).
No, when I was growing up Chinese food was for Christmas eve and outings with my grandparents (okay, and my sister's bat mitzvah party but that's another story).
Realizing, at the ripe old age of 20, that fried rice was made up of things I already knew how to cook was like pulling back the curtain to realize the Wizard of Oz was just a regular human man behind a curtain all along.
It was the first time I remember realizing that every culture has quick, easy recipes made up of simple ingredients and that, just because I was cooking food from another culture, that didn't mean the food wasn't inherently harder or more complicated to make. It just meant that I wasn't familiar with it yet.
What I'm trying to say is this: It's not just okay to eat fried rice for breakfast — fried rice with bacon is actually an ideal breakfast food. Maybe you've realized this already, maybe you haven't. It already has eggs in it — the addition of grated potatoes makes it feel almost like a hash and the salty, crunchy bacon is right at home with the soy and teriyaki sauces.
I also add a bit of ginger, gojuchang, and chili garlic sauce for a mild heat. The thinly sliced scallions garnished over the top aren't just there for a pop of color, either; they bring brightness and freshness to the dish with just a bit of a gentle kick that wakes you right up.
Ingredient Notes
- Bacon - I love using bacon strips when making breakfast fried rice because then I can fry the rice in the rendered bacon fat. You can also use pancetta, Canadian bacon, ham, etc. You'll just need to add a bit more oil to the pan before adding the ginger, garlic, and rice.
- Cold, Day Old Rice - t's super important to use cold, day-old rice for this recipe with leftover rice. Cold, dry rice won't absorb too much liquid and will get nice and crispy in the oil. If you use freshly made rice, the rice grains will break down and turn mushy when you fry them. Cold, day-old rice has had some time to dry out and will give your fried rice a nice texture with distinct rice grains.
- Onion - I like to use red onion, but white or yellow onion will work here too! You could even use shallots or scallion whites if that's all you've got.
- Grated Potatoes - I often have leftover fingerling potatoes, so that's what I use but you can use frozen hash browns or grate a small, regular potato instead.
- Eggs - 1 egg per person is my usual rule of thumb. Whisk it well with a pinch of salt before adding to the pan.
- Soy Sauce and Teriyaki Sauce - This gives the rice it's dark brown color and adds a ton of flavor, plus saltiness! You really don't need to add much salt elsewhere in the dish because these two bring a lot of salt to the table.
- Ginger and Garlic - I use fresh ginger and fresh garlic, but you can also mix garlic powder and ground ginger into the soy sauce instead as well.
- Scallions - Thinly sliced scallions add a nice crunch and brightness to this fried rice!
Practical Tips & Recipe Notes
- A quick rule of thumb for scaling this up or down: 1½ cups rice, 2 slices of bacon, 2-3 potatoes, and 1 egg per person.
- The absolute best way to scramble the eggs just the right amount is to use chopsticks. Chopsticks are also great for breaking up the rice.
- Want to add other veggies like peppers, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, corn, or zucchini? Add them right after the onions but before you add the rice.
- No bacon? Swap in crumbled sausage, pancetta, or cubed ham or Canadian bacon. You'll just need to add more oil before step 3 since the ginger and garlic won't have bacon fat to cook in.
- Take this to the next level by serving it with a perfectly fried egg on top.
📖 Recipe
Breakfast Fried Rice with Egg, Bacon and Potatoes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon
- 3 cups day-old rice
- 4-6 fingerling potatoes (shredded on the large holes of a box grater or fine diced)
- 1 clove garlic (microplaned or minced)
- ½ teaspoon fresh ginger (microplaned or minced)
- ¼ cup diced onion
- ⅛ cup tamari or soy sauce
- ¼ cup teriyaki sauce
- 1-2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1-2 large eggs
- 3 tablespoon scallion greens thinly sliced
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Cook bacon until desired level of crispiness, remove from skillet and set aside on paper towels to drain.
- While the bacon cooks, prep the rest of your ingredients.
- Add ginger and garlic to the remaining bacon fat over medium heat and cook until soft, about 1 minute. Add the potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are slightly crispy and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the onion and cook 2 minutes more.
- Add cold rice to the pan, using chopsticks or a wooden spoon to break it up into chunks as it fries in the bacon fat. Stir the rice occasionally so it fries evenly.
- When the rice is uniformly light golden brown in color (about 5 minutes) add the tamari/teriyaki sauce mixture to the pan and stir, scraping any browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Cook the rice, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, until the sauce has completely absorbed, about 2-3 minutes.
- Make a well in the center of the rice and pour 1-2 tablespoons of oil into it. Give it a few seconds to get hot, then pour the lightly beaten eggs into the center of the well. Season the eggs with salt and pepper and give them a few gentle scrambles. When the eggs are about 70-80% cooked through, stir them into the rice.
- Serve in bowls garnished with thinly sliced scallions.
RECIPE NOTES
- Go ahead and add any other veggies you at the same time as the onions. No bacon? Swap in crumbled sausage, pancetta, or cubed ham or canadian bacon. You'll just need to add more oil before step 3 since the ginger and garlic won't have bacon fat to cook in.
- An easy way to scale this up or down: Estimate 1½ cups rice, 2 slices of bacon, and 1 egg per person.
Holly
This is literally one of my favourite meals to make! It is so so tasy, quick and cheap to make (which is a must for a broke student like myself). I have it at least once a week 🙂