Peking duck fried rice tastes way better than takeout. Let me tell you a secret – you don’t need duck meat or a wok to cook this.
The recipe name might sound fancy, but it actually just uses a sauce that resembles the taste of Peking duck. The sauce goes well with many different ingredients, so it’s definitely a great one to add to your weekday dinner recipe box.
I invented the dish when I was trying to use leftover roast duck meat to create a quick lunch. Instead of using my go-to fried rice recipes (soy sauce fried rice and chicken fried rice), I poured in hoisin sauce because it’s the first thing that pops into my mind whenever I deal with duck meat. It turned out to be one of the best fried rices I’ve ever had!
This fried rice recipe belongs to the category of recipes that I’d highly recommend to anyone new to Chinese cooking. It’s a flexible recipe and very forgiving. You are unlikely to overcook it. You do not need a wok and can easily adapt the recipe to whatever ingredients you have on hand. The prep takes ten minutes and the cooking takes another ten. When you taste the rice, you’ll wonder how such a simple dish tastes better than one at a Chinese restaurant.
Cooking Notes
When you finish prep, you should have these few things near your stove: the 3-ingredient sauce, leftover rice, garlic and onion, any leftover meat (or skip it), and a few handfuls of veggies.
You see, this is the beautiful part of Chinese cooking. It uses minimal ingredients, yet the finished dish is delicious and full of color.
Simply remember one thing during cooking – heat up the pan with high heat and keep using a high enough heat to keep the pan hot. A very hot pan allows the rice to get a nice sear, so you gain a wok-like texture, even using a nonstick skillet.
Then you can leave it to the sauce to work its magic. Hoisin sauce contains sugar, which caramelizes very well during cooking. Even if you cook the rice a bit too long, it will only get better. The rice will lose some moisture and separate, eventually becoming beautifully charred.
The ingredients in this recipe are very flexible. If you do not have leftover duck, no worries! The recipe will go very well with any leftover meat, or even without meat. I used kale to add color and nutrition. You can replace it with mustard greens or spinach. To throw in veggies without prep, use frozen green peas or carrots. Too daunting to cook the egg separately? Scramble the egg into the rice in one pan.
That’s it!
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it #omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with. Cheers, friends!
Peking Duck Fried Rice
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/8 teaspoon chili powder (Optional)
Fried rice
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 2 to 3 carrots , sliced
- 1 cup leftover roast duck (or any leftover meat, torn into small pieces)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (Optional)
- 4 cups leftover rice
- 3 to 4 green onions , chopped
- 2 cups kale (or spinach, or mustard greens, stems removed and chopped)
- Salt to taste
Garnish (Optional)
- 2 eggs
- 8 to 10 asparagus spears
- 2 tomatoes , chopped
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl, mix well.
- Gather all the chopped veggies and the sauce near the stove.
- Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet (or a wok) over medium high heat until hot. Add garlic. Stir a few times until fragrant. Add carrot. Cook until it starts to get tender.
- Add duck meat (or other leftover meat). Stir and cook until slightly charred. (See Footnote 1)
- (Optional) Pour in Shaoxing wine. Stir until the liquid evaporates.
- Add rice. Stir and chop with a spatula to separate the rice.
- Pour sauce over the rice. Continue cooking and stirring until the sauce is evenly mixed.
- Add kale. Stir and cook until the kale is cooked through.
- Turn to low heat and adjust seasoning by adding more salt, if necessary. If you like charred rice, let it cook a bit longer, or simply turn off heat and leave the rice in the pan for a few minutes. Transfer everything to serving plates.
(Optional) Sides
- Cook sunny side up egg and transfer on top of the rice.
- To cook a quick side, use the hot pan to grill asparagus. Season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer asparagus to the side of the rice and top it with chopped tomato. You can also drizzle on a few drops of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to create a simple salad.
- Serve warm.
Notes
- If you want to scramble in the eggs, move all the ingredients to one side of the pan. Add beaten egg to the other side. Let cook until the bottom sets. Add rice on top of the egg. Continue cooking according to the recipe.
Hoisin sauce is truly my favorite Asian sauce and I like how you’ve made this seem so easy to make. The flavors sounds delicious and that photo is perfect with the egg on top!
I know adding an egg to a dish is “cheating” but I think it’s Ok to do this once in a while 😉
Wow! I’ve made it and it the taste was a really nice surprise! Thank’s a lot for all your really good recipes!
Hi Maryse, I’m glad to hear you made the dish and enjoyed it! Can’t wait to hear what you cook the next 🙂
I made this last night with leftover roast duck, rice, spinach, and carrots. Oh my God, so good! It was like the ultimate Chinese comfort food, and I hate to say it, but way better than my local Chinese takeout. Great way to use up leftovers, too! I’ll definitely be making this again when I need to clean out the fridge. Thanks for the recipe!
Terrific! She is a wonderful cook!
Had leftover duck from Thanksgiving and made this tonight. Followed recipe, except used spinach instead of kale. This was very good, and I give more credit to the cumin (my favorite spice) and the pinch of chili powder. It had great depth and heartiness to it.
Oh wow! This tasted amazing. I had a quick clean out of the fridge and added mushrooms, carrots, green pepper and Savoy cabbage. It was quick and easy to make and didn’t cost me a penny as it was all leftovers.