Ground Chicken Fried Rice

This high volume spin on chicken fried rice combines lean ground chicken with a frozen jasmine and cauliflower rice blend, frozen mixed vegetables, and quick homemade sauce. Everything comes together in a single skillet in about 30 minutes. And each serving has 32 grams of protein with only 12 grams of fat and 40 grams of carbs.

Cauliflower haters are welcome, as this fried rice can be made with 100% jasmine rice instead of the blend. If you’re strength training or a performance athlete, the extra carbs per serving will be put to good use anyway.

Let’s take a look at all the components of the dish and cover some other substitution ideas and tips for serving. You will find a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, in case you’re in a hurry.

A Homemade Sauce for Chicken Fried Rice

As a short summary of the recipe, ground chicken is browned in a skillet on its own then fully cooked and set aside before the rice blend and veggies are fried in the same skillet. Then everything goes in the pan together along with a sweet, spicy, umami sauce.

For the sauce, you will need coconut aminos or soy sauce, maple syrup or honey, your favorite vinegar, ground ginger, toasted sesame oil, scallion whites, and chili garlic sauce or an alternative chili sauce or paste.

These are all interchangeable ingredients. Sriracha, gochujang, or sambal oelek would all be great swaps for the chili garlic sauce. Black vinegar would add a bit more sweetness than rice vinegar. You’re really just looking to hit four out of five flavors—sweet, salty, sour, and umami—with a little kick from chiles.

Browning Ground Chicken

Once your sauce is nailed down, all that’s left to do is cook. I like using a nonstick skillet for fried rice, especially low fat fried rice, so you don’t have to worry about cooking too hot and deglazing the pan too often.

You’re looking to develop flavor via browning with the ground chicken, so don’t just throw it in the skillet and break it apart or continuously stir. The recipe calls for 3-4 minutes untouched but if your pan wasn’t hot enough, it might take longer. Be patient!

I think browning one side of the chicken is adequate and once you’ve achieved it, you can break it apart to fully cook faster. Transfer the cooked chicken to a bowl and it’s time to fry some frozen rice and veggies.

Using Frozen Rice for Fried Rice

I’m sure you’ve heard that using day-old rice (or cooked and chilled) rice is the best for fried rice, and that’s accurate. But you don’t always have time to cook and chill rice or have leftover rice in the refrigerator.

Luckily, it’s easy to make pretty darn good fried rice with frozen rice. And in this case, frozen rice and riced cauliflower.

Is frying nearly thirty ounces of rice and veggies the best way to make fried rice? Not a chance. But it’s efficient and turns out more than fine, in my opinion.

You’re looking to cook off any moisture from the frozen trio as quickly as possible. So make sure the pan is hot before adding them, as they will cool it down once added. Spread everything into an even layer to maximize surface area and have as much contact with the pan as possible.

If you’re working with a smaller pan, it may be a good idea to pull out a second and divide the fried rice. This will likely speed things up so keep an eye on cooking times. Likewise, if you happen to have a large wok, then by all means, go that route.

Finishing and Serving

Once you’ve achieved some browning on the rice and have some crispy bits forming, you can add the cooked chicken and sauce to the pan. Stir everything together but don’t over do it. Let the sugar from the maple syrup caramelize as the water cooks off. This creates even more crispy bits. Just don’t let it burn.

I mention garnishing the finished dish with reserved scallion greens, chili crunch, toasted sesame seeds, and low calorie yum yum sauce. You will also notice pickled carrots and sesame garlic crunch in photos, which are also great additions.

Beyond garnishes, you can turn this ground chicken fried rice into a complete spread by adding something like air fried or baked egg rolls, dumplings, or other simple veggie sides like this garlic bok choy.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this recipe and if you get creative with pairings. Let me know in a recipe review below. Good luck and happy cooking!

Oh, and one last thing before you grab the recipe and go. My Japanese BBQ chicken and sesame ginger chicken crumbles are two more Asian-inspired ground chicken recipes I think you might like to bookmark.