FRIED RICE WITH CHINESE SAUSAGE (LOP CHEUNG CHOW FAN): A 20-MINUTE RECIPE
If you’re looking for an easy midweek meal, Chinese Sausage Fried Rice (lop cheung chow fan) is a great option.
My sisters and I made this Chinese sausage fried rice for our mom whenever we knew she was coming home from a long day at work, hungry and unable to cook. This Chinese Sausage Fried Rice was by far my favorite of the two quick fried rice meals I’ve tried!
CHINESE SAUSAGE: WHAT IS IT?
In Cantonese, the word for Chinese sausage is lop cheung or lop cheong. “Sausage” and “cheung” are both slang terms for “preserved.” It’s pronounced like this: la cháng in Mandarin.
If you’re referring to Chinese preserved sausages in Mandarin, you’ll be better off calling the dish Chinese Sausage Fried Rice or “Xiang Cháng Chofàn” instead of “Lop Cheung Chow Fan,” as most Mandarin speakers do. Have you figured out all of you ABCs and Canto kids out there?
I also need to clarify the many sorts of Chinese sausage for you. Cantonese and Hong Kongers were the majority of New York City’s Chinese population when there was only one Chinatown (Flushing and Brooklyn Chinatowns were established considerably later).
There were just two kinds of Chinese sausages back then: the sweet sort made with fatty pig and the gon cheung, or liver sausage, a mixture of pig fat and duck liver.
It’s becoming more usual to see these types of sausages and other preserved and salted pork similarly utilized in recipes due to the inflow of people from around China. We’ve got a whole section on dried and preserved ingredients where you may learn more.
INGREDIENTS:
- 3 pcs. of Chinese sausages(lop cheung, diced, you can steam or boil the Chinese sausage before slicing for a softer texture)
- 1 pcs. of chopped medium onion
- 5 cups of cooked white rice
- ¾ tsp. of salt
- ¼ tsp. of sugar
- 2 tsp. of hot water
- ¼ tsp. of sesame oil
- 1 tsp. of soy sauce
- ½ tsp. of dark soy sauce
- ⅛ tsp. of white pepper
- 3 tbsp. of vegetable oil (divided)
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- ⅔ cup of frozen green peas (thawed to room temperature)
- 1 cup of mung bean sprouts
- 2 pcs. of scallions (chopped)
- 1 tsp. of Shaoxing wine (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Prepare your Chinese sausage and onion before moving on to the rice (either dig some leftover rice out of your refrigerator or make a batch).
- Add 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 2 tablespoons hot water, 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon ordinary soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce, and 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper to a small bowl. Stir to combine, then refrigerate. Set away for later use.
- Set your wok to medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the rim. With your wok spatula, break up and scramble the two beaten eggs in the oil until they’re cooked, then remove them from the pan. Set them aside in the bowl you used to whip them up.
- Set your wok to medium heat and coat the entire surface with 1 tablespoon of oil. Stir-fry the Chinese sausages (lop cheung) for 20 seconds before serving.
- For 1-2 minutes, add the finely chopped onion and stir-fry until transparent. Pour in the rice and raise the heat. Break up any clumps with a metal spatula used in cooking. If you’re reheating leftover white rice, be prepared to simmer and stir it for a little longer.
- The sauce mixture you produced should be poured evenly over the hot rice once it has warmed through. When you’re ready to serve the lop cheung fried rice, use a scooping motion with your spatula to distribute the sauce evenly over the rice. There shouldn’t be any more rice clumps at this point, and the rice should be steaming from the sauce, dispersing, and cooking.
- Toss in the fried egg, 2/3 cup of frozen peas, and 1 cup of mung bean sprouts—Cook the rice for one more minute in the same oil.
- Adding the scallions, pour 1 teaspoon of Shaoxing wine throughout the skillet, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes Stir-fry for a further 20 seconds. A decent Chinese restaurant’s fried rice has a distinct wok hay flavor because of this process.