What do you make when you have leftover rice you need to use up? Fried Rice. What do you make when you’re craving Fried Rice but want a hands-off dinner where you let the oven do all the work? This Oven “Fried” Rice. It seems too good to be true — you stir together some uncooked rice and other ingredients in a baking dish, stick it in the oven, and out comes fluffy, flavorful “fried” rice, without any frying and hardly any work from you. Use whatever you have on hand; this is a great use it up meal and an ideal weeknight dinner!

What Ingredients Do You Need for Oven “Fried” Rice?

One pan, one short list, maximum flavor. You’ll need:

• Uncooked long grain white rice. (It goes in dry — the oven does all the cooking!)
• Chicken broth. (This is what the rice cooks in and it adds so much more flavor than just water.)
• Light soy sauce.
• Sesame oil. (Don’t skip this — it’s what gives the dish that classic fried rice aroma!)
• Garlic.
• Frozen mixed vegetables — peas, carrots, and corn.
• Diced ham.
• And green onion to finish it off.

Can I Use Different Ingredients?
Sure you can! You can sub in cooked chicken or spam for the diced ham, or even experiment with other proteins like bacon. You could add in some canned mushrooms, some broccoli… this is a great use-it-up dish, so feel free to throw in whatever you have on hand. It’s versatile and yet almost every combination comes out tasting good.

But I Want Scrambled Eggs in my Fried Rice!
I hear you! The oven isn’t a big help here, so just scramble up some eggs and stir them in at the end if it’s not fried rice to you without those eggs.

How Do You Make Oven “Fried” Rice?

Great news, if you can stir ingredients together in a baking dish, you can make this recipe. That is genuinely the hardest part. The oven does everything for you here — you don’t have to stop by and stir or check on anything… Here’s all you have to do:

Unlike regular Fried Rice, you want to start with uncooked rice. Get that into the baking dish with chicken broth, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, your frozen vegetables, and some black pepper and stir. Scatter the diced ham across the top, then cover the whole thing tightly with foil and slide it into a 400°F oven for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, uncover the dish and let it bake uncovered for another 15 minutes. This crisps up the ham and adds more of a “fried rice” texture. Once that baking time is up, let it rest covered loosely with foil for ten minutes or so. This is where any remaining liquid gets absorbed. Fluff it all up with a fork, scatter the green onions over the top, and that’s dinner!