When it comes to take out, one of the most comforting dishes is fried rice. There are many different ways to make fried rice, but I’m partial to the Taiwanese tradition. The secret to making this at home is to have a really big, heavy skillet and to not over-crowd the ingredients.

For these photos I made a simple fried rice with carrots, peas, onions, and mushrooms. But you can add or omit the veggies you want to in order to make this how you like.

The kinds of vegetables you add can affect the cooking times, so just make sure what ever you add has enough time in the pan to become tender-cooked. Some ideal additions are string beans, edamame, or squash.

I opted for no eggs and no meat in this recipe to show how the base recipe is made. If you want to add eggs add a teaspoon of oil to your pan and heat over medium before any of the other ingredients have gone into the pan. Cook for just a few minutes, until soft but not runny, then remove from the pan and begin the rest of the process as written in the instructions below.

If you want to add protein, like ham, tofu, or chicken, use 1 cup for the volume of rice in this recipe. Make sure it’s cooked beforehand and add along with the rice to the pan.

All the items except for the veggies need to be cooked before adding to the pan which makes this an ideal way to use up leftovers. In fact, many people believe that fried rice is much better using leftover rice instead of freshly made.

One final note is to make sure you taste the rice and add more salt if needed at the end. You might need more than you think you will since there are very few salty ingredients in the mix. There’s only a small amount of soy sauce, which isn’t enough to fully season this volume of food to most people’s liking.

Whatever you decide to add to this classic dish it can be your dream fried rice made right at home.