If you love the famous Thai soup Tom Yum Goong, you are going to LOVE tom yum fried rice. All the beloved flavours of lemongrass, galangal and makrut lime leaves are infused into this satisfying fried rice, and made perfect by a Thai-style fried egg on top.
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What is Tom Yum Fried Rice?
Tom yum fried rice is called kao pad tom yum ข้าวผัดต้มยำ in Thai. It's a modern dish born out of Thai people's love for tom yum goong, which is a spicy and sour shrimp soup infused with lemongrass, galangal and makrut lime leaves. We take all of the herbs and seasonings of tom yum soup and fold it into fried rice!
In Thailand we love the flavor of tom yum so much that we try to get it into all kinds of food. Aside from fried rice we also make tom yum spaghetti and even "dry" tom yum. Walk into a pizza chain in Thailand and you'll find tom yum pizza on the menu!
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Ingredients
Here are all the ingredients you'll need to make this recipe. For amounts, check out the full recipe card below.
Tom Yum Paste
This is the sauce for the fried rice, but it also works as a general tom yum paste which you can use to add tom yum flavours into other things. Try adding it to stir fries or even pasta dishes!
- Galangal. First thinly slice it into rounds, then chop each round finely so it'll be easier to turn into a paste.
- Lemongrass, thinly sliced. We only need the bottom half of the lemongrass which is where the flavour is most concentrated.
- Makrut lime leaves, aka kaffir lime leaves, very thinly julienned. If the center ribs are thick you can remove them.
- Thai chilies, to taste. Add as few or as many as you can tolerate. You can also omit it altogether if you don't want it spicy at all.
- Thai chili paste. This is called nam prik pao and it's a versatile and frequently used ingredient in a Thai kitchen. It's a sweet and savoury paste that is very mild, so no worries if you don't eat very spicy! Pantai and Maepranom are brands commonly available at Asian markets. My preference is for Maepranom, but Pantai is totally fine. You can also make your own Thai chili paste and it's not hard at all!
- Fish sauce.
- Soy sauce. Typically soy sauce isn't used in tom yum, but it is always used in fried rice so I'm keeping it here to give it that fried rice flavour.
- Sugar.
- Lime juice
The Fried Rice
- Eggs for frying. This is optional but highly recommended!
- Shrimp, peeled and deveined. I prefer medium to large ones. You can also use chicken instead, simply cut in bite-size pieces and marinate it a bit of fish sauce to give it some flavour.
- Diced onion.
- Chinese broccoli, stems thinly sliced, leaves roughly chopped
- Cooked jasmine rice. It is very important that your rice is quite dry to begin with because there is a lot of sauce in this recipe. Day-old, refrigerated rice definitely helps, but the best thing to do is cook it with less water than normal. I recommend cooking jasmine rice using a ratio of 1 part rice to 1 part water, which will make rice that's a little drier than usual, but it will hydrate perfectly with the sauce.
- Tomato, if it's super juicy I would remove the seeds to prevent the rice from becoming too wet. If the seeds are not super watery, you can leave them in.
- Chopped Green onion and/or cilantro for garnish.
How to Make Tom Yum Fried Rice
Here's the bird's eye view of all the steps. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success, and the full instructions and ingredient amounts are in the recipe card below.
- In a mortar and pestle, pound the lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime leaves, and Thai chilies until fine.
- Stir in all remaining tom yum paste ingredients.
- Make fried eggs, if you wish. For Thai style fried eggs use plenty of oil and add the egg while the oil is very hot so you get browned crispy edges. You can fry eggs in the same wok you'll use to cook the rice, but if making many fried eggs it's best to use a skillet so you can fry multiple eggs at once.
- In a wok, add enough oil to coat the bottom and sear the shrimp until they're halfway cooked. Flip and sear the other side until fully cooked. Remove from the wok.
- In the same wok over high heat, add more oil if needed, then add onion and saute until translucent. Add Chinese broccoli and toss briefly until the leaves are wilted slightly and turn bright green.
- Add the rice and toss briefly to mix with the veggies, then pour the sauce over and toss until all grains are coated evenly in the sauce and the rice is dry.
- Add the tomato and cooked shrimp, toss briefly just to mix, then turn off the heat and stir in green onions and/or cilantro.
- Plate the fried rice, sprinkle with more green onion and/or cilantro if desired, and top with fried egg.
Recipe Card
Print
Thai Tom Yum Fried Rice
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 2
Description
The beloved flavours of Thai tom yum soup infused into this satisfying fried rice and topped with a fried egg!
Ingredients
Tom Yum Paste
- 3 slices galangal, chopped
- 3 inches lemongrass, thinly sliced (use bottom half of the stalk only)
- 3 kaffir lime leaves, center rib removed, thinly sliced
- 2 Tbsp Thai chili paste, store-bought or make your own
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- Thai chilies, to taste
- 2 Tbsp lime juice
The Fried Rice
- 2 eggs
- 10 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- ¼ cup diced onion
- 2 stalks Chinese broccoli, stems thinly sliced, leaves roughly chopped
- 300 g cooked rice (1¾ cup) (see note)
- 1 tomato, seeds removed, bite-sized pieces
- 1 green onion, chopped
- A few sprigs chopped cilantro
Note: This fried rice has quite a lot of liquid in the sauce, so it's very important that your rice is quite dry to begin with, otherwise you might have mushy fried rice. Day-old, refrigerated rice works well (as long as it wasn't too soft), but if you're making rice specifically for this dish, follow the tips in my Pineapple Fried Rice video (@4:00)
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Instructions
To make the tom yum paste: In a mortar and pestle, pound together lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, and Thai chilies until fine. Stir in all remaining tom yum paste ingredients. Alternatively, you can add all ingredient into a blender and blend until smooth.
To make Thai-style fried egg: Add about 1 cm of vegetable oil into a wok or a small frying pan. Heat the oil over medium high heat until very hot but not smoking. Crack the egg into the oil, then lower the heat to medium. If the oil is hot enough, the egg white should bubble excitedly right away. Let the egg fry for about 1:30 minutes or until the edges are browned. If you don't like your yolk runny, turn the heat down to medium low after adding the egg so the yolk has time to set without the white burning. If the egg sticks to the bottom of the pan, let it fry for a minute until the bottom of the yolk firms up before gently nudging it off with a thin spatula. Reserve the oil for another use.
To make the fried rice: In a wok or a large sauté pan, add just enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom (you can use the oil from frying the egg) and heat over medium high heat until hot. Add the shrimp and sear until browned on one side; flip and brown the other side until done. Remove from pan and set aside.
In the same pan, add a little more oil if needed, then add onion and saute until translucent. Add Chinese broccoli and toss briefly until the leaves turn bright green. Add the rice and toss until most lumps are broken up. Pour the sauce over rice and toss until all grains are coated evenly in the sauce and the rice is dry. Add the tomato and cooked shrimp, toss briefly just to heat them up. Remove from heat and stir in green onions.
Plate the fried rice, sprinkle with chopped cilantro, and top with fried egg. Enjoy!
Sheryl says
Hi Pai, I prefer beehoon as my carb of choice. Can I do a one to one substitution with the rice? Would 300g of rehydrate rice vermicelli work? Or would the sauce be too saucy?
Pailin Chongchitnant says
I would imagine it can handle the sauce, but you can always hold back some just in case, then taste and add more if needed
Kathrin says
As I do with any recipe, I use them as inspiration. That's what I did here. I'm actually growing some lemongrass on my patio, so that went in. Also found some galangal recently and have some lime leaves in the freezer. Both went in. Then I kinda started improvising. Maesri Tom Yum Paste, some fish and soy sauce, a little chicken broth and homemade tamarind paste. Immersion blender did the job. No shrimp, just a bunch of additional veggies. I bet this is how Thai mommas cook in real life. Use what you have.
This was so good. I love your site and your Youtube channel.
Hillary says
Hi Pai! Thank you so much for the recipe. Is it possible to change the shrimp with chicken? any tips for the chicken? Thanks!
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Yes! Just give the chicken a quick marinade with some fish sauce, and then proceed in the same way as the shrimp 🙂
Natasha says
I've made this as written in the past, but today I did a "clean out the fridge" Tom Yum fried rice, using scallop pieces instead of shrimp, and assorted garden veggies, including stocky red roaster peppers and cherry tomatoes. It was great--so nice to have a distinctly different kind of fried rice. I used the sauce with 3 cups of cooked rice, so it was maybe more lightly seasoned (I added some salt to the finished dish), and came out super light and fluffy. Thanks for the great recipe!
Mae says
Thank you for your recipes! If I make the sauce in bulk in advance, how much should I add to this recipe?
Jim says
Can we make extra of the sauce, like with Pad Thai sauce, and store it in the fridge or will it degrade in flavor? Ever used crawfish tails in something. Thai some up.
Adam The HTK Minion says
Re the sauce sure it should be fine 🙂