7 Exciting Meals Our Editors Make With Leftover Rice

"There's a reason fried rice recipes tell you to start with leftover rice. The time in the fridge allows the cooked grains to firm up and dry out. "[The rice] has crystallized. The starches in it have made it hard," explains Peking House chef and founder Eric Huang. This is a great thing for stir-frying. When slicked with oil over high heat, the morsels crisp into a textural marvel, jumping a long way from their original sticky form."

"Pack down day-old rice in a roaring-hot skillet and you've got crispy rice to stretch a salad. Simmer it in bone broth until the grains fall apart and you've made short-cut congee. Or cover it in coconut milk instead, let that bubble away, and poof, rice pudding. Limitless options!"

"If I have an awkward amount leftover-often!-I'll turn it into a fridge-clearing fried rice. Sometimes it's ripe kimchi and crumbled tofu. Other times it's scrambled eggs and fresh ginger, based on this cure-all recipe from cookbook author Hetty Lui McKinnon. Her trick is to finely chop the ginger, instead of grating it, so there are spicy-sweet nubs in each bite."

Leftover rice is a versatile ingredient for quick weeknight meals. Refrigerated rice firms up and dries out, making it ideal for stir-frying into crispy, textured fried rice. Beyond fried rice, day-old rice serves multiple purposes: packed into a hot skillet for crispy rice salads, simmered in bone broth for congee, or cooked in coconut milk for rice pudding. Editors share practical approaches to using leftover rice, including fridge-clearing fried rice combinations with kimchi and tofu or eggs and ginger, and transforming small portions into desserts.

Read at Bon Appetit