The Best Spam Fried Rice (Better than Takeout!)

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Spam fried rice is the ultimate comfort food that takes simple ingredients and turns them into something fantastic! Loaded with crispy pieces of Spam, colorful vegetables, and the perfect blend of sauces, this spam fried rice recipe is easy to prepare on a griddle or in a skillet, and it makes a filling and budget-friendly meal any day of the week!

A Filipino Specialty

Growing up means more than just collecting years – it’s about collecting stories and flavors that make you who you are. And this recipe was a big part of my culinary career as a cook (or Culinary Specialist) in the US Navy.

Many of my fellow shipmates, including those that worked beside me in the kitchen, were Filipino. And since spam fried rice is a traditional Filipino specialty, we would often start our days with a big batch of the fried rice dish – yes, we ate spam fried rice for breakfast in the early morning hours before the galley got busy for breakfast service.

So my spam fried rice recipe is an homage to my Filipino friends – the people that feel like family when you’re deployed and away from your real family.

Just like they used to make it, this Spam fried rice includes frozen peas and carrots, garlic, onions, eggs, and flavorful sauces – and it’s not short on the salty and satisfying canned meat. In fact, this fried rice recipe can easily be enjoyed as a complete meal.

This recipe is simple, easy to adapt to your own tastes, and it packs the flavor! And it’s the perfect griddle recipe because you can make a large batch, whether you’re feeding your large family with your Blackstone griddle, or in our case, feeding a hungry kitchen staff of 30 people on a commercial griddle.

*Be sure to check out our other favorite fried rice recipes like chicken fried rice, tropical jerk chicken fried rice, and steak and mushroom fried rice.

Ingredients

• Spam – Can’t have Spam fried rice without Spam! We chose the classic variety for this recipe, but substitute the spicy or low-sodium Spam options as well.
• Jasmine Rice – Jasmine rice is our favorite variety for fried rice, but we’ve also had great success with basmati rice. Choose your favorite long-grain white rice.
• Peas & Carrots – We use the frozen bagged peas and carrots mix because it’s easy and inexpensive. Be sure to thaw the bag in the refrigerator overnight so that the veggies cook up more quickly on the griddle.
• Onion – We used a medium sweet onion, chopped to about the same size as the peas and carrots.
• Garlic – Our go-to method for making the best, most flavorful Blackstone fried rice includes lots of fresh minced garlic. We highly recommend fresh garlic here, but you can substitute the jarred minced garlic if needed.
• Sesame Oil – For finishing the rice dish and giving it that deep, nutty aroma.
• Avocado Oil (or neutral oil for frying) – You want a good cooking oil with a high smoke point. We prefer avocado oil, but you can use your favorite high-heat cooking oil.
• Oyster Sauce & Soy Sauce – These classic fried rice sauces bring umami, richness, and color.
• Butter – Gives the rice a rich flavor, especially when combined with the fresh garlic.
• Eggs – We like adding scrambled eggs to our fried rice recipes for extra protein and richness, but you can omit them if you like.
• Green Onions – Sliced thin. We use the whites in the veggie mix and save the green tops for finishing.
• Pineapple – This is optional, and it’s not authentic to the way that my Filipino friends made spam fried rice, but adding diced pineapple seems wildly popular online for a Hawaiian twist.

Prepping the White Rice

The best fried rice starts with cooked and fully cooled white rice, preferably prepared a day ahead. Follow these steps to prepare the rice:

Start by thoroughly rinsing your rice until the water runs clear. Then cook the rice according to the package instructions.

Once the rice is done cooking, spread it out into a thin even layer on a large sheet tray. Let it cool completely, then cover and refrigerate it until you’re ready to use it. Cold rice fries up much better, and each grain stays separate without the rice getting mushy.

Prepping the Spam and Vegetables

Before you fire up the griddle, you’ll want to have all of your vegetables and Spam diced and ready to go.

As you’re dicing the Spam and sweet onion, be sure that the pieces are uniform and about the same size as the peas and carrots mix. This ensures that all of the ingredients will be evenly distributed throughout the finished rice dish, and it also helps everything to cook evenly on the griddle or in the skillet.

For the green onions, thinly slice and separate into two piles – the whites of the green onion can be added to the diced sweet onions to cook on the griddle, and the green parts can be mixed into the spam fried rice at the very end for extra color and flavor.

For the frozen peas and carrots mix, be sure to portion out about 1 cup of the veggies from the frozen bag, and thaw in the refrigerator overnight. This helps them to cook more quickly on the griddle.

How to Make Spam Fried Rice

Heat your Blackstone griddle on medium heat until it reaches about 400°F. You can also make this spam fried rice recipe in a large skillet on the stovetop – simply preheat your skillet over medium heat.

Then follow these easy steps for the best spam fried rice:

Step 1: Add the white rice, diced Spam, and onions to the griddle. Add the diced Spam to the hot griddle, spreading it out in a thin even layer so that it can get a bit of char. Then add the diced onions to a separate area on the griddle, and let them start to sweat a bit. *TIP – Place the onions on the griddle near the diced Spam, so the fat from the meat can start to render and flavor the onions.

In a clear space on the griddle, add about 1 tablespoon of high-heat cooking oil and spread the cold, cooked rice out in a thin even layer. Allow the rice to warm through and pick up some color on the bottom before starting to sauté it together.

Step 2: Add the peas and carrots to the Spam and onions. Once the Spam and onions are about halfway cooked through, sauté them together. Then add the peas and carrots to the mix. Use your spatulas to sauté the vegetables and meat together every so often, but allow them plenty of time to cook untouched on the hot griddle as well. This helps to create a nice char and add texture and flavor to the dish.

Step 3: Add butter and garlic to the rice. Make a “well” in the rice on the griddle. Add the butter and minced garlic to the well. Allow the butter to melt in the well and the garlic to become fragrant. Right when the garlic starts to get some color on it, mix the melted butter and garlic into the fried rice, sautéing the rice to evenly distribute the garlic.

Step 4: Sauté the rice, spam, and veggies together. Add the sauces. Mix the fried rice with the cooked Spam and veggies. Toss everything together so that the ingredients are evenly combined. Then pour the soy sauce and oyster sauce evenly over the rice, and mix together well. Sauté the spam fried rice for about 2-3 minutes.

Step 5: Add the scrambled eggs to the spam fried rice. Spread the fried rice mixture out into an even layer. Then pour the scrambled eggs partially on the griddle surface and partially on top of the rice (see photo above).

We find that adding some of the liquid eggs directly to the rice to cook helps to keep the rice moist and flavorful, but we also like the texture of some of the scrambled eggs chunks mixed in to the rice dish. That’s why this is our preferred method for adding eggs to fried rice. Alternatively, you can scramble the eggs directly on the griddle top, and then chop and add to the fried rice.

Step 6: Finish cooking and add the green onions and sesame oil. Drizzle with a small amount of sesame oil for that nutty aroma. Then sprinkle on the top parts of green onions for pop and freshness.

Plate up and serve hot, fresh from the griddle. You can enjoy the spam fried rice as-is or top it with a fried egg, extra green onions, or even a splash of your favorite hot sauce.

Making Spam Fried Rice in a Skillet

We prefer the large cooking surface of a Blackstone or other griddle for our fried rice recipes, but you can also make spam fried rice in a skillet on the stovetop. Just follow these steps, the ingredients and measurements stay the same:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the diced spam and onions. Sauté until the spam has picked up some color and the onions are mostly soft. Then add the thawed peas and carrots, and sauté together with the spam and onions. When the spam and veggies are cooked, transfer to a plate or bowl.
2. In the same skillet, add about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. Allow the oil to heat up about 1 minute, then add the cooked and cooled white rice to the skillet, spreading it out into a thin even layer. Allow the rice to cook untouched for about 3-4 minutes to warm through and pick up some color. Then stir fry together for another 1-2 minutes.
3. Make a “well” in the center of the rice, and add the knob of butter and the minced garlic to the well. Allow the garlic to cook in the butter until fragrant. Right when the garlic starts to turn color, mix the butter and garlic into the rice.
4. Add the soy sauce and oyster sauce to the rice, and mix together. Continue to sauté the rice together until done to your liking.
5. Add the spam and veggies back to the skillet. Stir fry everything together.
6. In a separate skillet, cook the scrambled eggs. Break up the cooked eggs into small pieces, and mix in with the spam fried rice. Add sliced green onions for garnish, and serve immediately.