How To Prevent Overcooked Shrimp For Perfect Fried Rice Every Time

Tossing together a shrimp fried rice recipe is a quick and easy way to reuse day-old rice while impressing a crowd. But this simplistic dish can quickly go awry if the seafood elements are not properly cared for. In order to perfect our shrimp frying skills, Daily Meal got exclusive insight from Shirley Chung, chef and owner of Ms Chi Cafe. According to the expert, it is important to pay close attention to how and when you are cooking your shrimp while making shrimp fried rice. The expert also stressed the importance of making sure that your shrimp has been thoroughly cleaned and prepped before you start cooking. Chung reminds us to "split the back of the shrimp to remove [the] poop line, and butterfly the thickest part of the shrimp close to the head to ensure even cooking."

Once your shrimp is prepared, you'll want to avoid the mistake of overcooking your shrimp at all costs or risk biting into an unpleasantly rubbery protein. To prevent this, you'll want to fry your shrimp separately before integrating it into your rice mixture. But there's a catch: When initially frying, you want to remove your shrimp from the heat while it is still slightly undercooked. This is a moment to trust the process — we promise your shrimp will be fully cooked by the time your dish is done.

Shrimp can be a temperamental seafood to cook correctly — in order to properly care for the star of your dish, expert chef Shirley Chung recommends frying it in a substantial amount of oil over medium heat before working on your other fried rice ingredients. The sautéing process will give the shrimp time to cook most of the way through. This is when timing becomes a major factor in properly cooked shrimp; before you ruin your shrimp fried rice by overcooking the protein, remember not to completely cook your shrimp in its initial fry. It may at first feel concerning to those who get nervous about undercooking meats and seafood, but rest assured your shrimp will be 100% cooked when it reaches your plate.

Chung advises removing your shrimp from heat once it "starts to change to [an] opaque color." At this point, the expert shared that the shrimp is 80% cooked, which is exactly where you want the shrimp to be when you add it back into your rice mixture. Toss your other ingredients into the same pot that you used for your shrimp, and fry per recipe instructions. About one minute before your dish is ready to serve, add your shrimp back in and mix well. Chung told Daily Meal that the "[heat] from the rice will gently finish cooking the shrimp." Like many recipes, the way to perfect this delicious dish is all in the timing.