Pro Chefs Blind Taste Test Every Frozen Fried Rice

[Narrator] We've gathered three fried rice experts

to blind taste test every fried rice

we could get our hands on

to see which ones meet their standards.

[bright music]

P.F. Chang's Signature Fried Rice.

Smells good, smells savory.

We've got the classic peas and carrots and scallions.

Finding green peas inside fried rice,

that's like old school.

Looks like just the standard veggies.

It does not look like it's clumping very much,

which is usually a good sign.

Am I tripping or does that look like Uncle Ben's rice?

When it comes to a good fried rice,

I look for some specific things.

So the first thing I'm looking at

is distinct rice texture.

It can't be clumpy nor can it be mushy.

Fully cooked, but stays firm and moist.

I like nice, fluffy, light grains.

Everything should be balanced.

Nothing too sweet, nothing too salty.

Definitely needs an umami component,

whether it's MSG or soy sauce or fish sauce.

The third thing I'm looking for is quality mixings.

Those vegetables all play a specific role.

No flavor dominates over other flavor.

The rice texture's horrible.

Rice is a little mushy.

Some of the rice grains are broken up,

which is why it's kind of hard to tell

if it's like a medium or a long grain.

When rice breaks, it releases a lot of its starch.

That's how, you know, you get gummy eating textures.

Tastes like fried rice made in a white family's home.

Can I say that?

I don't know if I can say that.

The seasoning's pretty light.

There's something called wok hei.

Foundational pillar of Cantonese cooking.

Literally translates to breath of the wok.

That will not be an easy thing to achieve

for a frozen fried rice.

Once it's frozen, we heat it.

Unfortunately, we can't taste it.

This has zero wok hei.

It's wok nay.

The carrot is mushy.

Peas are a little wrinkly.

It's like 90% rice to 10% vegetables,

which is, I would say, is appropriate.

This seems like a Chinese style fried rice.

I would say it's like a American brand.

Maybe P.F. Chang.

Whoa.

What, P.F. Chang's?

It's a very, very popular American, yeah, chain.

[Jae] So yeast extract.

That's umami and hansar.

Yeast extracts is a smokescreen for MSG.

It's just the salt, just like anything else.

Billions of people eat it every single day.

Yeast extract is a glutamate.

It is MSG derived from yeast.

That's what makes it taste good, guys.

P.F. Chang's, I mean, I respect you.

I have a lot of love for you,

but personally, this rice wasn't it.

[Narrator] Trader Joe's Barbecue Pork.

This looks legit.

It actually looks like fried rice, right?

It smells good.

It's got a lot of stuff in it.

Peppers, peas, corn.

Looks like ham, potentially.

Okay, Chinese ham.

The vegetables are cut similar size as the ham.

And lots of colors.

Bright, energizing.

I wanna eat that.

That tastes like fried rice.

Has a chew to it.

The rice, I liked it.

It's seasoned very nicely.

Great seasoning.

There's definitely umami here.

All the ingredients here

survive the thawing process and the heating process.

The veg is like, maybe like a hair on the overcooked side.

This has to be like a Chinese brand

from Asia, I would say.

Trader Joe's, wow, what?

With the font.

The oriental riff.

BBQ pork fried rice with cha siu-style pork

and mixed vegetables.

The pork doesn't exactly taste like cha siu.

Cha siu in its original form is fatty cuts of pork

roasted in a high heat charcoal oven,

and then it's dipped in maltos.

It's more to add shine and stickiness and texture.

Cooking instructions.

On a stove top and a skillet,

that makes a huge difference.

There is unexpected ingredient beets juice.

[Jae] It says color in parentheses.

Yeast extract, natural flavor, celery juice powder.

All code words for MSG.

It's a very good meal in the bowl.

I really would buy this.

[Narrator] Bibigo Korean Barbecue.

Oof.

What happened to this one?

The color is very dark and maybe meat.

Oh my gosh, that looks like dog food.

Kind of dog foody.

The rice is all broken up.

It looks mushy.

It just doesn't look appetizing.

It looks kind of just like a pile of mush.

It tastes like straight up just MSG.

There is a sweetness.

One dimensional, one note, sweet.

Horrible rice texture.

Mushy, yet has a weird bite.

The rice is pretty busted.

What are they even going for?

Like Korean maybe?

Bibigo fried rice.

Korean barbecue flavor.

Korean fried rice.

We use like medium, short medium grain rice.

Oh, and it's made with brown rice.

When you cook rice, brown rice perfectly,

you can enjoy the slightly chewy texture.

There's not that texture in this fried rice.

Brown rice has the bran intact and, you know,

has better fiber and glycemic index.

Usually, the grains are a lot firmer.

Textured soy protein, mock meat.

I'm guessing like a seitan product of some sort.

Letting me down, Bibigo.

My heart's with you.

My belly is not.

[Narrator] Buldak Carbonara Chicken.

Whoa, I smell butter.

Interesting.

[Hiroko] Looks like chili paste.

Let us see.

Oh my gosh, that's spicy.

It's pretty hot.

Oh.

Heat level is very high.

The creaminess does balance the heat to a certain point,

but there's like a hint of curry flavor too.

There is nothing to do with soft fried rice.

Oh, is this like Buldak chicken?

It tastes like Buldak ramen.

Buldak. Yes.

Bul means fire, dak means chicken.

I have never had Buldak rice before.

Oh, it is the carbonara one, hence the cheesiness.

I'm pretty sure during the Korean War, like GIs went over.

That's like where Spam came from.

That's how American cheese got introduced to Korean cooking.

So I think the carbonara thing is continuing on that.

But it's very starchy, very heavy.

Whole milk powder.

That's I guess that's really

where I'm getting the butter flavor.

They just list out monosodium glutamate.

Yeah, they want that.

They want it to be super flavorful and addictive.

It's meant to be eaten like potato chips,

you know what I mean?

This is delicious though.

[Narrator] P.F. Chang's Chicken Fried Rice.

[Jae] That looks amazing.

I think we're back in like a Chinese style

fried rice territory.

Wow, this has egg.

You know, a Chinese style fried rice.

Egg to me is a non-starter.

I think you could call it a fried rice

if it had rice, egg, and scallion in my mind.

The egg, carrot, Green soybeans, edamame,

it's all like similar shape.

There's chicken in here.

This long grain rice, very colorful.

It's pretty good.

It has good seasoning.

This tastes like homemade.

I'm getting some ginger.

They get a little bit of the chew from the rice.

The spice is firm.

That's good.

The egg has a pretty good texture.

The chicken has a pretty good texture.

I love the chicken.

Chicken is cooked properly and has flavor.

I'm gonna say it tastes Chinese.

Some Chinese company.

Is this like P.F. Chang's like premium?

Oh. [laughs]

Oh, P.F. Chang.

P.F. Chang's, you have redeemed yourself.

This one is much better than their other one.

There's more flavorings in here,

more seasoning like oyster sauce, garlic, onion, ginger.

That's the holy trinity.

This one specifically says cooked jasmine rice.

The other one was seasoned long grain rice.

This is solid.

I'd eat it.

[Narrator] Ajinomoto Yakitori Chicken.

Some of the rice shows burns.

The rice is a little sad.

I do find eggs in here as well.

Smaller pieces, however it's in there.

The protein is a big old piece.

Rice texture, mushy.

This is the long grain rice.

Very nice chew.

A little bit salty.

It's so aggressive.

It leans very, very sweet.

Well, maybe Japanese chahan.

This is a Japanese-style fried rice,

Japanese-style yakimeshi.

With Japanese-style fried rices

and hibachi-style fried rice,

the seasoning is generally lighter,

and the texture is usually stickier

because of the kind of rice they're using.

Probably buy Ajinomoto or something like that.

Oi.

Ajinomoto.

I do ride for Ajinomoto.

These guys are homies.

Japanese-style Yakitori chicken fried rice.

Yakitori is chicken skewer in it and the grilling.

Yaki means grilled.

Tori means chicken, Yakitori.

When you taste the chicken, it doesn't taste like Yakitori.

I think it's had some sort of tenderizing treatment to it.

This rice is cooked with Hondashi.

[Jae] Bonito soup stock.

Hondashi is dashi powder.

It's kombu and shavings of katsuobushi,

which is a petrified smoked bonito fish.

Which has lots of umami.

This doesn't taste homey.

It almost tastes like factory made.

The rice is a little beat up.

The chicken's a little odd.

It wouldn't rank high on my list.

[Narrator] Trader Joe's Spicy Thai Shrimp.

It's a shrimp fried rice.

It looks Thai.

Definitely Thai.

We have some maybe bird's eyes chilies.

Bird's eyes foundational ingredient in Thai cooking.

And aroma hits my nose,

and the color is very balanced.

This is a spicy shrimp fried rice.

Let's try the shrimp.

For me, shrimp should have a bounce

and a snap to it and it has that.

I like how they use baby shrimp

that's kept in whole and intact.

Anything that freezes well by itself,

it would generally do well in a fried rice.

The rice is pretty well-seasoned.

It has a little bit of heat.

The white pepper, it's aggressive,

but it's intentional in this fried rice.

The texture rice, it's cooked properly,

so it has nice firmness and a slight chewiness.

I would think it's like spicy shrimp fried rice.

Yeah, let's go Trader Joe's.

Okay.

Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's again.

We're back, baby. Let's go.

[Eric] A spicy Thai, shrimp fried rice.

Wow.

They do quite well.

Jasmine rice, perfect choice.

Shrimp, great.

There is basil.

Okay, that's great.

I'm definitely a fan of this one.

I would buy this one.

I like this because of the spiciness level is very good.

Texture is wonderful.

I mean, I get what they're going for.

People love variety options, the illusion of choice.

So I get why this product exists and it's fine. [laughs]

[Narrator] Healthy Choice Chicken Fried Rice.

Lot going on here. [laughs]

This looks bad.

It looks wet, mushy.

[Hiroko] Very watery.

Distinctively wet.

Fried rice is not supposed to look like this.

Almost looks like a risotto. Almost looks like a risotto.

But I'm doing this for you, man.

I'm gonna try it anyway.

Texture of this rice is very chewy.

So the texture is not good.

It has like this wetness around it.

Well-cooked brown rice should have

a distinct bite and individual grains.

This is a little overcooked.

It's a weird analogy,

but eating fried rice is like inhaling air.

Brown rice, you have to constantly chew.

Not my favorite.

This sauce is very overpowering,

how sweet and gingery it tastes.

The seasoning, okay, it leans very one-dimensional.

Maybe over-seasoned.

Are they going for like a healthier

chicken fried rice kind of situation?

Healthy Choice.

[Jae] Chicken fried rice.

So they're going for brown rice

because brown rice is healthier in terms of fiber

and glycemic index and nutritional content.

I get why they have a sauce now

because in order to make it Healthy Choice,

they're adding a water-based sauce

for flavor and viscosity and mouthfeel,

where normally with a fried rice,

you'd be doing that with fat.

This is not fried in the oil or cook it in broth.

But if you're trying to make fried rice healthy,

it just seems like an oxymoron.

It's low calorie.

Now, whether you think low-calorie necessary mean healthy,

you know, I would disagree.

If this is a store fried rice, they didn't succeed.

But Healthy Choice exists for a reason.

[Narrator] Grain Trust Hibachi.

How does every fried rice have carrot and peas?

I think it's probably because peas and carrots

were like one of the first most successfully

IQF frozen foods.

This has a very clean look, but not much wok hei.

Should we try it?

It does taste like Maruchan chicken noodle soup.

That's seasoning, the MSG,

but the balance is very strange.

This is probably one of the more heavily seasoned

fried rices I've had today, so it's fine,

but I don't know if I'd wanna eat a whole bowl of that.

Rice is mushy.

I don't like the choice of rice here.

This is short grain rice.

A little broken up.

The more intact the rice is and the more identifiable it is,

the more premium the product, which makes sense.

Short-grain rice tells me this leans like Japanese.

Ooh.

Hibachi fried rice.

Grain Trust, is that the company?

Hibachi is like teppanyaki.

Cooking on a flat top entirely,

usually in front of people,

you know, this is what Benihana popularized.

There's frequently egg.

I mean, that's like the fun,

the hibachi chef spinning the egg, throwing it in the air.

They have been marketing Japanese-style casual dining,

but everything is Americanized.

If you've been to hibachi,

you know they use mad soy sauce and mad butter.

This doesn't taste like either one of that.

[Narrator] 365 by Whole Foods Chicken.

It looks pretty good.

I would pretty confidently say

this is a jasmine rice or a long grain rice.

Pretty good smell.

It looks like bland rice again.

The vegetables are pretty uniformly cut,

as was the protein, the chicken and the egg.

These are good signs.

It's a little heavy on the soy sauce for me,

but it's not bad.

The flavor of the rice throws me off.

It tastes like Uncle Ben's rice.

The rice is cooked nicely.

It has like a distinct chew.

Rice is firm.

It's texture is okay.

Long grain rice suits much better than medium

or short grain rice because less starchy,

and texture is much better.

Let's try the chicken.

A little tough, a little dry.

Chicken looks quite dry.

I'm gonna try just the egg.

Egg is a little bit dried out.

You know, this is probably was a rehydrated

powdered egg maybe.

Like a Walmart brand.

Maybe like Target or something like that.

Is it a 365?

It is a 365.

And we got the yeast extract, that's the MSG.

We got caramel color.

It's to make the fried rice look more savory.

It's more commonly seen in CPG foods.

It's just to add color because again, we eat with our eyes,

but it's something that Chinese chefs

have been using for millennia.

But the vegetables, mushy, and the chicken dry.

The flavor is not evenly mixed.

It's a kind of rough job.

Whole Foods, not a fan of this one.

It's not bad.

[Narrator] Trader Joe's Vegetable Fried Rice.

Visually, this looks great.

This was definitely heated up

in a skillet or on a stove top.

Wow, this is very cheerful.

Carrot and peas, we meet again.

Peas and carrots, we're so back.

[Hiroko] Edamame, carrot, bell pepper.

The cuts of vegetables are all pretty different.

And looks like vegetarian.

I really love this choice of rice here.

Not too dry.

It's not too moist.

The seasoning is very, very light.

And the flavor is very simple.

Quite well balanced.

It has the right amount of soy sauce,

the right amount of sugar, the right amount of oil.

I think the scallion white is a nice choice.

Ah. Whoa.

Oh, Trader Joe's. Okay, she's back.

I have tasted three Trader Joe.

They have so many fried rices.

So the scallion they used wasn't a scallion,

it was a leek.

Same family.

Leeks would freeze and thaw better than scallion.

Kelp extract.

Kelp naturally has MSG,

so kelp extract would add umami to a dish.

Mirin is on here.

Mirin is a sweet rice wine.

You don't really add that to a fried rice actually,

but it's used in a way where it's not really noticeable.

It's simple, very cheerful appearance.

Simple is the best.

I like it.

This is the best vegetable fried rice

that I've had so far.

[Narrator] Tai Pei Chicken.

Corn, carrots, peas.

We have chicken.

Some grill marks here.

The corn is a little bit shrank.

Rice is broken.

I don't feel much rice.

Doesn't give much texture.

Seasoning's good.

Not too sweet, not too salty.

The highlight is this chicken.

The chicken on its own is actually better seasoned.

Well-seasoned, a little bit salty on the side.

It's juicy.

It's tender.

It just tastes like natural chicken.

And if you're gonna call it a chicken fried rice,

chicken better be good.

Maybe this is Ajinomoto.

Okay. Is it Ajinomoto?

Okay, it's Ajinomoto.

Tai Pei Chinese Fried Rice.

[Jae] That's pretty cool.

I've never seen a fried rice in like a ice cream container.

This is a convenience product.

You microwave it, you eat it right out of it.

Well, this is quite disappointing.

It doesn't give you eating stuff fried rice,

so maybe this is cheap.

This is high on my list.

I'm actually pretty surprised how nice the rice is,

but it's pretty bland, pretty boring.

Very badly done.

[Narrator] InnovAsian Vegetable Fried Rice.

[Eric] Onion, red pepper.

Edamame, egg, carrot.

Can't really tell what kind of rice that is.

Looks a little bit stale.

Yet another light brown rice of questionable provenance,

vegetarian fried rice.

Although this one has egg.

Again, very bland, but the rice isn't bad.

It's cooked pretty well.

[Hiroko] The rice, it's chewy.

It's pretty good.

It's just very light seasoning.

It's kind of too bland.

The egg has like a decent size and a curd to it.

Egg texture retains very well.

I would kind of think this is one of those like

vegetarian health-marketed products.

Is it like a nasi goreng

kind of like Indonesia kind of fried rice?

InnovAsian, aha.

What brand is that?

This one is pretty consistent,

a kind of standard fried rice.

[Jae] Oh, it has miso paste.

Miso is made from fermented soybeans.

I think that's where it does have a little bit

of that nose of like wine.

Miso adds umami as well.

It could be salty, a little sweet, umami.

You don't necessarily find miso paste in a fried rice.

Pretty unexciting,

But the rice is cooked pretty well at least,

so that's a plus.

The ingredients inside the rice, it was lacking.

It was too light.

It almost needed more of its character.

[Narrator] Stouffer's Hawaiian Style Chicken.

At least I'm getting my vegetables today.

The sauce returns.

[Hiroko] This has a little wetter texture.

Rice looks definitively long grain.

And there's a chicken, I think.

Not a fan of this fried rice.

This has significant sweetness.

[Jae] So the sweetness definitely resemble

like chicken teriyaki.

It's very sweet and sour.

It's very ginger forward.

It just kind of has a very artificial quality to it.

Is this chicken?

It's so tough.

Zoom in on this.

What is that?

It's like a dehydrated something.

I can't even pull it apart.

Oh my gosh.

Not a huge fan, and the color is kind of off.

Rice is a little bit overcooked or mushy.

This is not stir-fried rice.

I don't even have a guess.

Okay.

[Jae] Stouffer's Hawaiian-style chicken fried rice.

Pineapple juice concentrate.

Brown sugar.

So anything Hawaiian is gonna be sweet,

which I think is a disservice

to Hawaiian cuisine, but whatever.

Rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, ginger puree.

Sounds like risotto.

It's a different eating experience and a different thing

when you add that much liquid to it.

What it ends up doing is just overpowering everything else.

[Jae] It's made with white meat chicken, water,

isolated soy protein, modified rice starch, chicken flavor.

So that's what this weird thing is.

It says fried rice, but when you see the photo,

it doesn't look like fried rice.

What it actually ends up being, not amazing.

This is not good for you.

It's not delicious.

I would not recommend.

[Narrator] Daring Fly By Jing Chili Crisp Plant Chicken.

Oh, it smells like instant ramen.

Whoa.

There's some pepper seeds.

Is this fermented black bean?

Peas, carrots, something huge.

What's that?

[Eric] What is that?

Is it chicken?

Not a fan.

It smells amazing and the flavor's lacking.

The seasoning, weirdly, is kind of all over the place.

Like the only thing I'm really getting is heat.

Oh, spicy.

Rice is a little bit overcooked.

The mixings do like how the carrot is cut

similar size as the peas.

And then carrots, very uniformly cut,

nice texture, little softer side.

And the peas, not mushy, has a nice bite to it.

It looks vibrant in color, and there's scallion in here,

which is good, and you could see the dried chilies.

I have to attack this big, I don't know.

Is it chicken?

What is this?

I'm tasting something.

I have no idea what it is.

Oh, so this is tofu product, yuba.

What the heck is that?

It's like made in a lab.

The seitan or whatever this product is, I think,

you know, it has a pretty tough texture.

It took a while to chew.

I can't even guess what that is.

I don't even know the brand.

It's definitely not Korean.

Daring?

Daring Fly By Jing Chili Crisp

Plant Chicken Fried Rice Bowl.

[Eric laughs]

A lot going on.

Chili crisp is great.

Very popular condiment.

Fly By is very strong.

This soy protein, it's very interesting.

Daring plant protein.

I don't know how they make it.

It seems like it's proprietary

given that it's a trademark name.

Not a fan, very strange.

I just don't know why the decision to make

the pieces so big.

I'm really supportive of plant protein.

Like I really want to be able to figure this out.

Fly By Jing's a really great product.

I think the heat is definitely there.

The black bean flavor is definitely there.

Not bad. [laughs]

[Narrator] Now, let's see which brands

our experts liked the most and the least.

We ate a lot of fried rice today, friends.

I get to see so many varieties today.

A lot of them were pretty good.

A lot of them were really bad.

One I thought most purely expressed fried rice

was the P.F. Chang's chicken fried rice.

The chicken was juicy, it was cooked well,

and it really stood out as a co-star in the fried rice.

That very much felt like something you would get

in a Chinese restaurant pretty close.

All the Trader Joe's fried rice were really great.

I would say my favorite is the spicy shrimp.

I probably like most of their products, honestly.

[Eric] It really did have like a Thai flavor profile.

I instantly could tell, Oh, this is Thai.

You know, in a Westernized way, but it was good.

And the shrimp was like a nice texture.

It was pretty solid and it had heat.

Trader Joe's, you did an amazing job.

Hit me up if you wanna launch Trader Jae's.

And then I also liked the Buldak.

Although it wasn't quote-unquote balanced

seasoning and light, with this, it was intentional.

Although I wouldn't really call it a fried rice,

but I think if you added an egg to that,

added some protein to that,

maybe some cheese if that's your bag.

I just burped right now and I taste it

and I want it again, it's crazy.

This is the one I choose the least. [chuckles]

There were many on the list today that I didn't like.

I did not like the Bibigo fried rice.

I didn't like that it was brown rice.

They said there were vegetables,

but there was just like some mulched carrot,

like just not great.

And it was just like the texture of it was all off.

Poorly done Korean flavor. It's just like way too sweet.

[Jae] And it looked like dog food.

If you put it in a dog bowl,

I would've thought it was dog food, like I'm sorry.

It just didn't look great.

[Jae] I was not a fan of the Healthy Choice

chicken fried rice.

Maybe not fair because they're going to like

try to get under a certain calorie count,

but like that sauce was really unpleasant.

It was wet, had a very strange texture.

It was like simultaneously under and overcooked.

I didn't like anything about it, honestly.

If you wanted healthy fried rice, use good ingredients.

I also was not a fan of the Stouffer's fried rice,

the Hawaiian fried rice.

It used a very strange chicken protein.

[Eric] It was again, very saucy and wet.

It looked like risotto, quite wet.

I don't know, I don't like the sauce on the fried rice.

I don't think it makes sense.

Look for a fried rice with minimal ingredients.

The first thing is looking for like an intentional

decision on the rice that they're using.

If it says specifically long grain or jasmine rice,

that's a good sign.

When you're reheating the fried rice,

go with the instruction that says heat in a skillet.

Fried rice was always meant to be cooked in a wok,

in a skillet, in a pan.

That's gonna immediately improve whatever you bought.

You may have some leftover chicken, fresh egg,

and toss with the fried rice product.

Fried rice is amazing because

you get to take humble ingredients and bring it together

to make it taste like heaven on earth.

So I get why it's become a really popular

CPG frozen product.

You're having a sad day, fried rice.

Late night meals, fried rice.

Hungover meals, fried rice.

It's the ultimate thing,

and it's most of our childhood memory, I would say.