Thai Crab Fried Rice Recipe

This Thai Crab fried rice is an easy and mouth–watering recipe packed with succulent crab meat, fragrant jasmine rice, and aromatic spices.

💭 What is Crab Fried Rice?

Thai crab fried rice is a delicious and simple protein packed Thai dish. Packed with succulent crab meat and a creamy egg mixed in with the chewy rice, this dish is undeniably delicious and is a very simple dish to make.

✅ Why This Recipe Works

Easy to make – No hours of prep work needed. This dish takes less than 15 minutes to put together.

Restaurant quality taste from home – By utilizing the key flavor combinations used to make top-tier crab fried rice, you can make a restaurant-quality recipe from the comfort of home

Healthy and nutritious – Made with lower calories with careful portioning, this is a great healthy Thai food recipe for those who want to eat Thai food while tracking their fitness goals

🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Is It Healthy?

While the ingredients that go into the crab fried rice are naturally pretty healthy and don't have any calorie bombs, it's always good to practice portion control to ensure you have the optimal amount of calories and macros in the dish.

In this recipe, I portioned the dish to be 381 calories, with 35 grams of protein, 6 grams of fat, and 44 grams of carbs. I followed the tips from my healthy fried rice post to do this.

Here's how I tweaked the recipe to achieve this:

• Portioned out 4oz of crab meat – Crab is the star of the dish here; similar to most seafoods, it's a great lean protein source. Add enough here to get enough protein content in this dish.
• Portioned 1 serving of rice – Portioned 1 serving of rice at 160 calories
• Used cooking spray instead of oil – Cooking oil has 120 calories per tablespoon compared to 0 calories from cooking spray
• Portioned the stir fry sauce – By using a small amount of sugar and fish sauce, I'm able to achieve the same umami flavor at ~30 calories

For a detailed breakdown of each ingredients, their portioning, and how they make up the nutrition profile of this crab fried rice recipe, you may refer to the table below:

📋 Ingredient Notes

To make the this recipe, you’ll need the following key ingredients:

Crab meat – You can use fresh crab meat or canned crab. Dungeness crab tastes amazing with the dish, but can be on the pricier side and may vary in availability depending on the season. Canned crab would also work.

Rice – Use leftover rice for best results. Traditionally, Jasmine rice is used for this recipe.

Seasonings – Fish sauce and sugar are used to season the rice. These are classic Thai seasonings used to balance out a dish. You can also add soy sauce and sesame oil based on your taste preference.

Egg – Add some beaten eggs to mix into the fried rice. You can also top it with a fried egg if you prefer.

See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.

📖 Substitutions and Variations

Make it spicy – You can also add some head to this dish by adding some Thai chilis to the dish. Just add them in with the vegetables in the sauté step. Alternatively, you can also mix in some nam prik pao (Thai chili paste) into the rice after cooking.

Add more seafood – Add more protein to the dish by mixing in a variety of seafood. Scallops and shrimp are some good lean seafood options that go with the crab.

Substitute the type of rice – White rice, brown rice, or even mixed grain rice would also work with this recipe. Just be sure to account for any differences in the nutrition content if you are being mindful about tracking macros and calories.

Cook the crab – Add the crab meat into the skillet and stir often. Cook for about 1-2 minutes, then add in the fish sauce and sugar along with the rice. Mix everything together thoroughly.

Add the egg – Move the rice mixture to the sides of the skillet and crack an egg in the other side of the pan. Wait until the egg whites begin to look opaque, then break the scrambled egg into pieces and mix in with thoroughly with the fried rice.

Garnish and serve – Garnish with cilantro and/or garnishes of choice and enjoy your delicious crab fried rice!

💡 Expert Tips

For Optimal Rice Texture, Make Rice Beforehand – The key to optimizing the texture of the rice is to make it a day or two in advance and keeping it in the fridge overnight. Otherwise, the rice can be overly moist and soggy.

Serve with Thai Chili Paste (Nam Prik Pao) – This condiment gives the fried rice a delicious depth of umami flavor and really levels this dish up. You can buy this at most Asian grocery stores or online.