Salted Egg Fried Rice (Healthy Fried Rice Recipe)

If you love all things salted egg yolk, you'll love this fried rice recipe. Salted egg fried rice is a Thai style fried rice dish that is deliciously savory, complete with juicy shrimps complementing the delicious salted egg yolk flavor. Salted egg fried rice is definitely delicious, but is salted egg fried rice healthy?

Salted egg yolk fried rice can be a very healthy dish given that it predominantly consists of protein from the meat and eggs and carbs from the rice, making it a well-balanced nutritious meal. A serving of salted egg yolk fried rice is 455 calories, with 43 grams of protein, 9 grams of fat, and 50 grams of carbs following the recipe and portions below.

However, the key to making this dish help rather than hinder progress towards your fitness goals is portioning high calorie ingredients mindfully and choosing the right proteins.

🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Is Salted Egg Yolk Fried Rice Healthy?

To understand the calorie and nutrition content of salted egg yolk fried rice, it’s useful to look at the core ingredients that make up salted egg yolk fried rice. salted egg yolk fried rice is made of four main components: protein, vegetables, stir fry sauce, and the base.

• Protein: Salted egg yolk fried rice is often served with chicken, seafood, beef or pork. It also includes salted egg yolks and eggs that are mixed into the rice. If your goal is to keep calorie count low, using a lean protein such as seafood, boneless chicken thigh or chicken breast is ideal. Certain proteins, such as pork, can be relatively calorie dense so it's important to choose the protein mindfully.
• Seasoning: The seasoning consists of fish sauce and sugar, which have an insignificant amount of calories at the portions we're using them in.
• Vegetables: The vegetables used in this dish include onions, garlic, or mushrooms and will not add a significant amount of calories to the dish.
• Rice: Rice is a vital part of this dish and carbs are definitely a necessary part of our diet. However, it's important to portion this mindfully as carbs can easily add up calorie-wise if not portioned correctly, hindering progress towards your fitness goals.

Looking at each component, it’s easy to see that salted egg yolk fried rice can easily be made to be a high calorie and high fat dish if the protein and rice are not chosen or portioned correctly, making it less than ideal for dieting purposes. However, it’s not hard to make it low calorie and macro conscious — this recipe will show you some tweaks that will make salted egg yolk fried rice easy to fit into your everyday diet.

🍏 How to Make It Healthy – The Fitsian Method

In this recipe, I use a more protein heavy ratio to make this a more macro friendly and calorie conscious dish. Here are some key tweaks I made:

• Used 1 serving of brown rice (¼ cup uncooked) at 160 calories
• Focused on using lean protein - in this dish I used a mix of seafood with 3 ounces of shrimp and 3 ounces of squid
• Added 1 salted egg yolk for the flavoring and an additional traditional egg for additional flavor and texture

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

💡Tips and Tricks

What is salted egg yolk?

Salted egg yolks are salt-cured duck eggs and are super popular in Asian cuisines. They add a rich briny flavor to savory and sweet dishes alike. To read more about salted egg yolks, check out this article about salted duck eggs.

Is salted egg yolk healthy?

A single salted egg yolk has 44 calories with 3 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat, and 5 grams of carbs, making it a low calorie and flavorful addition to any dish..

Where to buy salted egg yolk?

Salted egg yolks can be bought at Asian or Chinese grocery stores. For an idea of what they look like, take a look at this product description for salted egg yolks.

Optimize the Texture and Flavor Of The Rice By Making Beforehand

This recipe calls for 1 serving of brown rice, which is ¼ cup uncooked. You can also opt for other types of rice if you’d like. They 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. You can also make bigger portions of rice to prep for various recipes throughout the week to save time. 

If you liked this recipe, check out the following:

• Salted Egg Yolk Squid Recipe
• Tom Yum Fried Rice Recipe
• Pineapple Fried Rice Recipe 
• 20 Low Calorie Thai Foods
• Scallop Fried Rice recipe 
• 10 Low Calorie Fried Rice Recipes

📋 Ingredient Notes

• 1 serving Brown rice (¼ cup uncooked)
• 1 clove Garlic
• ¼ Shallot, diced
• 3oz Shrimp
• 3oz Squid
• 1-2 Mushrooms (Sliced)
• 1 Salted Egg Yolk
• 1 Egg
• 1 tablespoon Fish Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Sugar
• Cilantro (For garnish)

🔪 Step by Step Instructions

1. Begin by cooking the rice, ideally the night before, and store it in the fridge so it has time to harden. Alternatively, you can buy takeout rice or microwave the just cooked rice.
2. Gather the seafood and vegetables. Unpeel the shrimp and add them to the bowl along with the squid and season with salt. Mince the shallots and garlics and slice the mushrooms.
3. Spray a skillet with cooking spray and sauté the vegetables. Begin to add in the seafood in a single layer. Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side while stirring the vegetables around consistently to avoid overcooking and burning anything.
4. Once the seafood looks about done and the vegetables have softened, add in the overnight rice, breaking down the clumps with a wooden spoon. Add in the fish sauce, sugar, and break in the salted egg yolk and mix thoroughly. Once everything is well mixed, add in the normal egg yolk to give the fried rice a creamy touch.
5. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy your yummy salted egg yolk fried rice!