Watching the pros make the fancy fried rice in the hibachi restaurants is always a treat. Watching the flames and the neat knife flipping tricks is so much fun right? Well if you can fit the neat tricks and the flying flames into your kitchen at home safely, please send me a tutorial! But even if you can't do all that, you can still eat all the delicious goodness that this easy shrimp fried rice recipe with lemon and garlic gives you.

Better than Take-Out Fried Rice

Ever get to meal time and just really want some take out? Um, yes. So do we. Well I can say this stuff is even better than any cheap take out. A lot of times the take out gets that 'left out' and almost stale taste to it (I still eat it, no shame here). Fresh fried rice is surprisingly easy to make and even easier if you just do a little rice making ahead of time when you meal prep (if you do that thing).

So making your rice ahead of time pretty much makes this recipe a 10 minute meal. Nice and quick and right up my alley when it's dinner time and two babes are going through a nice little 'witching hour' right? This easy shrimp fried rice has definitely become my 'what can I make quickly' go to. The other plus to this meal- it's totally customizable. I love shrimp with it because, well, shrimp and lemon just go together so well. But chicken or even vegetarian are amazing too. Throw all those random veggies in and see what happens!

Lemon Rice

You may have never thought to add lemon to fried rice. I get that a lot with this recipe. Try it and you'll understand why it just works. It brightens up the dish and gives it a really fresh flavor to cut through the sweetness of the soy sauce.

This recipe is super simple and I like it that way. It gives it a little more customization freedom.

Start out with making your rice according to the instructions on the box/bag. Like I said, you can do this ahead of time and just store it in the fridge until you're ready for some delicious fried rice, or you can make right now. Once the rice is done, take the cap off and set it somewhere to cool off while you get the other ingredients going.

Customizing

Traditionally I love peas, shredded carrots, classic scrambled eggs, and some onion and a protein in my fried rice. As long as I have a few of those base ingredients, I'm good to go. Some of other favorite ingredient ideas are mushrooms, peppers, leeks, zucchini, the lists goes on and on. Whatever we have in the fridge that either needs to go or we just are curious. The must haves for this particular recipe are fresh garlic, lemon juice, soy sauce, and of course shrimp and rice.

Making Easy Shrimp Fried Rice

If you have a wok, definitely use that. I had one and it broke during a move. So sad. I am definitely going to get another one. They have them for a really good price at Ikea actually. If you don't have one, that's ok too. I have been doing ok without one and have just been using either my big pan or even my cast iron skillet does a nice job.

In your pan or wok, heat some toasted sesame seed oil over medium heat with your veggies of choice, your shrimp, and your fresh chopped garlic cloves. Once you have a nice saute of veggies going, add your shrimp to cook.

I like to do the eggs in a separate pan so they stay fluffy and nice and not slimy and coated to everything else. So, in a separate pan, scramble your 2 eggs. Nothing fancy, just the eggs.

The fun part. Toss your cooked rice into the pan with the veggies and shrimp and begin to fry. I usually boost the heat here to medium/high so things really get sizzling. Continue to toss in the heat for a couple of minutes to warm things up, and then add your soy sauce.

Finally, once you have the rice really thoroughly mixed in the pan and fried up well for about 5 minutes, add the eggs and then the lemon juice. The lemon juice I like to add at the very end like this to really keep that tart lemon flavor so none of it cooks out.

And that's it! You did it. You made fried rice at home and you can eat take out without getting take out 😉

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If you like this recipe, try out our Stir Fried Noodles because who doesn't need more Asian take out in their life? If you need an awesome dessert, because again who doesn't, go make the best Cookies you've ever had 😉