Chinese Sausage Fried Rice or lop cheung chow fan is a quick and easy fried rice recipe that’s perfect for a weeknight meal.
I remember this Chinese sausage fried rice was one go-to recipe that my sisters and I used to cook for our mom when we knew she was coming home from a long day of work, hungry and not in a mood to cook. Bacon and egg fried rice was another one of those quick fried rice dishes, but this Chinese Sausage Fried Rice was definitely my favorite of the two!
What Is Chinese Sausage?
Chinese sausage is pronounced lop cheung or lop cheong in Cantonese. Lop means “preserved” and cheung means “sausage.” Written as 腊肠, it is pronounced là cháng in Mandarin.
That said, most Mandarin speaking people refer to Chinese preserved sausages as 香肠 or xiāng cháng, so Chinese Sausage Fried Rice, or lop cheung chow fan in Mandarin is better known as 香肠炒饭 xiāng cháng chǎofàn. Got that, all you ABCs and Canto kids out there?
One thing I also have to straighten out for you is Chinese sausage types. In the old days when there was only one Chinatown in New York City (Flushing and Brooklyn Chinatowns developed much later), the majority of the Chinese population was Cantonese, and mostly from Hong Kong.
Back then, you would probably only see two types of Chinese sausages, the sweet kind made with fatty pork (what we’re using here) and the gon cheung or liver sausage made from pork fat and duck liver.
More recently with the influx of people from across China, it’s more common to see these Cantonese types as well as spicy Chinese sausages made from Sichuan peppercorns and other kinds of preserved and salted pork used in recipes in a similar fashion. You can read more about these different varieties in our Dried and Preserved ingredients page.
Fried Rice Evolution
As kids, we used to use Chinese sausage and onions in our fried rice until our mom told us we should add scrambled eggs for variety and some frozen peas to make it a little healthier.
Since then, we also started to use mung bean sprouts whenever they were available. Growing up in a small town in upstate New York, mung bean sprouts were nowhere to be found unless we made the long drive to Chinatown in NYC.
Other recipes that use sweet Chinese sausages include Chinese Sausage Buns – lop cheung bao and Sticky Fried Rice with Chinese Sausages, a slightly similar recipe but with sticky rice. Both are comfort foods for kids who grew up in Cantonese households!
So pick up some Chinese sausages today, and try this quick and easy Chinese Sausage Fried Rice for yourself!
Chinese Sausage Fried Rice: Recipe Instructions
First, prepare your Chinese sausage, onion, and rice (either dig some leftover rice out of your refrigerator, or make a batch).
In a small bowl, add ¾ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon sugar, 2 teaspoons hot water, 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon regular soy sauce, ½ teaspoon dark soy sauce and ⅛ teaspoon ground white pepper. Set aside.
Heat your wok over medium high heat and spread 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil around the perimeter of the wok. Next, add the 2 beaten eggs to the oil, scrambling them and breaking them up into smaller pieces with your wok spatula just until done. Transfer them back to the bowl you used to beat them, and set aside.
Heat the wok over medium heat, and spread 1 tablespoon oil around your wok. Add the Chinese sausages (lop cheung), and stir-fry for 20 seconds. You can steam or boil the Chinese sausage before cutting for a softer texture.
Add the chopped onion…
And stir fry for another 1-2 minutes until translucent.
Turn the heat up to high, and add the rice.
Use your metal wok spatula to flatten out and break up any clumps. If using leftover white rice, you will have to cook and stir fry the rice longer to heat it through.
Once the rice is warmed, pour the sauce mixture you prepared earlier evenly over the rice.
Mix the lop cheung fried rice using a scooping motion with your spatula for 1-2 minutes, until the rice is evenly coated in the sauce. At this stage, there shouldn’t be any more clumps of rice, and it should be steaming as the sauce distributes and cooks.
Add the cooked egg, ⅔ cup frozen peas and 1 cup mung bean sprouts. Stir fry the rice for another minute.
Add the scallions, and spread 1 teaspoon of Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok.
Stir-fry for another 20 seconds. This step gives the extra wok hay flavor that you taste when you get fried rice from a good Chinese restaurant.
Plate and serve your Chinese Sausage Fried Rice as a meal or as a side dish!
