What is cơm chiên lập xưởng?
Cơm (rice) chiên (fry) translated to Vietnamese is fried rice, and lập xưởng refers to the Chinese sausage used in the fried rice dish. So the phrase “Cơm chiên lập xưởng” literally means “Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage”. You can serve it as a side dish or the main dish. Rice or cơm, is the staple of every Vietnamese meal, because it’s like a blank canvas (plain Jasmine rice-see how to make perfect Jasmine rice here), waiting for flavors and spices to be added. A common way to dress up plain Jasmine rice is to turn it into cơm chiên or fried rice.
I grew up eating rice at lunch and dinner every day, sometimes even for breakfast. My mom always told me “if you don’t eat rice, you’ll never get full”. So now, when I ask my son, “What do you want for dinner?” His response is always “Cơm…please”. Even he is trained by grandma (at such a young age) about the importance of rice 🙂
What makes cơm chiên lập xưởng different?
Vietnamese fried rice is not like the side of fried rice that comes with your beef and broccoli. When I first moved to the US, I’ve noticed that the fried rice you get at a restaurant only contains soy sauce and maybe…just maybe eggs, peas and carrots. So to me, it was missing the second most important ingredient, lập xưởng (Chinese sausage). This adds a sweet and salty flavor to the dish, giving it a unique taste.
I grew up with two different variations of cơm chiên (fried rice). One has strips of fried egg mixed in, which required frying eggs in a separate pan. Letting it cool, then cutting it into thin strips. The other has beaten eggs mixed directly into the rice. The variation that my mom made depended on how tired she was at the time, or how fancy she wanted to be 🙂 But either way, they both contain carrots, peas, garlic, onion and of course lập xưởng (Chinese sausage).
How to make good fried rice & save time?
Good fried rice starts with using good left over Jasmine rice. Check out my “Perfect Jasmine Rice” post. If you’re going to use newly cooked rice, leave it uncovered for a few hours on the counter to help dry the rice out. This keeps the rice from getting too mushy when it’s fried.
The secret to saving time, is to use frozen, already chopped carrots and peas. You can also use frozen chopped onions as well, but I’ve found that fresh, chopped onions tastes better plus, it adds a nice crunch to the dish.
Today I’m going to do another variation of my mom’s fried rice with Chinese sausage. Since my son has an egg allergy, and he loves rice, I’m going to omit the egg from the recipe. So the next time that you’re in the mood for fried rice, give this recipe a try before reaching for the take out menu.
Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage.
Ingredients
- 6 cups cooked Jasmine rice
- ½ white onion chopped.
- 1 tbsp fresh garlic minced.
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 5 tsp soy sauce
- ½ tsp fish sauce
- 4 links of Chinese sausage cut into round pieces. See picture above.
- ½ bag frozen carrots and peas mixture
Instructions
- Add vegetable oil into a pot and let it heat up.
- Then add the cooked rice, chopped onion, and minced garlic to the pot. Season the rice by adding soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and pepper.
- Let the rice mixture heat up and cook for 10 minutes. It's okay that the onion will not be completely cooked because it will add a nice crunch to the dish.
- Place the Chinese sausage in a separate pan and cook until done (about 8-10 minutes).
- Add the frozen carrots and peas mixture to the cooked Chinese sausage and continue to heat on low until the carrots are soft.
- Take the sausage, carrots and peas mixture and add it to the seasoned rice, onion and garlic mixture.
- Mix well, serve & enjoy.
If you tried this recipe, how does it compare to the side of fried rice that you get at your favorite Chinese restaurant?
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Loved this very easy fried rice recipe. I had never used Chinese sausage before and really like the sweet flavor it gave to the dish. I used the “spicy” sausage, but did not detect much added heat.
Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor the Chinese sausage brings to the dish.