Nasi Goreng - Chef Recipe

Recipe: Nasi Goreng Recipe »

This easy nasi goreng recipe is packed with flavour thanks to a secret ingredient that makes it taste like it came from a restaurant! Learn how to make authentic Indonesian fried rice with prawns, jasmine rice, kecap manis and caramelised savoury-sweet flavours just like in Bali.

About This Nasi Goreng Recipe

Nasi Goreng is Indonesian for "fried rice". Nasi Goreng has a sweeter flavour profile than Chinese fried rice and is more caramelised with a saucier rice. While there are countless recipes for Nasi Goreng, this is the best Nasi Goreng I've tried and features a secret ingredient.

I learned to make this Nasi Goreng from Chef Oky at an Balinese cooking class at the RIMBA by AYANA Bali. One ingredient really transformed the Nasi Goreng into something special. And this ends up being even easier than my mother's Nasi Goreng recipe!

The secret to this Nasi Goreng is an ingredient called Tomato Sambal or Sambal Tomat. This spicy, sweet sauce is easy to make and a total powerhouse of flavour. It can be used to dip dumplings in, spread on sandwiches, in noodle soups, stir fries or mixed with mayo for a delicious dipping sauce. It's sweeter than regular sambal so it's also super accessible for those that like chilli but don't want it ferociously hot! You can buy it at an Asian grocery store (and I believe Coles has it) but it is also easy to make at home and I'll link you to that recipe.

Video How To Make Nasi Goreng

Video: Nasi Goreng Recipe

Ingredients For Nasi Goreng

Protein - Chef Oky showed me how to make Nasi Goreng with seafood (prawns, squid and white fish) as AYANA Bali is located in Jimbaran and seafood is plentiful. For my version I used just prawns as I had those. You can also use chicken chopped up into little pieces (chicken thigh is best).

Garlic - Large cloves of fresh garlic.

Carrot - You'll need one small carrot.

Pak choy or Choy Sum - Asian greens with a slender light green stem.

Cabbage - White cabbage or Chinese/Napa cabbage.

Chilli - large red chilli (less spicy than small chillies).

Tomato sambal - This sauce is a powerhouse of flavour! The recipe for homemade tomato sambal is here.

Oyster sauce - In the Asian section of the supermarket or at Asian grocery stores.

Kecap manis - Indonesian sweet soy sauce.

Soy sauce - Light soy sauce.

Rice - Jasmine rice is the best rice for nasi goreng as it has nicely separated grains and a lovely aroma! Make sure that it is day old cooked rice though!

Tips For Making Nasi Goreng

1 - The number 1 tip that I'm sure y'all know is to use day old rice! Even 2 day old rice. Lorraine's tip: if you haven't got day old rice, try those microwavable pre-cooked rice packets. The rice in them (before microwaving) is a good sub for day old rice.

2 - With all Asian cooking, having items prepped beforehand makes this really easy and quick to cook. My mother used to do the chopping the night before or in the morning before work and then cook everything when she got home.

3 - Nasi Goreng is usually served with Kerupuk or prawn crackers, cucumber, tomato, fried shallots and a fried egg on top!

4 - You can add other vegetables like mushrooms or capsicum to your fried rice. I've even got a tomato fried rice recipe too!

There are no shortage of fried rice recipes here because we always seem to have leftover rice so try my seafood fried rice, Egg Fried Rice or Ginger Fried Rice next. There's also a Portuguese fried rice!

Nasi Goreng Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients Needed

• 180g/6oz raw, shelled prawns (or a mix of prawns, squid, white fish)
• Salt and white pepper
• Oil for frying
• 2 cloves garlic
• 40g/1.4oz carrot
• 75g/2.7oz pak choy
• 50g/1.7oz cabbage
• 1 large chilli
• 50g/1.7oz tomato sambal
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon kecap manis
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 350g/12.3oz day old cooked jasmine rice
• Fried egg, crackers

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 PREP - Chop up prawns into quarters and season with salt and white pepper. Set aside in the fridge. Peel and dice garlic. Peel and julienne the carrot. Cut up Pak choy cutting the stems into inch long pieces. Finely slice cabbage and slice red chilli on the diagonal. Measure the sauces out.

Step 2 STIR FRY - Heat oil in a large frying pan or wok on medium heat and add the garlic and cook for 15 seconds. Add the carrot and stir and cook for 30 seconds. Then add the pak choy, cabbage and chilli and fry keeping the vegetables moving in the pan. Add the prawns and cook for a couple of minutes also tossing well in the pan. Then add the tomato sambal, oyster sauce, kecap manis and soy sauce. Then add the rice breaking it up with the cooking spatula and allowing it to become coated in the sauces and vegetables. Fry until prawns are cooked through and the rice has caramelised. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

Step 3 SERVE - Spray a rice bowl with oil and then press the rice into it firmly and then upend on a plate. Serve with a fried egg, prawn crackers, more tomato sambal and slices of tomato and cucumber

Personal Note

When we ate the Nasi Goreng in Bali it came with some pink prawn crackers. I wanted to recreate the whole look so I asked Mr NQN to buy some pink prawn crackers while he was at an appointment. I should have told him where to buy them because he went to our little local IGA and they didn't have them.

We spent 5 minutes on the phone where he video called me and showed me what they had on the shelves. I think calling them prawn crackers confused him because he kept showing me crackers but I told him they were more chips. In the end, they did have these crackers which turn out to be more the type that are actually served in Indonesia and I gave up on procuring the pink prawn crackers.

That following day I was in the lounge room and I saw a box of something peeking out from the very top of the bookshelf. It was a plastic container containing...pink prawn crackers? What on earth was going on? And why was there a box of prawn crackers? I asked Mr NQN if he had put them there and he had no memory of it and it was way too high for me to have done it. We even asked Mr NQN's brother Manu if he left them there while he was house sitting and he had no idea what he was talking about.

The only thing we can think is that they must be so many years old that Mr NQN doesn't even recall putting them there. However they did look bright pink and not old at all. And no I didn't try one just in case it was several years old!

So tell me Dear Reader, how often do you cook fried rice? Do you ever find very random things in your house that you don't remember buying?