How to Make Japanese Fried Rice (Yakimeshi) At Home

Yakimeshi is the Japanese take on fried rice. It is a stir-fried dish consisting of　rice, finely chopped meat, vegetables, and eggs and is seasoned with soy sauce and chicken stock powder.

Yakimeshi is a common home-cooked dish for Japanese people because it can come together quite quickly and is leftover friendly. Since Japanese people cook and consume rice on a daily basis, they tend to always have cooked rice on hand. With the addition of leftover meat and vegetables in the refrigerator, a tasty yakimeshi can be prepared in almost no time, making it the perfect dish for weeknights or busy people.

Yakimeshi also often appears on the menus of Chinese restaurants in Japan. It can be ordered as a main dish, but it is also common for it to appear as a side dish for Chinese ramen or in a set menu with other dishes such as karaage and Chinese-style soup.

In this recipe, we’re going to use bacon, but you can use other proteins such as chashu, sausage, chicken, shrimp, tofu, or even leave it out. For vegetables, we’ll use carrots and green onions, but other common ingredients in yakimeshi are shiitake mushrooms and green peas. Alternatively, you can use any other vegetable you see fit.

Now, we would like to introduce our simple egg-Yakimeshi recipe that is often eaten in Japanese homes. We hope you’ll enjoy our recipe and try it out for yourself!