A bowl of cooked rice topped with delicious and juicy Chinese barbecued pork / char siu and smothered in char siu sauce and then steamed and served. It is super easy to put together and makes a perfect breakfast or snack.
I never knew about fan choy until I saw a Singaporean friend made this. She loved to prepare this because it’s so easy to put together and it’s so tasty. My kids love fan choy too.
What is fan choy ?
Fan choy is the Cantonese rice dish usually available at some dim sum restaurants, similar to lo mai gai in presentation. . Lo mai gai usually used glutinous rice/sticky rice, but fan choy uses regular cooked rice. A bowl of cooked rice is topped with delectable slices of char siu, sometimes some Chinese sausage (lap cheong) and some char siu sauce. It’s a popular Cantonese breakfast.
What you need for fan choy
You can make a really simple fan choy or more elaborate by adding more things. You can also prepare everything from scratch or uses leftovers.
For easy fan choy:
1. Leftover cooked rice
2. Store-bought char siu and char siu sauce
3. Hard-boiled eggs
For making fan choy from scratch
1. Uncooked long-grain rice
2. Homemade char siu and char siu sauce
3. Hard-boiled eggs
Easy Fan Choy 饭菜
Ingredients
For easy version using leftovers:
- 4 cups cooked rice brown rice or white rice it's your choice
- 300 g char siu homemade or store-bought
- 2 Hard-boiled eggs halved
- ½ cup char siu sauce or more as needed
To make the fragrant rice from scratch:
- 2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
- 1 ¾ cups chicken broth or use water
- 2 Tbsp oil
- 4 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce or more as needed
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 3 hard-boiled eggs
To make char siu and char siu sauce from scratch:
Instructions
For easy version:
- Place one halved hard-boiled egg, cut-side facing down. Divide the char siu slices among 4 individual rice bowl. Scoop some char siu sauce over them. Portion the cooked rice on top. Press it down to pack it tight
- Place the bowl in the steamer, depending on how big your steamer is, you may need to steam in batches. Steam over medium heat for 10-12 minutes
- When ready to serve, place a serving plate on top of one bowl and quickly invert it and remove the bowl. You have a dome-shaped fan choy ready to be served. Serve with your favorite chili sauce if you like
To make from scratch:
- Follow this recipe to make the char siu and the char siu sauce. Cut the char siu into serving slices
To make fragrant rice: (I suggest preparing the day before and kept in the fridge)
- Rinse the rice in several changes of water until the water runs clear. Washing off the extra starches will make your rice not sticky after cooked
- Use a large strainer to drain the water off completely. Using a strainer is very effective to make sure no more water collects in between as this will affect the end result with your rice being too soft and mushy
- I use the cup that comes with my rice cooker, which is slightly smaller than U.S. standard measuring cup. Use the same cup to measure rice to measure the liquid.
- I usually use 1:1 ratio of rice to liquid if I cook in rice cooker, but for this particular recipe, I use a bit less liquid since we will steam it with some sauce later and I don't want the rice to be too mushy
Stir fry the rice:
- Preheat a large pan with some oil over medium heat. Add minced garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Take care not to burn the garlic. Add the rice followed by the soy sauce and dark soy sauce. My dark soy sauce is really dark, so I only use 1 teaspoon. You can use more if you like. Stir to combine everything. Remove from the heat
- Transfer the rice to the rice cooker. Add the liquid and stir to combine. I use my rice cooker's "white rice" setting. You can use whatever setting on your rice cooker
- When the rice is done, wait for 10 minutes before opening the lid of the rice cooker. After that, fluff the rice with a rice paddle and let it cool down a bit. You can prepare the rice few days before and keep it in the fridge
To assemble:
- Place one halved hard-boiled egg, cut-side facing down. Divide the char siu slices among 6 individual rice bowl. Scoop some char siu sauce over them. Portion the cooked rice on top. Press it down to pack it tight. If you don't plan to serve that many, you can keep them in the fridge covered with a cling wrap and steam them when ready to serve
- Place the bowl in the steamer, depending on how big your steamer is, you may need to steam in batches. Steam over medium heat for 10-12 minutes
- When ready to serve, place a serving plate on top of one bowl and quickly invert it and remove the bowl. You have a dome-shaped fan choy ready to be served. Serve with your favorite chili sauce if you like
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How to prepare fan choy from scratch
1. To make your own char siu and char siu sauce, follow this recipe
2. Rinse the rice in several changes of water until the water runs clear. Washing off the extra starches will make your rice not sticky after cooked. Use a large strainer to drain the water off completely. Using a strainer is very effective to make sure no more water collects in between as this will affect the end result with your rice being too soft and mushy
3. Preheat a large pan with some oil over medium heat. Add minced garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Take care not to burn the garlic. 
4. Add the rice followed by the soy sauce and dark soy sauce. My dark soy sauce is really dark, so I only use 1 teaspoon. You can use more if you like. Stir to combine everything. Remove from the heat
5. Transfer the rice to the rice cooker. Add the liquid and stir to combine. I use my rice cooker’s “white rice” setting. You can use whatever setting on your rice cooker. When the rice is done, wait for 10 minutes before opening the lid of the rice cooker. 
6. After that, fluff the rice with a rice paddle and let it cool down a bit. You can prepare the rice few days before and keep it in the fridge
7. To assemble: Place one halved hard-boiled egg, cut-side facing down. Divide the char siu slices among 6 individual rice bowl. Scoop some char siu sauce over them. Portion the cooked rice on top. Press it down to pack it tight. If you don’t plan to serve that many, you can keep them in the fridge covered with a cling wrap and steam them when ready to serve
8. Place the bowl in the steamer, depending on how big your steamer is, you may need to steam in batches. Steam over medium heat for 10-12 minutes
9. When ready to serve, place a serving plate on top of one bowl and quickly invert it
10. Remove the bowl. You have a dome-shaped fan choy ready to be served. Serve with your favorite chili sauce if you like
Did you make this fan choy recipe?
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1 comment
What a great recipe! I am your fan all these years! 🙂