Bake

Sheet-Pan Crispy Rice with Bacon and Broccoli

November 23, 2018
4.5
28 Ratings
Photo by Rocky Luten
  • Prep time 5 minutes
  • Cook time 30 minutes
  • Serves 6
Author Notes

If I had a band, we'd be called The Crispy Bits. We'd all wear our hair in gelled-up spikes (Aaron's Party-style) and we'd dress in studded pant suits to really double down on our name. Our concerts would sell out immediately—so long as we kept it under wraps that I was lip-syncing—each time tickets went on sale, because *everybody loves the crispy bits.* And for good reason. Crispy bits are textural and flavor magic. This sheet-pan rice, inspired by fried rice, places crispy bits front and center thanks to a generous spatial distribution and high oven heat. Use any leftover grain you have, and mix-and-match the add-ins to your liking. —Ella Quittner

Test Kitchen Notes

Featured in: Sheet-Pan Crispy Rice with Bacon Lets Your Oven Do Allllll the Work. —The Editors

What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
Sheet-Pan Crispy Rice with Bacon and Broccoli
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons rice bran oil (or other high-heat-friendly oil), divided
  • 3 cups cooked, leftover rice (the more dried out, the better)
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce, plus more for drizzling
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
  • 1 medium carrot, peeled and finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped broccoli (in bite-sized florets)
  • 1 cup green chopped cabbage (in roughly 2x1/2-inch strips)
  • 1 1/2 cups finely chopped scallions (the green and light green parts), divided into 1 cup and 1/2 cup
  • 1 1/2 cups mushrooms, cleaned and chopped into bite sized pieces (I like maitake, but you can use whatever you like)
  • 1/2 cup frozen green peas
  • 6 ounces thick-cut bacon, sliced into roughly 1x1/2-inch pieces
  • 1 sunny-side-up fried egg with a runny yolk per person you’re serving (optional)
  • Chili sauce of your choice
Directions
  1. Heat oven to 475°F.
  2. Drizzle an 11x17-inch rimmed sheet pan with one tablespoon of oil and spread it around, to grease the pan. Add the following to the pan: rice, the remaining tablespoon of oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, onion, carrot, broccoli, cabbage, 1 cup of the scallions, and the mushrooms. Use clean hands to mix and break up the rice clumps with your fingers. (You could do this with a fork instead, but you’d be more likely to spray rice all over your kitchen.) Spread into an even layer.
  3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes—until there are lotttts of crispy rice bits, and the carrots have just lost their bite—giving everything a gentle stir every so often to avoid letting the cabbage or the rice around the edges burn. Then, add the peas and bacon pieces, stir again, and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the bacon is crisped up.
  4. Remove from the oven. To serve, drizzle with more soy sauce to taste, and top with a fried egg (if using), plus some of the reserved scallions, and chili sauce of your choice.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • whym
    whym
  • Jen Vibul Priddy
    Jen Vibul Priddy
  • Rachel Sekola
    Rachel Sekola
  • Bryna Levin
    Bryna Levin
  • Debby Kirkman
    Debby Kirkman

29 Reviews

Beelady August 2, 2024
Made the recipe exactly as written! Everything about it was spectacular. I will never make fried rice again. The crispy bits were so satisfying.
 
Danielle May 12, 2024
This was fantastic. I mixed the soy sauce and vinegar with the rice before I put it on the pan. The rice started crisping up at the time slotted but the bacon never got truly crispy. It didn’t matter. It was so tasty.
 
Talbright February 27, 2024
I fixed this for our dinner tonight and it was delicious and I love getting all the vegetables in the recipe. The only thing I changed was I prepared 6 ounces os thin bacon in the microwave and chopped ahead of completion of the recipe and added the bacon for the last 10 minutes. I also placed my pan on a thin cookie sheet and had very little sticking to the pan. I also used 100% Olive oil— high heat and it also gave it extra flavor. We will definitely have it again.
 
jude February 26, 2024
thank you, ella. fried rice is definitely one of my comfort foods and this recipe hits the mark. in fact, it displaces all other fried rice because of the crispy situation. i poured over the comments and learned a lot before i made my own. i hope this will be of help to others. firstly i prepped my vegs last night. done! i bought a package of exotic mixed mushrooms and used napa cabbage. i lightly oiled my sheet pan and roasted the vegs alone for about 10 minutes before adding in the rice and seasonings. oh, and i decided to leave the bacon out this time (even though i adore it) to keep it simple, since others had trouble with it. i roasted it for 20 minutes, added the peas and scallions, scattered shredded chicken on half the pan and an egg on the other half and roasted another 10 minutes. everything came out perfectly crispy and delicious. a totally brilliant recipe.
 
Elsee September 2, 2023
This turned out great and was so easy. Customized the vegies to our taste and added the bacon at the beginning of cooking. Made for somebody whose favorite meal is fried rice and they ate almost the whole pan and then requested I always make this recipe. It really did get lots of crispy bits, just have make sure to stir to keep the edges from burning.
 
whittemd March 13, 2023
Made this with some of the microwaveable bags of frozen jasmine rice you can get at TJ’s and our local Safeway and it was awesome!
We’ve made it a few times this way and it’s a hit. Thanks!
 
whym September 2, 2022
I really loved this recipe! I took the advice to start the bacon in the oven before I added the rice and veggies, and I didn't have any issues with it crisping up. I thought the flavors were delicious, and it's especially good when you crisp it up in a frying pan the next day!
 
Liz August 10, 2021
Delicious and will definitely make again. Three thumbs up at our house. Warning-prep time is more than 5 minutes with a the cutting and cleaning of the vegetables.
 
Rob L. December 27, 2020
Would this still crisp up nicely if I left out the bacon as my daughter is vegetarian. Would I just add more oil halfway to make up for it.
 
Debby K. December 27, 2020
It's not clear to me that you even need to add more oil. I've made this fully vegetarian and it turned out great. I've also made it with duck bacon for people who are avoiding pork.
 
Rob L. December 27, 2020
That's great, thanks Debby.
 
Jen V. January 23, 2020
This is definitely a keeper for us. I agree that times need to be modified — 15 minutes prep and at least 45 for cooking. I ended up dividing into two sheet pans to help crisp it up a bit more after 25 minutes, cooked 15 minutes more w bacon, then low broiled for another 5, stirring up all that nice bacon fat. Somehow it’s more than fried rice — more umami and richness — but loaded w veggies. Even the two year old pronounced it “yummy.” Thanks, Ella!
 
Rachel S. January 6, 2020
MAN I’m glad I didn’t read the negative reviews before I made this.

A few things:

-Chopping is more like 15 minutes, but it’s worth it.
-I made lots of substitutions because of availability and what I had on hand. My rice was brown, I used triple the onion and a third of the carrot that the recipe asked for, I used cauliflower instead of broccoli and Trader Joe’s cruciferous crunch instead of cabbage. My oil was avocado oil, my bacon was thick cut, and I forgot the soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Is it the same recipe? I think so!
-It seemed like lots of people had issues with getting crispy bits in only 25 minutes; mine had much less liquid because I forgot the soy sauce and vinegar. I can’t attest to what it’s like *with* those, but I can say that mine wasn’t lacking in flavor in the least, and I had no crisping problems.

I baked for 25 minutes and then added the bacon. It needed another 25 to cook instead of 10-15 because it was thick cut bacon and I used a little more than the recipe asked for (I really love bacon). I stirred it 3-4 times during each bake.

This might be one of my new favorite recipes! I didn’t even make the egg for the top, I just ate a bunch straight off the pan. I could eat this for every upcoming meal until it’s gone and I wouldn’t be sad about it. Thanks for sharing!!
 
Bryna L. February 17, 2019
just reading this recipe, it's clear that bacon will never crisp up in 10 minutes with so much else in the pan.... so I'm glad to see others found it to be true before I make it..... Did the author actually test this recipe to time?
 
Ella Q. February 17, 2019
Hi Bryna,

I had no issues with thinly sliced bacon, but if you’re concerned about it, you could skip the bacon.

Ella
 
Bryna L. February 19, 2019
Not concerned, just want it to be crispy. I made the recipe but i cooked the bacon first, otherwise there is no way raw bacon cooks in ten minutes mixed in with a bed of other ingredients. I also sauteed the vegetables first, so they would not add water to the rice and prevent it from crisping. Cooking time in total in the oven was about double what you suggest, but the outcome is delicious with lots of crispy rice.
 
Bryna L. February 19, 2019
I've written a cookbook and work in food, so I've got credentials.
 
allen March 9, 2023
Don't skip... just cook to crispy first, then mix into baked rice mix.
 
Debby K. January 23, 2019
I've made this dish twice now and have been pretty happy with it both times. I used different ovens, and do think that the first time my oven was hotter (as well as being a convection oven) and it turned out crispier.

We have to deal with an alpha-galactose allergy in the household (from the lone star tick) and also a gluten sensitivity, so no pork, beef, etc, but I do cook poultry and fish. Instead of regular bacon, I substituted duck bacon. The duck bacon doesn't ever come out as crispy as pork bacon but it does have a deep toothy texture. It turned out pretty well! The second time I made the recipe I also added some smoked duck breast.

Regarding gluten issues, this recipe is great for that. If you aren't familiar with gluten-free cooking, be sure to check your soy-sauce - you have to explicitly purchase gluten-free soy sauce or tamari sauce if you are cooking for someone who seriously needs to avoid any gluten or gluten contamination.
 
Ella Q. February 17, 2019
Sounds great! Thank you for sharing.
 
Danielle February 25, 2024
Where do you get duck bacon? It sounds delicious
 
Debby K. February 25, 2024
I've been able to buy duck bacon at Wegman's, Danielle. It's made by D'Artagnon, a Canadian company. You can order it at dartagnan.com

I have a household member with alpha-gal allergy, so I use a lot of duck instead of beef or in the case of bacon, pork.
 
Heather L. January 2, 2019
I was so excited to try this (love crispy bits!) and it did turn out good in the end, but the timing was all off for me with this recipe. How the heck can chopping all of those vegetables take "5 minutes?" When I saw that I got a little leery, and it turns out that was a pretty good indication that the timing would be way off for the rest of it too. I have found in the past for sheet pan recipes to work you need to follow them pretty closely, or you'll end up crowding the pan so I made sure to get pretty close to the measured amounts. Even with that, all of the vegetables led to a lot of moisture and it took about 45 minutes for me to get any crispy bits, and that was after I bumped the oven to 500. I then also had the same problem as a previous poster, the bacon never crisped up, even after an additional 10+ minutes. I'm not patient enough to pick out all the bacon to crisp it on its own, so we dealt with chewy bacon. I don't mind if takes a bit longer to prep and cook, but it would be much more helpful to have an accurate idea of when to start making dinner.
 
Geoffrey W. December 10, 2018
I made this last week and it was delicious. My only difficulty was that the bacon did not cook sufficiently and i ended up having to pick it out and crisp it in a skillet. When i make it again, i think i will bake the bacon in the sheet pan while i am getting everything else ready, using the rendered fat to grease to pan. Then remove the bacon and proceed as per the recipe. One thing i added at the end was a drizzle of sesame oil for the beautiful aroma. Thank you, Geoff.
 
Ella Q. December 11, 2018
Hi Geoff,

Thanks for your comment, and I love the idea of using the rendered bacon fat for extra flavor!

Ella
 
MMH December 3, 2018
This was a great opportunity to clean out the fridge plus it was snowy outside and we were feeling kinda lazy. We switched up some of the ingediedients for what we had - subbed kale for cabbage. We had steamed broccoli so we held thAt to the end. And we just cracked the eggs on top and put it back in the oven. I mean we were feeling really lazy. This was an easy clean the fridge dinner and we will do it again.
 
Ella Q. December 11, 2018
Sounds delicious! Thanks for your comment.
 
Linda B. December 2, 2018
It’s different- but is it better then doing fried rice in a wok?

 
Ella Q. December 2, 2018
Hi Linda,

Both definitely have their benefits! In a wok you can get each element more precisely how you want it, by adding in phases. I like this approach for when I want to just throw everything together and have a mostly hands-off prep period (+ more crispy bits), like weeknights when I'm multitasking and don't want to manage every stage. But I love the wok for other times, too!

Ella