Chili Oil Sinangag (Filipino Spicy Fried Rice)

A staple in Filipino breakfasts, this sinangag (Filipino garlic fried rice) is toasty, savory, and with a kick of spice using chili oil. It’s the perfect accompaniment to any dish, at any time of the day!

Welcome to the THIRD recipe of our five-part chili oil series where I’ll be sharing some of my favorite spicy recipes using our homemade chili oil!

The chili oil is incredibly easy to make and the best part is that you can store it in the fridge for weeks to use whenever you want.

What is sinangag aka. Filipino fried rice?

In essence, sinangag can be boiled down to 3 core ingredients: rice, fat, and garlic.

Other add-ins to the rice, such as salt, scallions, and/or soy sauce are other variations of the same Filipino dish, each prepared differently depending on the cook’s tastes. In this case, we’ll be using chili oil and the flakes to further give our rice those complex umami flavors.

Sinangag has long been altered and improved throughout generations, though the common factor within all of these are the strong garlic flavor you’ll typically taste in the rice.

Although traditionally eaten as a breakfast dish, sinangag can be eaten at any time of the day!

Ingredients

Servings: 1-2 people

• ~3 cups cooked day-old rice
• 7-12 cloves garlic, minced (depending on how strong you want the garlic flavor to be)
• 2-3 tbsp chili oil, with the flakes/crisps (more or less, according to spice tolerance)
• *1 tsp liquid seasoning (can substitute with soy sauce)
• 2 tbsp scallions, chopped
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt, to taste
• Oil, for frying

*Note: If you’re unfamiliar with liquid seasoning, it’s essentially a flavor-enhancer that you can purchase in most Asian groceries/supermarkets. Think of it as like a more concentrated soy sauce, with a much deeper and complex flavor. Just a few dashes of this stuff can really bump up those umami notes in this fried rice! Popular brands include Maggi or Knorr. Otherwise, soy sauce would be a good alternative.

Emphasis also on the day-old rice. So many recipes really specify this step because freshly-cooked rice is the enemy of fried rice. The simple reason is because it contains too much moisture. Excess moisture in rice has a tendency to clump up, become mushy, and/or absorb too much oil -making it greasy.

If you don’t have day-old rice, here’s an easy fix to emulate it:

• Spread out your cooked rice onto a tray or plate and let it air-dry in the fridge, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes. Once the grains are somewhat firm and no longer soft/moist, they’re ready to be fried.

How to cook chili garlic sinangag

Begin by toasting your minced garlic in a shallow amount of oil until golden, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Make sure to keep your heat at around a medium to medium-low, to ensure you don’t fry your garlic too fast and/or burn it. Burnt garlic is incredibly bitter, so we don’t want that!

Once toasted, strain out the toasted garlic and reserve some of the garlic-infused oil.

In the same pan or wok, add in about 1-2 tbsp of your garlic-infused oil. Toss in your rice and fry for about 1 minute, breaking up any large clumps.

Season the rice with chili oil, liquid seasoning, scallions, toasted garlic, and salt & pepper to taste. Toss everything together until equally distributed and fry for another 2-3 minutes.

To serve, top the rice with more chopped scallions, chili oil, and toasted garlic.

What can I serve sinangag with?

As a popular filipino side-dish, here would be some of my recommendations!

• Spicy chicken adobo
• Honey-garlic shrimp
• Soy-marinated Filipino short ribs
• Chicken inasal (Filipino BBQ chicken)