Rainbow Fried Rice (easy one-pot rice cooker recipe)

Whip up a colourful, nutritious meal with this easy, one-pot Rainbow Fried Rice – in a rice cooker! Perfect for lazy days!

Table of Contents

• Why You Will Love This Recipe?
• What Rice Cooker to use for Rainbow Fried Rice?
• Key Ingredients for Rainbow Fried Rice
• The ‘Fried Rice’ Seasoning Sauces
• Key Steps to Making Rainbow Fried Rice
• FAQs
• More Recipes Like This

• Nutritious!: You heard the term eat the rainbow – this is it! Unlike regular fried rice, we’re steaming all of the ingredients in the rice cooker, with no oil.

• Veggie Saver: Use up all of the vegetables before they go bad.

• ACTUALLY Delicious: Thanks to the seriously good seasoning sauce, you have a healthy dish that actually taste good!

• One-pot wonder: A one-pot rice cooker recipe with the only extra step being to make the sauce.

• Quick meal: Have a full meal ready in as quick as 10 minutes—or however long your rice cooker takes to cook rice!

• Minimal effort: There is ZERO active cooking time—let the rice cooker do all the work.

• Versatile: Incredibly versatile! Besides using a range of vegetables and protein, you can switch up the flavours with the seasoning sauces. See below for other sauce options you can try.

I call it fried rice due to the seasoning sauce, but the texture is more moist than your pan or wok-fried fried rice. It’s still delicious though! Think of this as bimbimbap but with fried rice sauce.

What Rice Cooker to use for Rainbow Fried Rice?

Rice cookers are an Asian kitchen essential, especially for those who love fuss-free cooking.

Any rice cooker you have on hand will work for this recipe! You do not need a fancy rice cooker with this. When I first made this recipe, I used my old rice cooker which only had a one toggle button ‘To cook’ and nothing else! I’ve since upgraded to the Zojirushi, which I LOVE:

• Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 Neuro Fuzzy Cooker
• Zojirushi NS-ZAQ10 Micom Fuzzy Logic (the exact one I purchased – this is the same as the model above; it’s labelled differently in Singapore/Southeast Asia. This is a ‘Made in Japan’ model.)

If there’s any difference in quality, it would probably be a more accurate water to rice ratio since the pot has indicator measurement lines. The general ratio for white rice:water is 1:1, be sure to follow the instructions for your rice cooker, if available. If using brown rice, the timing will be longer.

Compared to my basic rice cooker, the Zojirushi took slightly longer to cook, while the Zojirushi took 20 minutes to cook, my old rice cooker completed the cooking in just 10 minutes for the same amount of ingredients! In fact, this recipe used to be called 10-minute fried rice!

A Rainbow Medley of Vegetables:

A lot of vegetables will work for this recipe. These are the ingredients we used in this recipe:

• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Sweet Corn
• Cherry Tomatoes

Other vegetables I’ve used and love for this include: beansprouts, cabbage, capsicums, string beans/long beans/french beans, edamame, pumpkin, potatoes, zucchini and mushrooms!

If there are any considerations:

• Use a variety of vegetables in different colours – Eat the RAINBOW!
• If using leafy vegetables, or vegetables that cook quicker, add it in at the last 3-5 minutes so it keeps its vibrant green and retain more of the nutrition.
• Use juicier vegetables with some care. As the vegetables cook, it will release more juices or liquid into the pot, and you might get rice that is soggier than usual. Personally – I don’t mind! The rice may be slightly soggy, but those juices help to further flavour the rice!
• Try not to use ‘tough’ vegetables that need *extra* long cook times. That said, potatoes require longer cook times, but when diced into smaller cubes, even the potatoes are able to cook well if used in this recipe! The key here is to dice the vegetables into small equal pieces!

Proteins:

To add more proteins to the dish, we add an egg (or two).

I add this in at the very beginning of the cooking to cook the egg through. You can also just add it in right at the end, for a creamier finish to the rice, just like in my rice cooker bibimbap!

You can stop there, or add additional meat to make this protein packed:

• Chicken breast or thighs, sliced or cubed
• Shrimp
• Minced beef
• Canned tuna
• Bacon
• Ham
• Sausages
• Firm Tofu, to keep this vegetarian or vegan!

The ‘Fried Rice’ Seasoning Sauces

The seasoning sauce here is the exact same combination that I use to make fried rice! The beauty of this one-pot rice cooker recipe is that you can use a variety of seasoning sauces.

Try any of these instead (measurements for 1 cup of rice):

Original Fried Rice Sauce

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce (15 ml)
• 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce (7.5 ml)
• 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce (7.5 ml)
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil (2.5 ml)

Key Steps to Making Rainbow Fried Rice

1. Prepare the Rice

Measure and rinse your rice according to your rice cooker’s instructions. Top up with enough water to cook.

2. Stir In Aromatics

To rinsed rice, add onions and garlic. Stir to combine.

3. Add Vegetables & Proteins

Chop and add your choice of vegetables to the rice cooker. Add protein of choice (chicken in this case) and top with egg.

4. Cook!

Set your rice cooker to the standard rice cooking setting and let it do its magic.

5. Prepare Seasoning Sauce

Mix your preferred seasoning sauce and set aside.

6. Combine and Serve!

Once rice is cooked, carefully open the lid (beware of steam!), and pour over all of the seasoning sauce. Add spring onions for garnish. With a spatula or rice paddle, ‘break’ the egg first, before mixing everything to combine well. Once well-combined, serve and enjoy!

FAQs

Can I make this in any rice cooker?

YES! I use the Zojirushi, but any rice cooker you have on hand will work for this recipe. Scroll to the rice cooker section above for more details.

Can I stir in the seasoning sauce with all of the ingredients at the first step? And cook everything together in the pot?

Yes, you can, but I do not recommend it:

1. Stirring the sauce with the rice would mean the vegetables and topping will not get more of the sauce love. Do not mix all of the ingredients together with the rice – especially the egg! Scrambled egg with uncooked rice won’t cook the rice proper, and even if you manage to do so, you may end up with a soggy dish.
2. Stirring in the sauce after will result in much better flavours. With seasoning sauces that contain lime juice, vinegar or sesame oil especially, the flavour dulls if cooked.
3. On a personal preference note, I created this recipe for efficiency. While the rice is cooking, I make the seasoning sauce since it’s a ‘free’ time anyway. Then I do my washing up, and by the time I’m done with everything – the rice is done! I can immediately get to serving.

I’m using chicken, will it really cook through?

YES. Make sure to dice the chicken or any meat pieces into smaller pieces to ensure it can cook through adequately.

This does NOT take 10 minutes in my rice cooker! Clickbait!

When I first made this recipe, I used my small, basic rice cooker that could easily cook a cup of white rice in just 10 minutes (scroll up to the rice cooker section to read more on this). I realised that this might not be everyone’s rice cooker experience, so I’ve since updated the blogpost for accuracy.

Love it! Do you have more rice cooker recipes?

Of course! Follow this category for a bunch of rice cooker recipes. Rice cooker recipes are a staple in my home, so make sure to subscribe to my mailing list to get notified whenever I post a new rice cooker recipe!

Why is my fried rice mushy?

Here’s the deal: I still call it fried rice because of the flavor — we’re using that classic fried rice seasoning sauce that gives it all the right savoury, umami-packed vibes. BUT… the texture will naturally be a lot more moist compared to what you’d get from a hot wok or frying pan.

Think of this dish more like a cross between bibimbap and fried rice. Everything’s cooked in one pot, and instead of being dry and toasty, it’s steamy and saucy, still super delicious, just different!

Wok-fried rice gets its signature texture from being dry. Day-old rice, hot oil, and high heat all work together to create that fluffy, slightly crispy grain separation we all know and love.

But with a rice cooker, we need a certain amount of liquid — not just to cook the rice properly, but also to steam all those proteins or veggies tossed in. So it’s just not physically possible to get that same wok-fried dryness in a one-pot setup.

Can I Fix It? Kind Of! If you’re chasing that drier texture, here are a few little tweaks you can try:

• Use slightly less liquid than you normally would.
• Let rest. After the cooking cycle finishes, leave the lid open or ajar and let the rice sit for 20–30 minutes on “Keep Warm.” This helps extra moisture escape and gives the rice a bit more bite. Your rice may even develop a crispy bottom.
• Once cooked, empty everything into a big pan or wok. Give it a few quick tosses over high heat.

But honestly… all of the above kinda defeats the purpose of a dish that’s meant to be quick, easy, fuss-free and brain-off.

So yes, this rice cooker fried rice may turn out more moist than your classic wok-fried version. But it comes together in one pot, barely needs any cleanup and most importantly, packed with flavor!