WHEN CHRISTINE CIKOWSKI and Josh Kulp started making fried-chicken fried rice for their restaurant’s staff meal, it killed two birds with one dish: hungry staff to feed, leftover rice and fried chicken. “A kitchen-sink fried rice,” Ms. Cikowski called it. Now an occasional special on their menu at Chicago’s Honey Butter Fried Chicken, it features chunks of buttermilk fried chicken, country ham and pickled onions.  They’re not the only chefs to discover that fried rice lends itself to improvisation singularly well. At Rose Café in Venice, Calif., chef Jason Neroni offers a paella fried rice seasoned with black, briny squid ink and dolloped with romesco and garlicky aioli. “The best part of the paella is the crunchy rice you scrape off the pan,” said Mr. Neroni. “What better way to showcase that than a fried rice?”  Growing up in Hawaii, chef Troy Guard ate rice at every meal. His parents made fried rice with whatever was in the fridge—chopped hot dogs, barbecued kalbi beef—and, always, an egg. At his new restaurant, Lucky Cat, in Denver, Mr. Guard offers several variations, including one with brown rice, mixed whole grains, seasonal vegetables and shredded iceberg lettuce, for a refreshing crunch. “Fried rice is like a taco,” said Mr. Guard. “Use what’s local and fresh—what you like.”  At Mr. Kulp and Ms. Cikowski’s regular Sunday Dinner Club events, they’ve done versions with Japanese sansho pepper and candied seaweed; with Thai green curry; and with Wisconsin summer sausage. Mr. Kulp’s fascination with fried rice goes back to an egg, peanut and onion variant he ate in a Chinese mountain village he visited as a vegetarian, kosher-keeping 22-year-old. “It was the greatest-tasting thing ever,” he said. “Then my friend looked at me and said, ‘The reason that rice is so good is because it was fried in lard.’ The next day, I stopped being a vegetarian.”  Though similar preparations appear all over China, Fuchsia Dunlop, a London-based Chinese-cooking expert, draws a distinction between versions eaten at home and those in more formal restaurants. The former has that improvisatory quality and is often a one-dish meal. “My teacher in Sichuan used to whip up a quick, casual lunch of yesterday’s rice stir-fried with morsels of homemade wind-dried sausage and other odds and ends,” Ms. Dunlop said. Fancier fried rices feature in elaborate banquets. “The authentic Yangzhou fried rice is made with expensive ingredients such as sea cucumber, crabmeat and freshwater shrimp,” she said. Ms. Dunlop’s forthcoming book “Land of Fish and Rice” has a recipe for that special-occasion rice, her favorite.  Simple or fancy, fried rice is incredibly easy. The recipes above are terrific, but you really don’t need one. Just stick to these six rules.  1. Start with cold, leftover rice. “If you start with freshly cooked hot rice there’s too much moisture, which will result in a gummy fried rice that’s likely to stick in the wok,” said Grace Young, author of “Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge.” Ideally, cook the rice a day before, then use your fingers to break up clumps before cooking.  2. Provide counterpoints. “The ingredients should contrast with the rice in texture, flavor and color, and they should be cut into delicate bite-size pieces,” said Ms. Young. It can be as simple as diced ham and scallion, or ginger, egg and peanuts.  3. Season each element. The rice should be lightly seasoned with salt and so should everything you’re adding to it. If you wait to season at the very end, the dish will taste salty rather than full-flavored.  4. Prep before you start cooking. The work of fried rice is all in the prep: Chop, measure and assemble all ingredients before you fire up the wok or skillet. Because the dish cooks from start to finish in a matter of minutes, you won’t have time to stop and slice your cabbage.  5. Infuse oil with flavor. Start by adding aromatics like garlic, ginger, shallots or chilies to the hot oil, which will then carry flavor. “Make that oil taste good,” said Mr. Kulp. “Because that’s going to permeate the dish.”  6. Don’t over-sauce. Soggy fried rice is sad. Finish with just a little something to bring it together. Ms. Young loves XO sauce. “It gives the rice a spicy, salty, sweet, rich flavor that is unbelievably decadent,” she said.
Savvy chefs are coming up with ever more creative spins on this basic dish, and you can too. Just follow these rules of thumb. Or try these recipes for fried-chicken, whole-grain and paella-style variations.