Clay Pot Rice Recipe: Cantonese Bo Jai Fan Made in Our Van

Clay pot rice, or bo jai fan (煲仔飯), is Cantonese comfort food to me. Rice cooked in a clay pot with salty, savoury things on top, and the best part: the crispy crust stuck to the bottom of the pot. In Cantonese that’s fan ziu (飯焦).

In April 2026, on our way through Tennessee, I made it in our van for the first time. We bought a clay pot at an Asian supermarket in Knoxville, and the next night I cooked it at the rest area where we were sleeping. It came out pretty good. The pot also cracked. Both of those things are in this post.

We filmed the whole cook: watch the video. The cooking starts around 47:30.

Quick facts

• What it is: Cantonese clay pot rice with Chinese sausage and salted duck egg
• Time: about an hour from start to finish
• Pot: a real clay pot (not a substitute), bought at Sunrise Supermarket in Knoxville, Tennessee
• Rice: jasmine is ideal. I used sushi rice because it was the only rice in the bag size we wanted
• The key ingredient: lard, in the sauce, on the bottom of the pot and over the top at the end
• What went wrong: the pot cracked on its first use, and one side of the crust got a little burnt

Recipe card: Chinese sausage clay pot rice (1 clay pot)

I didn’t measure everything, so where I didn’t give a number, use your eyes.

You need:

• A clay pot with a lid
• Cooking oil (for seasoning the pot)
• 3 scoops of rice (jasmine if you can; I used sushi rice)
• Hot water
• Chinese sausages: I used 2 regular lap cheong and 3 turkey and duck liver sausages (yun cheong)
• 2 salted duck eggs
• A few pieces of bok choy
• Lard (softened, so you can brush and pour it)
• 2 scallions (whites for the sauce, greens to finish)
• Shallots, cut in strips
• Ginger

For the sauce:

• About 2 teaspoons lard
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
• A splash of Shaoxing wine
• About 1 teaspoon sugar (I’d add a little more next time)

Steps:

1. Season a new pot. Soak it in water. The method we saw says at least an hour, sometimes overnight. Let it dry, then wipe it with oil inside and out, lid included, and heat it on low for about 10 to 15 minutes. Turn it off and let it cool.
2. Wash and soak the rice. Rinse it a few times until the water runs clear, then soak it for 30 minutes and let it drain.
3. Blanch the sausages and greens. Drop the Chinese sausages into boiling water, then strain them. Give the bok choy about a minute and take it out.
4. Make the sauce. In a small pan over medium-low heat, melt about 2 teaspoons of lard. Add the shallots, scallion whites and ginger and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the light soy, dark soy, Shaoxing wine and sugar, then strain it and set it aside. This is what you pour over at the end.
5. Brush lard on the bottom of the pot. I almost forgot this, and it’s the most important step. It stops the rice sticking and adds flavour.
6. Rice and hot water in. Add the rice, then hot water (not boiling, just hot) to speed things up. You only want enough to cover the rice. A little pooling is fine, but don’t go over the level of the rice. You can always add more later.
7. Bring it up on low. Start on the lowest heat and stir so it doesn’t stick. Once it’s heating up, cover it for a few minutes until the rice starts to settle and soak up the water. If it looks dry, add a little more.
8. Add the toppings. Lay the sausages on top and press them in a little, then add 2 salted duck eggs.
9. Cover, seal and simmer. Keep it on low to medium-low for about 20 to 30 minutes. I wrapped wet paper towel around the lid so the steam doesn’t escape from the sides and the hole. A clean towel works too.
10. Rotate the pot. At around 12 minutes, turn the pot a little so the heat isn’t always hitting the same spot. Check at 20 minutes and taste a little from the bottom to make sure it’s cooked through.
11. Crisp the bottom. Take the sausages and eggs out. Pour lard over the top and around the edges of the pot, twice around. Turn the heat to high and rotate the pot so each side gets about 30 to 60 seconds over the flame. You’ll hear it start to crackle.
12. Finish and serve. Slice the sausages and put them back, with the scallion greens, the bok choy and the eggs. Serve with the sauce to pour over, and mix everything in at the table, scraping up the crust.

Sausages pressed into the rice. Two salted duck eggs go in next.

Why the rice should be on the dry side

The whole point of clay pot rice is the crust. That’s why you don’t add much water. If the rice is too wet, you won’t get that nice, crunchy layer at the bottom. Not too dry either, so it still cooks through. When I tasted mine at the 20-minute mark it was a little on the wetter side, which is why the high-heat step at the end matters so much.

Brushing lard on the bottom of the pot. I almost skipped it.

Lard is the key

If you want really good flavour in this dish, lard is the key. I used it three times: in the pan for the sauce, brushed on the bottom of the pot before the rice went in, and poured around the edges at the end to crisp the bottom.

Our jar of lard had hardened, so I set it inside the still-warm clay pot after seasoning, and it melted back into liquid.

The sauce starts with shallots, scallion and ginger in a little lard.

The two sausages

I used two kinds of Chinese sausage. The regular lap cheong (臘腸), and a sausage made with turkey and duck liver, yun cheong. The liver sausage is my favourite type. It has a very deep flavour and a really nice texture, and with this rice, it was so flavourful.

The salted duck eggs were good ones: very salty, the way they’re supposed to be, with an oily yolk, which is a good sign. Honestly, they’re probably better with plain white rice, because they’re so salty. Our rice already had flavour. Still a good egg.

Picking a clay pot

We’d been looking for a clay pot for a while. At a Florida supermarket the only one in the right size wasn’t one I liked the look of, so we passed. At an H Mart in Atlanta we looked at the lids. For clay pot rice, you want a lid where the rim sits on the inside of the pot, so when you pour lard in, it flows down to the sides. If the rim is on the outside, the lard just runs off.

Picking our pot at Sunrise Supermarket in Knoxville. Some were too shallow, some too small.

The one we finally bought was at Sunrise Supermarket in Knoxville. Some of the pots there were very shallow, some were a bit too small. We picked a classic one that was a good size and pretty deep. The same store had a wok ring, so we got that too.

Our honest verdict

I’d consider this a success. The crust came out pretty good. When I scraped the bottom you could hear it crunch, and some pieces were the perfect colour, crunchy and not burnt. Spencer liked it, crust and all.

The things we did not get right:

• One side burnt. When I was rotating the pot, I left one spot over the flame too long, so it didn’t heat evenly.
• The sauce could have been a little sweeter.
• Sushi rice works, but jasmine is better. It’s a little drier in texture. We’ll use jasmine next time.
• The pot cracked. On the high-heat crisping step, we noticed a crack. It was the first use. Maybe I didn’t season it well, or we rushed it. We finished dinner in it, but we didn’t think we could reuse it, and we ended up throwing it out.

The crust. This is what you make clay pot rice for.

We had it that night with Dungeness crab from Costco, steamed in a separate pot on the side. For a first try in a van kitchen, I’m pretty happy with it.

Clay pot rice we’ve eaten elsewhere

Most of the clay pot rice in our lives isn’t mine.

My mom’s. When we were moving into the new van, my mom made clay pot rice with pork spare ribs for dinner, and of course we checked for crust on the bottom. She also found a takeout spot in New York she likes for clay pot, and we’ve had their clay pot rice with Chinese sausage and preserved meats.

My brother-in-law’s. At a family gathering he cooked clay pot rice outside on a burner made just for clay pots, the kind with fire all around the pot. He used it for the last stage, to make the rice crispy.

In Toronto. In the summer of 2025 we tried a casserole rice spot that specialises in clay pots. Rina’s salted fish and minced pork was exceptional, and mine had eel, Chinese sausage, duck and pork rib. They give you a sweet soy sauce to add, and a rice scooper so you don’t scratch the pot while you scrape up the crust. The bill came to $30. To me, clay pot rice is the ultimate comfort food. Warming and nostalgic.

Funny thing: Rina doesn’t like the crust. I don’t know why. To me, that crust is the gold.

FAQ

Do you need a clay pot to make clay pot rice?

I’ve only made it in a real clay pot, so that’s the only way I can tell you about. If you’re buying one, look for a lid with the rim on the inside, so the lard you pour in runs down the sides.

How long does clay pot rice take?

About an hour from start to finish for me, including 30 minutes of soaking the rice and about 20 to 30 minutes in the pot, plus the crisping at the end. Seasoning a new pot takes longer, so do that first.

Why did my clay pot crack?

Ours cracked on the first use, during the high-heat step. My guess was that I didn’t season it well enough, or that we rushed into using it.

More from our van kitchen: cooking dinner while driving and wok cooking outside the van. We have a whole video on this clay pot rice night, from the supermarket to the crust: watch it on YouTube.