Chicken Pineapple Fried Rice. Flavor packed chicken fried rice with juicy pineapple chunks! Ready in 30 minutes with leftover rice.
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If you have leftover rice this is the perfect rice recipe for a busy weeknight meal that is ready in 30 minutes. The delicious flavor from the sweet pineapple balances out the savory chicken. It's a family favorite that comes together with simple ingredients.
This is one of those great recipe ideas that serves well as a complete meal, main dish or side dish with some tasty protein and vegetables. A great way to use up any leftover ingredients sitting in the fridge.
Chicken Pineapple Fried Rice is a popular Thai food. There is belief that the dish came from the Chinese people in Thailand. Thai people have their own way of enjoying this dish and it can come in different varieties depending on the ingredients at the Thai restaurant.
Pineapple is a wonderful ingredient that is used in many Thai dishes for its sweet flavor that offers a tropical twist! It's a tasty fruit that is also rich in bromelain which is a natural digestive enzyme!
Ingredients
Please scroll down to below recipe card for exact measurements.Â
- Leftover day-old rice: Ideally Jasmine rice rice works the best for this Thai pineapple fried rice. Or substitute with any long grain white rice or brown rice. I suggest cooking the rice the night before. I use a rice cooker but you can cook it how you would normally do. Then spread hot rice on a baking sheet to cool in the fridge, uncovered. On the day of cooking, break the rice up with your hands before frying.
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs: or substitute with chicken breast.
- Fresh whole pineapple or canned pineapple pieces: If you're using canned pineapple, get the kind that's already diced. If you're using fresh, make sure it's a ripe pineapple. The pineapple should be mostly yellow with some green marbling through it. If it's all green, it's not ripe yet. You can also check by smelling the fruit, if it's ripe it will smell sweet versus a non-ripe one.
- Frozen mixed vegetables: such as peas, diced carrots, corn niblets and green beans. You can really substitute with any vegetable you'd like, like broccoli, red bell pepper, etc. Just make sure they're cut up into small pieces.
- Onion: yellow onion or white onion or substitute with green onions.
- Fresh Garlic: the jarred kind works too or substitute with garlic powder.
- Regular soy sauce: or substitute with low sodium soy sauce or light soy sauce. If you’re gluten-free, substitute with tamari sauce, coconut aminos or a gluten-free soy sauce of your choice.Â
- Fish sauce: To give this rice dish an umami flavor or substitute with a bit of oyster sauce.
- Black pepper: Or substitute with white pepper.
- Neutral oil:Â like avocado oil, sunflower oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil or canola oil with a high smoke point. Avoid olive oil or any heavy scented oils with a low smoke point.
Chicken Marinade
- Regular soy sauce
- Cornstarch: to help add moisture to the chicken
- Sesame oil: to flavor and moisten the chicken.
- Baking soda: to help tenderize the meat
Optional mix-ins
- Scrambled eggs
- Red pepper powder for a spicy version
- Chili oil or Chili garlic sauce to make it spicy
Note: Most Asian grocery stores will carry most of the Asian specific ingredients.
How to Make Pineapple Chicken Fried Rice
- Break up day old rice with clean hands. Set aside.
- Pat dry chicken thighs with paper towels and slice thinly. Transfer chicken to a medium bowl. Season chicken with marinade ingredients as listed, mix well and set aside to marinate for 10 minutes.
- In a hot wok or non-stick large skillet set on medium-high heat, add vegetable oil. Once oil is hot, add in sliced chicken and cook through. Remove chicken and set aside.
- Next sauté garlic and onions until fragrant. Add veggies and diced pineapples into empty space and cook for 3-4 minutes, evaporating any liquids in the pan caramelizing the pineapples. Sweep everything to the side of the pan.
- Add in rice into the empty space with regular soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and black pepper and toss everything together.
- Toss back in cooked chicken. Serve hot and enjoy!
Storage & Reheating
Leftovers will last up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. To reheat, microwave for 2-3 minutes until hot or reheat in a pan on medium heat.
FAQ
This is a long debated question as some cooks will tell you to use day old rice and some that work at the restaurant will say to use fresh rice. But I find that day old rice works best to create fluffy rice with separated grains. If you use fresh rice, it will likely clump together and stick to your wok, if you're not using super high heat so I would suggest either smoking the hot wok until it becomes non stick or use a non-stick skillet.
If you're using fresh rice, my tip is to actually spread the cooked rice with oiled hands on a baking sheet to cool down. Then pop it into the freezer uncovered for 60 minutes. This will help dry out the rice and you can fry it the same day versus waiting to fry it next day. This is one the most important tips when it comes to making great fried rice with fresh rice in my opinion.
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📖 Recipe
Quick & Easy Chicken Pineapple Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked jasmine rice day-old ideally (to dry out freshly cooked rice see blog post in FAQ section)
- ½ lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables peas, carrots, corn and green beans, rinse with warm water and drain
- 1 cup pineapple diced, fresh or canned can be used
- ½ small onion or white onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1.5 tablespoon regular soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce or sub with oyster sauce
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil or any neutral oil for cooking
Chicken Marinade:
- 2 teaspoon regular soy sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil optional
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ¼ tsp baking soda do not skip as this helps tenderize the meat
Instructions
- Break up day old rice with clean hands. Set aside.
- Pat dry chicken thighs with paper towels and slice thinly. Transfer chicken to a medium bowl. Season chicken with marinade ingredients as listed, mix well and set aside to marinate for 10 minutes.
- In a hot wok or non-stick large skillet set on medium-high heat, add vegetable oil. Once oil is hot, add in sliced chicken and cook through. Remove chicken and set aside.
- Next sauté garlic and onions until fragrant. Add veggies and diced pineapples into empty space and cook for 3-4 minutes, evaporating any liquids in the pan caramelizing the pineapples. Sweep everything to the side of the pan.
- Add in rice into the empty space with regular soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and black pepper and toss everything together.
- Toss back in cooked chicken. Serve hot and enjoy!
Tasia ~ two sugar bugs
I made this for dinner a few weeks ago. SO yummy!! I did sub the chicken with pork, but otherwise followed the recipe. My whole family loved it!
Linda
This was so delicious! I found this recipe off Pinterest and I was so happy with how it turned out.
Leesa
What is the serving size?
christieathome
This serves about 4 people and serving sizes can be found in my Recipe card under the Description.
Michael
4 people? I just made this, and I think if it was 4 teenagers on sports teams maybe! Super delicious, and lots of leftovers! Going to add eggs next time because I love that in fried rice. Also may do a half recipe to better fit my wok to get a better crisping.
christieathome
Thank you so much for making my recipe, Michael! I'm so glad you enjoyed it and I appreciate the kind review 🙂 Hahaha! This cracked me up! I like to over estimate the portions sizes a bit more as I never want to mislead my readers in case they were expecting more.
Heidi | The Frugal Girls
The pineapple gives your fried rice such a fun tropical twist. If I don't make it to Hawaii, this would be the next best thing!
Heather
This recipe was delicious! And super easy to put together. This one is definitely a keeper for me. I've already shared it with someone else.
christieathome
I am so happy to read this, Heather! Thanks for making my recipe and glad it's a keeper! I appreciate you sharing my recipe 🙂