Pineapple Fried Rice

Published May 11, 2020

I was thrilled that my favorite Chinese food restaurant reopened for delivery this week. I had been craving Chinese food, but every restaurant within 15 miles was closed due to the pandemic. Thus, with the local restaurant’s reopening, we ordered entrees for dinner, with sides of brown rice.

We finished our entrees easily, but that meant we were left with containers of plain brown rice. I didn’t want to waste the rice, so I browsed my fridge, looking for ingredients to make a recipe.

I was reminded that I wanted to try to make fried rice. When I thought about it longer — I realized I could make one of the side dishes that I order from my favorite Thai restaurant — pineapple fried rice.

Ingredients for Pineapple Fried Rice

The pineapple fried rice that I order at Khao Tip is packed with vegetables. It depends on the chef and the weeknight, but the vegetables could include bok choy, green beans, broccoli, and squash, in addition to the normal carrots, onions, and pineapple. You can add chicken or shrimp to the rice. I normally don’t, as I think the vegetables are the best part.

My favorite ingredients in this dish are the cashews, pineapple, and raisins. I knew if I was making this recipe, that I needed to get those ingredients. Thus, I ventured to my local market and bought pre-cleaned pineapple, unsalted cashews (you can also use raw cashews), and a bag of mixed raisins.

Tools for Preparing Pineapple Fried Rice

I used a wok for this dish. A large sauté pan will also work. Other tools you will need include:

• Peeler and grater for the ginger

• Cutting board and knife

• Measuring cups

• Tons of bowls (for each ingredient)

• Fork/whisk and separate pan (for scrambling the eggs)

• Wooden spoon or spatula (for stirring your rice)

• Peanut oil* — Allows you to cook at higher temperatures without burning. You can see in my recipe that I start out with a generous amount. This is fine. As more ingredients are added, the oil will be evenly distributed and last for the entire cooking process.

How to Make Pineapple Fried Rice

Ingredient Prep

Getting all of your ingredients ready is going to take the most amount of time. I made sure to have all of my ingredients measured and laid out before I turned on my wok.

You can cut your carrots, scallions, peppers, and pineapple in advance and keep in your fridge. As I mentioned in my last post, I would not cut the onion in advance, as it can pick up flavors from your fridge.

To save time, you can also use pre-cut onion (it comes frozen in a bag), or canned pineapple. However, I would note whether the canned pineapple is in syrup or not. Try to avoid the syrup as you don’t want too much sweetness added to the dish.

I also used my homegrown bell peppers in this dish. I already cleaned the peppers from last season and froze them. Thus, I chopped them when they were still frozen and cooked to thaw and ta-da! Just like fresh peppers.

The rice in this dish should also be cooked and chilled in advance. From my research all fried rice and pineapple fried rice specified this. This is because cooking with freshly prepared rice can turn into mush if you continue cooking with it. Allowing it to chill overnight helps to dry out the rice and give you the distinct grain texture.

Cooking Notes | Pineapple Fried Rice Sauce

I will note, that this is a recipe of my own creation, which means it has opportunity to improve. The pineapple fried rice that I get at Khao Tip has a yellow-color to it. I wonder if they add curry or some other seasoning to give it its distinct flavor. It also uses Thai basil, which is amazing.

My philosophy with cooking is that if you use great ingredients, the dish won’t be terrible. In this case, all of my ingredients shined in their own way. A composed bite with juicy pineapple, crunchy cashews, and sweet raisins made for a tasty dinner.

However, I would’ve liked to have as bold of a flavor as Khao Tip’s rice. I tasted my rice as I cooked and thought about adding more soy sauce, but I worried about making the dish too salty.

Thus, here are my recommendations to you:

1. The rice has a better flavor the next day, after being refrigerated

2. Taste your rice before adding the egg. If you think it needs more of an ingredient, add a 1/2-1 tsp more of ginger, soy, scallion, or sesame oil at a time, until you like its flavor

3. Add more toppings individually to your serving

I added some more sauce and ginger to my own bowl of rice, to help give it a bolder flavor. That way I didn’t impact the entire dish, but I still had the flavor I was looking for.

Again, the above recipe was great, and it was a hit with my family. But for my own preferences, I would’ve liked to taste more ginger and stronger seasoning with the rice. Feel free to tweak the sauce to your preferences and add flavors that you like. The above recipe is a baseline to get you started.

The Final Product

I served my pineapple fried rice immediately. I sprinkled a pinch of salt and a dash of freshly chopped scallions. If you’ve adjusted your sauce when cooking, be mindful of any extra toppings you add, which might change your flavor.

4 cups of rice is a lot, so I had enough pineapple fried rice for 4 dinner portions and lunch for two days. I enjoyed the rice the second day, since chilling in the fridge helped develop its flavor.

If you are going to cut the amount of rice you use, consider using 1/4 or 1/2 c. measurements of your vegetables.

Recipe Score

I would give my pineapple fried rice a 8/10 for the following:

• Recipe Level

  • Easy: Most of the cooking process is preparing your ingredients and constantly stirring your vegetables so they don’t brown or burn. This recipe is easy to customize and make your own, so there’s no “wrong” way to cook this.

• Ingredients

  • Some of these seasonings and ingredients will require a trip to the market. I don’t always have fresh ginger or sesame oil at home. As for the vegetables, feel free to substitute what you have in your fridge, or add in your favorites like broccoli, beans, and leafy greens.

• Prep

  • As I mentioned in my tortellini escarole soup recipe, you will spend most of your cooking time chopping your vegetables. If you want to save some time on your prep, you can cut your vegetables in advance. That way, all of you have to do is add everything into the pot.

    
    If you’re going to use pre-chopped, frozen veggies, your cooking times will change, because you have to cook off the water from the vegetables.

• Flavor

  • 8/10: This recipe is so close to my favorite Thai dish. The next time I cook this, I will make sure that I add Thai basil, and find out what yellow seasoning Khao Tip uses for that distinct flavor.
    
    Overall, I’m thrilled with how it turned out. It was an easy dish to pull together, reusing leftover rice, and loaded with vegetables!

K. Martinelli Makes Pineapple Fried Rice

Thanks for Watching!

Have you made pineapple fried rice? Do you have another rice dish you like to cook? Tell me about it in the comments below, or click here to browse my other entree recipes.