How to Make Pineapple Fried Rice 🍍

From the backyard to the plate, this Pineapple Fried Rice is one of my favorite ways to turn garden harvest into a family meal. It is sweet, savory, and it comes together in one pan.

This is a weeknight dish in my house. Four kids, one pan, no negotiating.

Fried rice is really a leftovers dish. Use rice you already cooked instead of cooking a fresh pot for it.

The pineapple is what makes it ours. Sweet against the salt of the soy sauce, or the Maggi if you grew up the way I grew up.

What makes this one work

• Day old rice has dried out just enough that the grains stay separate in the pan instead of clumping into paste.
• Everything cooks in one pan, in order. Protein out, eggs, aromatics, rice, then it all goes back in. Nothing sits around getting cold.
• Sweet and salty at the same time. The pineapple adds sweetness and the soy sauce adds salt.
• The pineapple goes in late. That is what keeps it as chunks you can see instead of fruit that fell apart into the rice.
• It works with whatever you have. Chicken, shrimp, or no meat at all. Peas, carrots, whatever is in the freezer drawer.

What You Need

The base

• 2 cups cooked rice. Day old rice works best. Cold and dry is what you want
• 1 fresh pineapple, cut into chunks, or 1 can, drained and rinsed. Rinsing the canned kind takes off some of that syrup

The protein and the eggs

• 2 chicken breasts. Shrimp works, or keep it veggie and leave the meat out
• 2 eggs. They cook in the same pan

The vegetables and aromatics

• 1 cup mixed vegetables. Peas, carrots, or whatever you like. Frozen is fine
• 3 green onions, chopped. Save a few of the green tops for the top of the bowl
• 2 cloves garlic, minced. Mince it, do not slice it. It needs to spread through the rice

The seasoning

• 2 tbsp soy sauce, or a Haitian Maggi cube dissolved in water. Both get you there
• 1 tbsp oil for cooking. Something with a high smoke point, the pan is going to be hot
• Salt and pepper to taste. Taste at the end. The soy sauce and the Maggi both bring salt already

How I Made It

1. Prep the pineapple

Slice and dice the pineapple into bite sized chunks. Set it aside.

Do this first so it is ready. Once the pan is going, there is no time to stop and cut fruit.

2. Cook the protein

In a large pan or wok, heat the oil. Add the chicken, or the shrimp, season it lightly, and cook it through.

Remove it and set it aside. It goes back in later.

3. Scramble the eggs

In the same pan, scramble the eggs quickly, then push them over to one side.

Same pan. Do not wash it. The browned bits the chicken left behind add flavor.

4. Add the aromatics

Toss in the garlic, the green onions and the mixed vegetables. Stir until fragrant.

You will smell the garlic before you see anything change. Keep stirring so it does not burn.

5. Fry the rice

Add the rice, breaking up the clumps as you go. Stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes.

Press the clumps against the side of the pan with your spoon. Cold rice separates instead of clumping.

6. Bring it together

Add the pineapple chunks and the cooked chicken back to the pan.

Pineapple goes in late on purpose. You want the chunks to hold their shape, not fall apart into the rice.

7. Season

Pour in the soy sauce, or the Maggi mix, stir everything together, and cook another 2 to 3 minutes.

Pour it around the edge of the pan instead of straight into the middle. It spreads better that way.

8. Finish

Taste it, adjust the seasoning, and serve it hot.

Taste before you reach for the salt. Between the soy sauce and the seasoned chicken there is usually enough in there already.

Use what is in the house

• Shrimp instead of chicken. It cooks faster, so watch it. Same step, same pan.
• Keep it veggie. Skip the meat entirely. The eggs and the pineapple carry it.
• Canned pineapple. Drain it and rinse it. Fresh is better, but canned works fine on a busy night.
• Maggi instead of soy sauce. Dissolve the cube in water first so it spreads even.
• No green onions? A little regular onion in with the garlic. You just lose the green on top.
• Whatever vegetables you have. Peas and carrots are the usual, but any mixed bag from the freezer works.

The next day

Cool it down first, then it keeps in the fridge 3 to 4 days in a covered container.

Reheat it in a hot pan, not the microwave if you can help it. A splash of water and a minute of stirring brings it back much closer to how it started.

It freezes about 2 months. The pineapple softens a little after freezing, so know that going in.

The one question I get every single time

What is Maggi? It is a seasoning cube a lot of Haitian kitchens keep on hand. Dissolve it in water and it stands in for the soy sauce. If you did not grow up with it, soy sauce is fine and nobody at your table will know. If you did grow up with it, you already have three in the cabinet.