This restaurant-style Pineapple Fried Rice recipe is ready from start to finish in only 15 minutes. Learn how to make the best homemade pineapple fried rice with this quick and easy vegetarian recipe.
You are going to love this pineapple fried rice recipe, because it is surprisingly speedy to make and is more flavorful than any takeout fried rice I’ve ever ordered. Keep reading to learn how to make the best homemade vegetarian fried rice, along with useful tips to ensure that the recipe comes out perfect every single time.
Tips for Making Homemade Fried Rice
Here are a few important pointers for making the best homemade fried rice:
- Use long-grain, white rice: It cooks up fluffy and not sticky, with individual grains remaining distinct and firm. I find that Jasmine or Basmati rice gives the best consistency, fragrance, and flavor.
- Use cold, cooked rice: The key to making perfect fried rice is using leftover, refrigerated rice. This is because chilled (preferably day-old) rice will separate nicely and won’t clump together in the pan. A freshly-cooked batch of warm rice will not fry well when it hits the hot pan, and will result in mushy clumps.
- Use butter: Japanese steakhouses use a big pat of butter when they’re making fried rice for good reason. Using butter (rather than oil) makes the rice brown up perfectly and just makes everything taste so much better.
- Use a wok or large skillet: You want to use a pan that seems large for the amount of rice and other ingredients you are using. This allows the ingredients in the pan to heat up quickly and evenly. It also gives you plenty of room to toss everything together without anything falling out of the pan.
Pineapple Fried Rice Ingredients
Alright, before we get to the recipe, let’s talk ingredients. To make homemade pineapple fried rice, you will need:
- Pineapple: They add sweet, juicy bursts of flavor to this recipe. Either fresh or canned pineapple can be used.
- Butter: Again, butter just makes everything better.
- Eggs: Which add a good dose of protein, as well as flavor and texture.
- Garlic, ginger, and green onions: These three ingredients are collectively known as the holy trinity of Chinese cuisine. They are used to build a solid foundation of flavors and aromas in Chinese-style meals.
- Cooked, chilled rice: Make sure your rice has been cooked in advance and thoroughly chilled in the fridge in a sealed container. As I said before, freshly-cooked rice will not work well in this recipe.
- Yellow onions, carrots, and peas: This is the base mix of vegetables that I used to make this recipe, but feel free to substitute any other stir-fry vegetables you have on hand.
- Soy sauce: I created this recipe using traditional soy sauce, but you can use tamari if you want this recipe to be entirely gluten-free.
- Sriracha: It adds a good amount of heat without overpowering the rest of the flavors in the dish.
How to Make Pineapple Fried Rice
Full instructions are included in the recipe below. But as a brief overview, to make this pineapple fried rice recipe, simply:
- Saute the veggies & eggs: Cook the vegetables and aromatics in a bit of butter until tender. Then push them to one side of the pan and cook the eggs on the other side.
- Add the rice, pineapple, & sauces: Next, add the rice, pineapple, soy sauce, and Sriracha. Stir-fry the mixture for a couple minutes to pull all the flavors together.
- Garnish and serve: Finally, sprinkle some sliced green onions over top and serve up your rice.
That’s it! This is truly a quick and easy Asian dinner recipe that is absolutely bursting with flavor.
More Takeout-Style Recipes to Try
Interested in cooking more takeout-fakeout meals? Here are a few of my favorite takeout-style recipes on the blog:
For this Chinese Fried Rice Recipe, I recommend:
Here are a few kitchen tools that I suggest using to ensure this homemade fried rice recipe comes out perfect:
- Ultra Chef Express Food Chopper – This is one of my most-used kitchen tools. I use mine all the time to quickly chop up vegetables. I especially love using it to dice onions, because it saves me from all the tears!
- OXO Stainless Steel Scraper – I purchased a bench scraper after seeing them being used on my favorite cooking shows. It is SUCH a handy tool for scraping up and transferring chopped food from the cutting board into the pan.
If you make this Pineapple Fried Rice recipe, let me know! Leave a comment with a star rating ★ below, because I love hearing from you! ♡
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Pineapple Fried Rice
Ingredients
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a wok or a large frying pan set over medium heat. Add the onion and frozen vegetables. Cook for 4 minutes until softened.
- Stir in the garlic and ginger. Cook for a minute further until fragrant.
- Push all of the vegetables to one side of the pan. Add the eggs to the other side and scramble constantly until cooked through.
- Add the cooked rice, pineapple, soy sauce, and Sriracha to the pan. Stir-fry mixture for 2 minutes.
- Sprinkle with green onions and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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Oh yum! I love fried rice with pineapple in it!
Hi Tiana! Me too haha, thanks for commenting!