Name: Khao Pad Saparot (ข้าวผัดสับปะรด) — Pineapple Fried Rice
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 2–3 servings
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 1 cup pineapple flesh, plus the shell (สับปะรด); 3 tbsp butter (เนย); 1 tbsp garlic (กระเทียม); 2 tbsp onion (หอมใหญ่); 100 g pork (หมู); 200 g prawns (กุ้งสด); 2 eggs (ไข่ไก่); 2 cups cold cooked rice (ข้าวหุงสุกแช่เย็น); 2 tbsp carrot, 2 tbsp peas (แครอท, ถั่วลันเตา); 2 tbsp raisins (ลูกเกด); 1 Chinese sausage (กุนเชียง); 1 tbsp curry powder (ผงกะหรี่); 3 tbsp oyster sauce, 3 tbsp fish sauce (น้ำมันหอย, น้ำปลา); 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper (น้ำตาล, เกลือ, พริกไทย); 2 tbsp spring onion (ต้นหอม); cashews and pork floss to serve (เม็ดมะม่วง, หมูหยอง)

The Fried Rice With a Built-In Bowl

ข้าวผัดสับปะรด is fried rice with a stage: the pineapple half it's served in. Every source starts the same way — halve the fruit, hollow the shell, dice the flesh — and the Kapook recipe's instruction is the practical one: "if you can't be bothered, just slice it normally and use a plate." The shell is presentation; the rice is the dish.

The flavour signature across all four sources is ผงกะหรี่, curry powder — a teaspoon to a tablespoon, enough to turn the rice gold and give it that faint sweet-spice edge, plus the sweet-salty trio of the Thai fried-rice kitchen. The cast is the fried-rice greatest hits: prawns, pork or char siu, Chinese sausage, egg, raisins, cashews, and the crown of หมูหยอง, pork floss.

The technical point every source agrees on is the finish: high heat, fast. TrueID states it outright — "crank the fire up, because there's not long to stir and the pineapple will leak water and make the rice soggy." Cold rice goes in (Kapook specifies it); hot pineapple goes in last.

The Recipe (serves 2–3 — the Kapook version)

Thai	English	Amount
สับปะรด	Pineapple (flesh + shell)	1 cup flesh
เนย	Butter	3 tbsp
กระเทียม / หอมใหญ่	Garlic / onion	1 tbsp / 2 tbsp
หมูหั่นชิ้น	Pork	100 g
กุ้งสด	Prawns	200 g
ไข่ไก่	Eggs	2
ข้าวหุงสุกแช่เย็น	Cold cooked rice	2 cups
แครอท / ถั่วลันเตา	Carrot / peas	2 tbsp each
ลูกเกด	Raisins	2 tbsp
กุนเชียง	Chinese sausage	1
ผงกะหรี่	Curry powder	1 tbsp
น้ำมันหอย / น้ำปลา	Oyster sauce / fish sauce	3 tbsp each
น้ำตาลทราย	Sugar	1 tbsp
เม็ดมะม่วงหิมพานต์ / หมูหยอง	Cashews / pork floss	½ cup / 3 tbsp

Phol Food Mafia's baked version: rice with char siu and no egg, filled into the shell and baked 200°C for 5 minutes. TrueID's version adds ham and mixed vegetables to the cast.

The Method

The bowl. Halve the pineapple, hollow the shell, dice the flesh.
The base. Butter melted, garlic and onion to fragrance, then pork, prawns and sliced Chinese sausage.
Egg and rice. Eggs in, then the cold rice and vegetables — everything stirred through.
Season high. Curry powder, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, salt, pepper — high fire, fast, so the pineapple never waters the rice.
The finish. Pineapple and raisins folded through; into the shell, cashews and pork floss on top, spring onion last.

Where Thai Sources Disagree

Butter or oil. Kapook and TrueID fry in butter — Kapook's reason is blunt: "butter makes the fried rice much more fragrant." Phol and the Cookpad version use oil. The butter version is the restaurant flourish.

Baked or not. Phol's version is a ข้าวอบ — fried, then filled into the shell and baked at 200°C for five minutes, his "extravagant touch." The others serve straight from the wok into the shell, unbaked.

The meat cast. Prawns in every source; then pork (Kapook), char siu (Phol), or Chinese sausage plus ham (TrueID). The sausage is the constant luxury ingredient.

Egg. Kapook and TrueID fry eggs into the rice; Phol and Cookpad leave them out. The egg versions are richer and the grains separate better.

Pork floss. Kapook, Cookpad and TrueID crown the rice with หมูหยอง; Phol finishes with fried shallot and coriander instead. The floss is the Thai fried-rice signature garnish.

How Western Versions Get It Wrong

Leaving out the curry powder. The golden colour and the sweet-spice note are the dish's signature. Plain rice with pineapple chunks is not this dish.
Hot, fresh rice. The sources specify cold rice. Fresh rice steams and clumps in the wok.
Stewing the pineapple. It goes in last, on high heat. Cooked long, it waters the rice into a pudding.
Fruit salad treatment. No sultanas-and-mayo approach — the fruit element is pineapple and raisins, and the rice stays savoury-sweet, never dessert.
Skipping the garnish. Pork floss and cashews are the textural finish. Plain rice in a pineapple shell is half the dish.

UK Ingredient Notes

Pineapple: a small sweet one; the shell halves are the serving bowls.
Chinese sausage (กุนเชียง): Chinese grocers — the red cured links; fry the slices first.
Pork floss (หมูหยอง): Thai grocers sell tubs; it's the fluffy dried pork garnish.
Curry powder: standard Madras works; the sources don't fuss over the blend.
Leftover rice from the day before is ideal — the wok needs it dry.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.

1. Kapook — "ข้าวผัดสับปะรด สูตรสีสวยอร่อยครบเครื่องพ่วงประโยชน์" (the recipe used here) — cooking.kapook.com

2. Phol Food Mafia (พล ตัณฑเสถียร) — "Pineapple Baked Rice (ข้าวอบสับปะรด)" (the baked-in-the-shell version) — pholfoodmafia.com

3. TrueID — "สูตรทำ ข้าวผัดสับปะรด เมนูข้าวมิคกี้เมาส์" (the ham-and-mixed-veg version + the high-fire tip) — food.trueid.net

4. Cookpad (tanyarak-maeploy) — "สูตร ข้าวผัดสับปะรด" (the oil-based home version) — cookpad.com

Johnny Tiger

Johnny researches and translates Thai recipes from Thai-language sources — chefs, restaurants and home cooks in Thailand — and publishes them with their sources cited. No westernised shortcuts, no invented steps.