Khao Pad Sapparod, also known as Thai Pineapple Fried Rice, is a traditional side dish often served tossed with plump and juicy prawns or shrimp.
Learn how to make traditional Khao Pad Sapparod at home, your favourite Thai takeout fried rice!
We’ve traveled extensively through Thailand and eaten at all of the best Thai restaurants in Toronto. We’ve taken Thai cooking classes in Chang Mai and learned expert cooking techniques courtesy of the executive chef at JW Marriott Phuket Resort.
Our fried rice recipe is served out of a pineapple and features flavourful ingredients like shrimp, soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, curry powder, eggs, garlic, ginger, Thai red chili, carrots, cashews, green onions and cilantro.
Cooking Thai food at home is quick and easy. Our restaurant-style Khao Pad recipe takes under 30 minutes to make and keeps in the fridge for several days. You’ll love loitering over these flavourful Thai Fried Rice leftovers!
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What Is Khao Pad Sapparod?
Khao Pad, also known as Kao Pad in Thailand, translates to “fried rice,” in Thai. Khao means rice and Pad means stir fry.
Sapparod translates to pineapple in Thai, so Khao Pad Sapparod or Kao Pad Sapparod means “Thai Pineapple Fried Rice.”
The popular dish can be found across Thailand, from bustling food markets, to street food stalls and award winning fine dining restaurants.
Authentic Khao Pad Sapparod is prepared with day old jasmine rice, fresh pineapple, shrimp or prawns, scrambled eggs, curry powder, selection of Asian sauces and chopped vegetables.
Because the fried rice dish features plenty of fresh vegetables and seafood, it can be enjoyed as a meal on it’s own, or a starchy side dish as part of a larger Thai feast.
Travel to Thailand by Cooking Khao Pad Sapparod at Home
I love traveling through Asia.
My first visit had me living in South Korea for a year as a teacher and it’s where I was first introduced to fermented vegetables like kimchi.
After my contract ended in Seoul I travelled throughout southeast Asia for 6 months, visiting the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.
On my first visit I spent over a month backpacking through Thailand. I’ve revisited Thailand two times since as a food and travel journalist and always love to discover new regional dishes. Over the years I’ve explored Thai destinations such as Ko Phi Phi, Krabi, Chiang Khong, Chang Mai, Sukothai and Bangkok.
What I found most fascinating is Thailand’s distinct regional food cultures. Much like the regional cuisines found in Germany, Italy or Spain, each town in Thailand had its own local speciality.
Khao Pad Sapparod is most often found in southern Thailand and popularly enjoyed by tourists on beach and island resorts near the border of Malaysia and Langkawi. Southern Thailand is a hot tropical region where fruits like pineapple grow. Fresh shrimp and prawns are also often the catch of that day by local fishermen.
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Where To Eat Thai Pineapple Fried Rice
If you live in a large city in Canada or America you’ll likely have access to a local Thai restaurant that serves traditionalKhao PadSapparod.
Haven’t traveled to Thailand before? It may be helpful to first sampleKhao Pad at a local Thai restaurant to better understand how the dish is served. You can assess the variety of ingredients used in the beautifully presented stir fried rice and ideal salads and curries to serve alongside the Thai rice dish.
I spent months researching the best Thai restaurants in Toronto, visiting popular restaurants that serve authentic Thai dishes such as Sabai Sabai, Sukothai, Khao San Road, Pai, Kiin, Bangkok Garden, Mengrai Thai and Favorites Thai BBQ. If you’re looking to sample authenticKhao Pad in Toronto try visiting one of these award-winning restaurants.
ThaiPineapple Fried Rice Health Benefits
Our easyKhao Pad Sapparod recipe is packed full of healthy ingredients!
Eggs contain two vital nutrients that are not present in many foods: iodine and vitamin D. Eggs are also rich in tissue-building protein and vitamin B12, which helps your body manufacture blood cells.
It is only recently that scientists have begun to identify the components responsible for garlic’s myriad health benefits. Rich in phytochemicals and potassium, garlic helps boost your immune system, fight cancer and protect your heart.
Scallions are a humble vegetable packed with vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Regular consumption of onions can help boost digestive health and reduce the risk of developing heart disease.
Ginger contains at least 14 phytochemicals, many of which have impressive antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It also has a good source of copper, which supports your bones, blood and nervous system.
An excellent source of vitamin A and the phytochemical beta-carotene, carrots help keep your eyes and bones healthy, and may help protect against several types of cancer.
Pineapple features vitamins and minerals that are known to help shorten viral and bacterial infections and strengthen bones. There’s also evidence that the tropical fruit may help prevent cancer and help fertility by improving the quality of sperm.
Seafood is a high-protein food that is low in calories, total fat, and saturated fat. High in vitamins and minerals, seafood has been shown to have numerous health benefits including decreasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, obesity, and hypertension.
Cashews are low in sugar and rich in fibre, heart-healthy fats, and plant protein. They’re also a good source of copper, magnesium, and manganese — nutrients important for energy production, brain health, immunity, and bone health.
Nearly 50% of the people in the world get over 50% of their daily calories from rice. If eating brown rice featuring nutritious bran you’ll enjoy health benefits like cancer risk reduction and diabetes control.
Chili has been proven to help reduce the duration of sickness, prevent heart disease, and promote weight loss.
A good source of bone-strengthening vitamin K, cilantro is also rich in antioxidants that help protect the eyes from damage by free radicals.
Khao PadSapparod Cooking Tips
This yummy homemade Thai fried rice is quick and easy to make at home. We’ve included a few tips for first time Thai cooks!
- We suggest using a large wok to prepare Khao Pad Sapparod as this is the traditional way Thai cooks prepare the dish in restaurants. It allows for even cooking and a larger surface area for stir frying than a basic skillet.
- We suggest using tail-on shrimp (or prawns) as they add beauty to the dish. When cooking shrimp with the shell on you also impart some of the yummy seafood flavour into the rice.
- We’ve used a selection of Asian sauces to flavour the Khao Pad: soy sauce, fish sauce and oyster sauce. Many authentic Khao Pad Sapparod recipes also include shrimp paste, which we suggest you add if you like a stronger seafood flavour.
- We’ve used brown sugar in this recipe but in Thailand they more often use palm sugar, which we suggest substituting if you can’t find it at your local Asian supermarket.
- We’ve used a fresh pineapple in this recipe. The fruit is scooped out from the interior and the leftover “pineapple bowl,” is then used as the serving dish for the fried rice. If you don’t have access to fresh pineapple feel free to purchase canned pineapple and serve the dish out of a large serving bowl or casserole dish instead.
- Some Khao Pad Sapparod recipes also include raisins, which you can sprinkle on top of the dish if you’re a fan of dried fruit.
- In many Thai restaurants they serve this popular Khao Pad recipe with thinly sliced tomatoes and cucumbers.
What To Serve with HomemadeKhao Pad
Thai Fried Rice is typically enjoyed as a side dish at a large feast or main course as a lighter lunch option.
If you’re hosting a large Thai dinner party, we suggest pairing homemadeKhao PadSapparod with Thai Red Curry Prawn Burger, Thai Pork Rib Soup with Vermicelli Noodles, Egg Tofu Soup with Pork Meatballs, Grabong Northern Thai Pumpkin Fritter, Gai Pad Med Mamuang Thai Cashew Chicken, Gaeng Massaman Curry, Nam Tok Authentic Thai “Waterfall Beef” Salad, Gaeng Keow Wan Thai Green Curry Chicken, Thai Pork & Beef Mince Curry Khua Kling, Authentic Chiang Mai Noodles “Khao Soi”, Easy Pad Kra Pao Thai Basil Stir-Fry, Barbecued Thai Red Prawn Curry and Thai Beef and Pumpkin Curry.
The fried rice keeps well in the fridge for 2-3 days so store it in an airtight container and enjoy as leftovers.
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How To Make Restaurant-Style Khao Pad Sapparod
Khao Pad Sapparod Thai Shrimp Pineapple Fried Rice
Equipment
- Wok
- measuring cups
- Measurign Spoons
- French knife
- mixing bowl
- Spatula or Wooden Spoon
Ingredients
- 10 oz Shrimp peeled and deveined
- 3 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1/4 tsp White pepper
- 1 tbsp Fish sauce
- 1 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp Brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp Curry powder
- 1 cup Pineapple
- 5 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 3 Eggs beaten
- 5 Garlic cloves minced
- 1/2 tsp Ginger minced
- 2 Red Thai Chili
- 2 oz Carrot diced
- 1/4 cup Cashews
- 4 cups Jasmine rice day old cooked and cold
- 2 Green onions chopped
- Cilantro garnish
Instructions
- Combine shrimp, 1 tsp soy sauce and 1/8 tsp white pepper in a medium mixing bowl and let it marinate while prepping remaining ingredients.
- Combine remaining white pepper, 2 tbsp soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar and curry powder in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Cut pineapple in half, lengthwise, leaving stem intact. Give slits around perimeters. Score flesh of pineapple without cutting through skin. Scoop chunks out with a spoon and reserve 1 cup of pineapple and cut them into small bite-sized chunks.
- Heat a large wok over high heat and add 1 tbsp cooking oil. Pour beaten eggs into hot wok and scramble the egg to cook evenly. Remove egg from wok and set aside.
- Heat empty wok over high heat, add 1 tbsp oil and marinated shrimp. Sear and cook shrimp 2 to 3 minutes. Remove cooked shrimp from wok and set aside.
- Heat empty wok over high heat, add 3 tbsp oil, garlic, ginger and Thai chili. Stir fry 30 to 45 second. Add diced carrot and cashews. Stir fry 30 seconds, then add rice and sauce mixture. Stir fry everything together until rice is coated with sauce, about 1 minute.
- Add pineapple chunks and mix. Add shrimp, fried egg and green onions. Break down egg into rice and keep stir frying until shrimp is fully cooked and reheated, approximately 2 minutes.
- Transfer pineapple fried rice into pineapple bowl and garnish with chopped cilantro.
Nutrition
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