It’s always a good time to share easy, delicious 30-minute meals and this incredible pineapple chicken stir fry is one of those meals. As you know, I always aim to bring you plenty of nourishing, veggie and protein-packed meals that you and the whole family can feel good about.
This pineapple broccoli chicken stir fry comes together super quickly and is packed with a rainbow of veggies. Pineapple adds a burst of sweetness in every bite paired with savory chicken and crisp vegetables like broccoli and bell pepper.
Plus, you’re going to go crazy for the flavorful sauce that reminds me of the sweet and sour chicken we used to get for takeout growing up. It’s slightly tangy with hints of sweetness from honey and a little brown sugar. You’re going to LOVE it.
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Skip your weekly takeout and give this stir fry recipe a try. Pair it with your favorite grains (might I suggest my coconut rice?!) You’ll seriously make it again and again!
Ingredients in this pineapple chicken stir fry
This incredible pineapple broccoli chicken stir fry is packed with rainbow veggies, plenty of protein and an addicting sauce that will remind you of sweet and sour chicken. Here’s everything you’ll need to make it:
- For the sauce: to get those wonderful sweet and tangy flavors you’ll need low sodium soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar (or coconut sugar), honey, garlic, ginger and some arrowroot or cornstarch. Feel free to whisk in some sesame seeds if you’d like!
- For the stir fry: we’re cooking up chicken, red bell pepper, red onion, broccoli and fresh pineapple (no canned pineapple chunks here!)
- To serve: I recommend serving this stir fry with rice (my coconut rice would be perfect), quinoa or even cauliflower rice for a full meal. I also like to garnish it with green onion!
Don’t forget these pineapple tips
If you’re using fresh pineapple, be sure to check out our best tips & tricks for cutting a pineapple here! You’ll want nice, even chunks of pineapple in the stir fry. Feel free to use frozen pineapple as well.
Make this stir fry your own
Looking to customize this sweet and sour chicken stir fry? Here’s what I can recommend:
- Choose your produce: I think green beans, zucchini, or snap peas would also be delicious. Out of pineapple? Try mango!
- Try a new protein: I used boneless skinless chicken breast but you could also use chicken thighs, ground chicken, or even shrimp or salmon!
- Make it vegetarian: simply swap the chicken for tofu or chickpeas.
- Add a kick of heat: try adding a little cayenne pepper to the sauce or top your bowl with some red pepper flakes.
Sweet and sour chicken stir fry in 30 minutes
That’s right, this incredible stir fry recipe comes together in just a half-hour and makes the best meal prep dinner!
- Make the sauce. Start by whisking together all of the ingredients for the sauce until it’s well combined.
- Cook the chicken. Add some toasted sesame oil to a large skillet and cook the cubed chicken completely. Then set it aside.
- Cook the veggies. Next, add all of the veggies to your pan and cook them until the broccoli is slightly tender but still crisp.
- Stir fry it together. Add the chicken back to the pan with the pineapple, then pour in the sauce and simmer everything together for a few minutes. Serve it up with your fav grains!
Store it for later
Store any leftover stir fry in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days. Simply reheat in a microwave safe dish.
The perfect meal prep dinner
Easily meal prep this pineapple broccoli chicken stir fry for the week by adding 1/4 of the stir fry (chicken + veggies in the sauce) with about 1 cup of your favorite grain to a glass meal prep containers. This recipe will make 4 servings, which is perfect for weekday lunches! Simply reheat in the microwave before enjoying.
More 30 minute meals you’ll love
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Get all of our delicious 30 minute meals here!
I hope you love this sweet and sour pineapple broccoli chicken stir fry! If you make it be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it. Enjoy, xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Ingredients
- For the sauce:
- ⅓ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar (or sub coconut sugar)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
- ½ tablespoon arrowroot starch (or cornstarch)
- For the stir fry:
- 1 tablespoon toasted or regular sesame oil, divided
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, diced into ½ inch chunks
- 1 large red bell pepper, chopped into large chunks
- 1 small red onion, chopped into large chunks
- 1 head broccoli, cut into florets (about 4 cups broccoli florets
- 1 cup fresh or frozen pineapple chunks
- For serving:
- Cooked brown or coconut rice, for serving
- Chopped fresh scallions, for topping
Instructions
- First make your stir fry sauce: in a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, water, rice wine vinegar, honey, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and arrowroot starch (or cornstarch). Set aside.
- Add 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil to a deep skillet and place over medium heat. Add diced chicken breast and cook until no longer pink, about 5-8 minutes. Once cooked, transfer meat to a bowl and set aside. Keep the heat in the pan.
- In the same pan, add the remaining ½ tablespoon sesame oil. Add in bell pepper chunks, onion chunks and broccoli. Cook, stirring frequently for 5-8 minutes until broccoli is slightly tender but still has a bite. Stir in pineapple and cooked chicken breast. Pour sauce over and bring to a slight simmer then reduce heat to low and cook for an additional 2-4 minutes until sauce begins to thicken.
- Serve with brown rice, coconut rice or quinoa for a healthy dinner. Garnish with scallions. Serves 4.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on September 13th, 2021, and republished on April 19th, 2023.
56 comments
recipe calls for 3 T water …. does not say when to add ???
Oops! Sorry about that. It should be added with the other sauce ingredients in step 1. We’ll update this!
Can I use rice vinegar in place of rice wine vinegar?
Yes, absolutely! Hope you enjoy this 🙂
I saw the recipe and immediately had to make it! It is so tasty and I’m sure the leftovers will be even better.
Yay!! So happy you tried it right away and loved it!
Had to try this recipe the minute you posted! Loved the easy prep and all the colorful veggies! Thank you for making your recipes easy to follow and execute.
The stir fry sauce was so silky and delicious! Defenitely a recipe easy to repeat and vary with vegetables and meats.
Oh yay! So happy you tried and loved it, Jennifer 🙂 Aren’t the flavors amazing?!
Hi Monique! I’m making this for dinner tonight and was just wondering if the pineapple should be thawed first if using frozen chunks? Thanks!
Sorry if this is late! You can thaw them first if you want to, or just let them heat through in the pan 🙂
I don’t eat chicken, but think this would be just as good with shrimp wouldnt it?
Absolutely, it would be amazing!
THIS IS SO SO GOOD. Like other reviewers, I had to make it as soon as I saw it posted. After a bit of prep work, everything came together really quickly. As it was cooking, I made some coconut rice in my instant pot and it was the perfect pairing. One small note is that my sauce didn’t really thicken at all after several minutes of simmering, but I think this is likely because I used frozen pineapple, which would have added extra liquid. But, since I served this with rice, the sauciness got soaked right up and it was perfect! Definitely adding this to the dinner rotation 😊
Oh yay!! I’m so happy you tried and loved it, Cara! Good to know about the sauce; glad that it worked well with the rice, though 🙂
Recipes look goods
Thank you! I hope you can try some of them soon 🙂
This is a very quick, easy and delicious meal. My whole family enjoyed it! (Including two young kids!) 🥰
Yay!! So happy you guys all enjoyed it!
Very easy and tasty!! Another great recipe, thanks Monique!
Yay! So happy you tried and loved this one, Kelly! 🙂
Made this for a lunch meal prep this week – having it left over really kicks up the flavor that the pineapple adds!
Awesome! Such a great one to meal prep. Happy you’re loving it!
So yum and it’s an easy weeknight dinner. Definitely going into my dinner rotation!
Made this last night and it was fabulous! I forgot how much I enjoy pineapple in dishes. Wondering if you know how long the teriyaki sauce would last in the fridge if I doubled it up so didn’t have to make it each time.
So happy you loved this one, Janet 🙂 My guess is around 5 days but it may last longer!
My boys loved it!! They very rarely compliment a meal I cook, and very very rarely both at same time! Thank you! We added toasted almond slivers for crunch. And I subbed baby bok choy for the onion to make lower FODMAP.
Ahh that’s amazing, glad you all loved it!! The almonds + bok choy sound DELICIOUS in here, thanks for sharing 🙂
This recipe was super easy to make and delicious! Leftovers only continue to soak up even more flavor.
Wonderful flavors! This has become a go-to weeknight recipe that the whole family loves. Comes together really quick and we enjoy leftovers for lunch the next day. Highly recommend!
Made the recipe just as written and it came out beautifully. Thank you for the recipe!
So glad to hear that! Thanks, Claire!!
Doubled the amount of sauce and subbed ACV (it was all I had on hand). Yum yum yum!
So happy to hear you are enjoying this recipe!
Another winner! Flavorful, easy to make, a hit with the whole family.
We really liked — I didn’t have ginger so I skipped that, and I opted not to use a thickening agent. We added rd pepper flakes and it gave a good kick! Thanks 🙂
This has become a staple in my house. I make it every week! So easy and delicious.
YUM! I am glad this recipe is a hit 🙂
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Loved this recipe! So easy to make and the flavor was amazing. I added 2 Tbsp of sweet chili sauce and some red chili flakes too. Even my toddler ate it!
I love a lot of Ambitious Kitchens meals, this one was just not a favorite for our household. The general consensus was that it lacked flavor. But would 100% recommend some of her other recipes like her Sweet & Spicy Sesame Chicken Meatballs! Those are amazing:)
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Ali. Did you change anything about this recipe? This recipe is far from lacking flavor so I am wondering what might have gone wrong.
This was easy and yummy! I added fresh chilies which complement the pineapple well.
YUM! Sounds delicious 🙂
Obsessed! I have made this recipe 3x now! It’s amazing. I’ve shared with multiple friends and we are all in love! Yum!
So happy to hear that!
Made this for dinner. doubled the sauce (cause we like lots over our rice) and it was soooo delicious! Will def make again. So so good!
Made this for dinner and it was delicious! Doubled the amount of sauce to put over rice. Will def make it again!
Love it!!
Prepped this early in the day- made making dinner super easy! So good- the sauce is tasty but it didn’t really thicken. Served over cauliflower rice and only used 2 T of sugar- no honey or extra sugar.
Delicious! Be sure to let that sauce simmer a bit to thicken it – it should thicken nicely as the liquid evaporates.
Delicious! I made this vegan by subbing maple syrup for the honey and chickenless strips for the chicken. I’m sure tofu would work well too. I had zucchini on hand and swapped that for the broccoli. Worked great! I served it over brown rice and it was the perfect sweet and sour combo! I’m already excited to eat the leftovers. Thanks for the recipe!
Great idea! Glad you enjoyed!
Can i use canned pineapple or will that not taste right?
The pineapple chunks might break down a bit more and be a little sweeter, but I think it should work okay!
This was quick and tasty! I needed to be gone in the afternoon so I prepared the veggies and sauce (minus the thickener). When I got home at 5:30 I chopped up the chicken and began cooking. I prepared it per the recipe other than I dumped in some leftover veggies (broccoli, carrots, red peppers) with the chicken. I served it over 90 second brown rice and quinoa and with a salad. We ate at 6:05 and it was very tasty. The sauce was very good with just simple accessible ingredients.
Perfect way to meal prep! So glad everyone enjoyed!