[2][3] Pininyahang manok is made by first marinating the chicken in pineapple juice, though some recipes skip this part.

It is spiced with salt, sugar, black pepper, or fish sauce to taste, and left to simmer at low heat until the ingredients are thoroughly cooked.

A common variant of the dish excludes them completely, and instead simply uses chicken stock as the base.

[11][12] Vienna sausages, hot dogs, cheese, eggs, or diced tomatoes may also be added along with the other ingredients.

[5][13][14][1] Pininyahang manok is similar to the version of chicken afritada with pineapples, but the latter uses tomato sauce.