A Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans that packs an amazing flavour punch for something with so few ingredients! You’ll love how it’s eaten with a spoon, and that it takes just over 10 minutes to make.
Made with ground pork, this recipe is a simplified version of the popular Szechuan Stir Fried Green Beans with Minced Pork. Don’t skip the charring of the beans, it’s the defining feature of this stir fry!
Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans
If you’ve ever been to a Chinese Szechuan restaurant, you might be familiar with a green bean and pork stir fry which is a firm favourite among spicy Asian food lovers. Chopped green beans cooked over high heat until blistered, then stir fried with a spicy intense flavoured sauce and pork.
If the full blown Szechuan version is what you’re after, you’ll need a couple of speciality ingredients requiring a trip to the Asian grocery store – Szechuanpicked mustard greens (Sui Mi Ya Cai), Szechuan peppercorns, dried chillies. And here are a couple of recipes from my most trusted Chinese cooking blogs – Woks of Life and Omnivore’s Cookbook.
This Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans recipe is a slightly simplified version of the authentic Szechuan version. It packs a similar flavour punch, and it still has the signature charred green beans, but I pick up everything from the supermarket. In fact, if you have pork mince (that’s ground pork to those of you in Canada and the States!) and beans, there’s every possibility you have everything you need to make this right now.
This Pork Stir Fry is a quick and easy ground pork recipe with big flavours!
Magic 4 ingredient stir fry sauce
The sauce for this Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans only has 4 ingredients in it:
- Chinese cooking wine (see recipe notes for subs)
- dark soy sauce (for colour)
- Chilli Garlic Sauce (for spice / vinegar / general Asian tasty flavour – see notes for subs)
- sugar.
The reason this recipe gets away with such a simple sauce is because of this – the charred green beans. Char any vegetable, and you take it from bland to amazing. Steamed beans vs charred green beans is simply no contest!
Best charred in a hot skillet
Unlike most of my stir fries, I like to cook this in a cast iron skillet so you can spread the beans out to char them. It takes a mere 2 ½ – 3 minutes, faster than using a wok.
Because of this extreme high heat cooking – that skillet gets stinking hot – the one tip I have for this stir fry is to chop rather than grate / mince the ginger and garlic. It will stop it from sticking to the skillet and burning in 2 seconds.
Actually, that’s a general stir frying tip. 🙂 Chop instead of grate the ginger and garlic. Never again suffer burnt garlic in your stir fry!
Oh PS That’s the Chilli Garlic Sauce I use. ↑↑↑ Available at supermarket – Woolies, Coles etc. BUT if you can’t find that exact brand or similar, sriracha or even non Asian hot sauces will make a terrific sub. Anything that is spicy but also a bit vinegary – which most hot sauces are. Even Franks Hot Sauce!
You won’t miss sauciness
When it comes to stir fries, I’m usually all about the sauce, the sauce, the sauce. And if you’re in the sauce camp with me, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how you don’t miss sauce with this Pork Stir Fry.
The pork mince sucks up all that sauce and is actually quite intense flavoured – you’d find it rather salty without rice.
So mix it up with the rice, then enjoy the leisure of a stir fry you can eat with a spoon. It’s perfect Couch Food – which I define as food you can eat with a spoon without taking your eyes off the TV. 😂 – Nagi x
PS And because my mother will never forgive me if I don’t mention this – this Beans and Pork Mince Stir Fry is the Japanese version of this stir fry on her website. Similar flavour, but made using Japanese sauces.
More quick ground pork / pork mince recipes
- Vietnamese Caramelised Pork Bowls
- San Choy Bow (Chinese Lettuce Cups)
- Chinese Pork Mince with Noodles
- Egg Foo Young (Chinese Omelette with Pork)
- See 15 Minute Recipes recipe collection
Also, try this popular Quick Asian Beef Ramen Noodles or Asian Beef Bowls using ground pork / mince instead of beef!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans
Ingredients
- 10 oz / 300 g green beans (Note 1a)
- 7 oz / 220 g pork mince (Note 1b)
- 1/2 small onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
- 2 tsp finely chopped garlic (2 cloves) (Note 2)
- 2 tsp ginger, finely chopped (Note 2)
- 2 1/2 tbsp peanut oil (or vegetable or canola)
Sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Note 4 for subs)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp + Chilli Garlic Sauce (Note 5)
Instructions
- Mix Sauce ingredients in a bowl.
- Trim the tough end of the beans, then chop into 2 - 2.5cm / 4/5 - 1" pieces.
- Charred Beans: Heat 1 1/2 tbsp oil in a heavy based skillet over high heat (I use cast iron) until smoking. Add beans, spread out to cover base. Leave for 1 minute. Quick stir, spread out, cook for 30 seconds. Stir, then leave for 30 seconds, then repeat once more (so 2 1/2 minutes in total cook time) until beans are charred but tender crisp (not withered and floppy). Remove into bowl.
- Turn heat down to medium high, add 1 tbsp oil. Add onion, then garlic and ginger. Cook for 1 minute until edges of onion are golden.
- Turn heat back up to high. Add pork and cook, breaking it up as you go. Cook for 2 minutes until the pork is cooked through, then add Sauce. Cook for 30 seconds, then add beans and stir for another 30 seconds.
- Serve over rice. Garnish with slices of large red chilli (it's mild), entirely optional. To eat, mix the pork into the rice then eat it with a spoon - forget chopsticks for this one!
Recipe Notes:
.
4. You can substitute Chinese cooking wine with dry sherry, cooking sake or Mirin. If you sub with Mirin, omit the sugar. Here are the cooking wines I use. The Pandaroo Chinese Cooking Wine is sold at Woolies, Coles, Harris Farms. I really urge you to use one of these options as cooking alcohol is key to achieve a truly restauranty quality for Asian food, especially Chinese recipes. If you can't consume alcohol, the next best option is to use low sodium chicken broth. Use 1/4 of cup. It will take an extra minute or so for the Sauce to reduce. 5. Chilli Garlic Sauce is readily available in large supermarkets. It's not "blow your head off" spicy, so feel free to increase it (stick your finger in the Sauce for a taste). It can be substituted with sriracha, sambal oelak or any hot sauce that has a bit of a vinegary taste (eg Frank's) but you'll need to adjust the quantity depending on the spiciness of what you use. 6. Frozen cooked white rice is a quick-meal life saver. A very Asian thing to do, all my relatives in Japan do it! Cook rice of choice as you usually do, including resting it for 10 minutes (never skip this!). While the rice is still warm, cling wrap into serving size portions, put it in plastic bags or containers, then freeze. To reheat, place in a bowl (frozen), sprinkle with water, cover with cling wrap then microwave until warm (1 serving = about 2 1/2 minutes from frozen). Let stand in microwave for 2 minutes - the extra steaming helps remoisten the rice. Serve! 7. The nutritional analysis assumes 3 servings, excluding rice i.e. stir fry only. 3/4 cup of cooked white rice is 130 calories which takes the total up to 498 calories per serving.
Originally published June 2014, long overdue for an update with fresh new photos and a recipe video!
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
At the coffee shop, when he spies food on neighbouring tables. He’s been known to make grown men give up huge chunks of their breakfast with just a glance…
Made exactly as described. Fantastic.
Thanks so much Mick!
Another winner. I charred sweet red pepper strips and subbed tiny chicken thigh pieces. Cook time a tad longer but it was amazing. Hubby a wimp so too spicy for him my my adult son and I thoroughly enjoyed
Wahoo! That’s great Sue (even more for you if it’s too spicy for hubby 😉)
Wow, this was fantastic. I served it with the cucumber, rice and very mild fresh chilli. Couldn’t get the chilli and garlic sauce, so I used sriracha sauce. Other half said to make it again with snowpeas next time.
Sounds amazing Gaye!!
So very delicious – had this dish with brown rice congee
What a great combo! ❤️
I was skeptics about this but I needed to use some ingredients in the fridge and they were all in this meal (beans and ground pork). I am so glad I did because it was so good! My husband said to keep this in rotation so that’s always a good sign. Thanks for making me try something new. 😁
P.S. I thought the charred beans would be rather ugh/undercooked and/or burnt tasting but you were right, they were really wonderful and gave the meal a nice bite.
I’m so glad you loved it Rita!
Love this recipe! I tried it with pork belly instead. Cooking the pork belly by itself after the beans, then took it out and then cook the onions, then add the pork back in.
Yuuuuum! Sounds great Ronna!
This was great! Now I’m sensitive to heat so to me it was a tad hot. But the flavor was wonderful. And I was able to eat it. My husband enjoys Asian food so he loved it. Another keeper from your site.
Just reduce the heat factor if you prefer Linda, I’m so glad you enjoyed it though!
Don’t plan to change a thing. To good the way it is. I’ll just drink more Ice tea😂
Can’t believe how quick, easy and flavoursome this was…. Didn’t have green beans so used broccoli instead- turned out great. Funnily enough I’ll now char the broccoli next time I have it as a side dish- so yum. 😋
I made with snap peas instead of green beans. Absolutely delicious. As usual.
Sounds great Tracey!!!
Da Bomb! I substitute some sweet soy sauce for the sugar…husband loves it! Will continue to make while fresh green beans are in season. I also like the idea of the asparagus suggested by another reviewer!
Sounds great! Always looking for new recipes for chinese food. Local place don’t make anything i am use to.
I hope you give this one a try Joan!
Awesome recipe!!! My family loves your meals. Thank you!
You’re so welcome Pamela!
Wow this was so fantastic and easy. I basically doubled everything because I used one pound of ground pork. I also didn’t have green beans, so I used asparagus. The flavor is outstanding and there were no leftovers. The crispy bits of pork were the best. Thank you
Great idea, I love it!
I live in China and I don’t know what Chinese cooking alcohol is. Is it just baijiu? Or is there a specific thing?
HI Rebecca, It’s Shaoxing wine! – N x
This looks delicious! I thought I read somewhere how many WW freestyle points per serving but I can’t find it now. Can you help?
Hi Genia, all the nutrition info is at the bottom of the recipe – N x
I did NOT expect this to be as good as it was. Oh my goodness, so delicious!!
I’m so glad you loved it Carla!
I made this tonight and loved it. I added red pepper and mushrooms with the green beans and doubled the sauce. I can’t wait to make it again. Only regret is there were no leftovers.
Made this for dinner tonight, so quick and easy and packed with flavor. Both my husband and I give it 👍👍!
Aweomse Julie, I’m so glad you loved it!
How do you come up with your nutrition stats? I’ve been trying to find a good website to calculate nutrition info for recipes, but haven’t been able to find one. Do you find a software program or have you found a good online source to calc nutrition? FYI your recipes are great…the Katsu Curry was a big hit and I’ll be making the pork/green bean stir fry next. And I love love love Dozer!
Hi C – It’s a feature of the software I use to create the recipe card inside WordPress. Unfortunately you can’t really use it unless you’re publishing recipes online with WordPress. Check out my mum’s site RecipeTin Japan for more of those Japanese recipes! — Nx