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! (For a low carb, low cal option, try Cauliflower Rice)
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…
Hi Nagi,
I have some Gochujang could I use that as the chilli paste???
Sure could Kim! N X
Such a quick and light meal.
We added the rice and stir fry into lettuce cups to do as a spicier version of San Choi Bau.
During cooking, found it needed a bit of extra kick for our tastes. Used a 50/50 split of Sriracha and Sambal Oelek…..and added another 1/2 more to pimp it up. Very tasty and very simple – thanks Nagi!
Hi Nagi
Love the recipe and can taste the flavor is true.
However we did find it quite weak/bland/thin compared to our local restaurants.
Can you advise how to strengthen the flavor?
Hi Nagi, a friend made this dish for me recently and I loved it! Already excited to make it myself.
I wanted to use ingredients I have on hand, so was wondering if you can advise on how much sriracha to sub instead of the the chilli garlic sauce?
Didn’t want to inadvertently make it inedible (I’m a slight spice coward…)
🙂
Hi Phoebe, I would add to taste – start with a small amount if you’re not too keen on chilli 🙂 N x
This might be my favourite Nagi recipe 🙂 my family really enjoyed this for dinner. I don’t usually like shaoxing wine so I used chicken stock as per the suggested sub and it worked so well. I also added some red chillies for more spice and served with Hakka fried noodles. Can’t wait to make it again!
This was sooooo delicious! I never thought I could recreate this so faithfully at home. Another winner Nagi – thank you!! 🙂
I love recipes like this. So easy, so so good.
I cooked the pork and green bean stir fry last night, it was delicious. Even better than at yum cha, which I am missing terrible. This will become a regular dish like many, many others of yours.
I just made this Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans and it was a 5+! So delicious! Thank you. I had planned to only have a small serving, but couldn’t help myself and HAD to have a second helping. Now I want to try your beef stroganoff
but I’m gluten free; what do you suggest to thicken the sauce? Thank you. Lorraine
Absolutely fantastic!
I added 2.5 tbsp of water as my salt tastebuds have found things salty lately. I thought, I could taste near the end and add a few drops of dark soy if needed.
I did it w forbidden rice as another option to mix it up.
Thank you for the very well done videos; I might not have tried this without it. I can cook many foods of culture but Asian food always made me apprehensive. Thank you Nagi! 👏🏼
Had this at a Chinese restaurant in China town in my city. Fell in love with it. Such umami flavor. This tasted just like it. Thanks for posting.
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Hi Nagi. Another weeknight winner that’s definetly added to the rotation…. best of all economical and quick! Added some Szechuan pepper for extra zing.. delicious!
Hi Nagi!
I’ve been following you for quite sometime now and your recipes have a been a go to for me whenever I want to try something new. This minced pork with green beans is so delicious and our family totally enjoyed it. So easy to make, definitely it will be a regular repeat on our menu. Thank you for sharing your recipes. Stay well and safe, Nagi!
Great recipe! Easy to make once prep is done, set off the smoke detector but results were 100% worth it. Even my toddler dug it.
PS: your dog is adorable
Keep up the good work!
This was super tasty – thanks Nagi!
When i make it again i might add some water chestnuts too 🙂
Just made this tonight for dinner for husband and me.
Yummy, quick, easy and economical. This goes into my regular repertoire.
thank you !