This quick and easy hoisin pork stir fry is perfect for a week night dinner and is just as special for a weekend fakeaway. Never buy hoison stir fry sauce again!
After getting a bit bored with having the same old stir frys we wanted to get a bit adventurous. When we make a stir fry, we either cook it with no sauce at all, or add some soy sauce and five spice to add some flavour but, after a while, it does get boring!
There are so many options in the supermarket for sauces but, as a way to cut down our supermarket spend, we just stopped buying jars. It’s been such a long time since we bought a pre-made jar of sauce from the shop as they work out a lot more expensive than making your own (and have you seen the list of stuff in it?!) so, we’ve just stuck to making our own slightly boring sauces.
I’m not quite sure why but on a week night last week we decided to experiment with a hoisin sauce and there was a party in my mouth! The stickiness of the sauce was amazing!
There was a small amount of marinating but nothing that took too long on a week night and while the meat took on the flavour of the sauce, it gave me a chance to get on with getting a pan ready for the noodles, prepare the vegetables and get the plates etc ready.
We had some pork in the fridge that needed using so this is a pork stir fry. There is no reason you couldn’t use chicken, turkey or beef for this recipe instead – or go meat free.
- 4tbsp soy sauce
- 2tbsp peanut butter
- 1tbsp honey
- 2tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 crushed clove of garlic
- 2tsp olive oil
- 1tsp tobasco sauce
- shake of pepper
- 400g chopped pork loin
- Your choice of finely chopped vegetables
- Add all the ingredients to a bowl and whisk together very well.
- Pop in the pork, making sure it is all coated in the hoisin sauce and leave to one side for 10-15 minutes.
- Heat some oil in a large pan or wok and cook the meat until browned. Discard of any left over sauce.
- Remove the meat from the pan and add your choice of vegetables with one tablespoon of water.
- Cook for two minutes and add the pork back in.
- Serve with noodles or rice, and chopsticks!
We used spring onions, chillis and mange tout as our stir fry vegetables but you could also use finely chopped carrots, bell peppers, sweetcorn or even broccoli – really you could chop up moist things you’ve got in the fridge! I think that’s the joy of a stir fry – you don’t really need to follow a strict recipe to get a great dinner and can easily have something warm and tasty on your plate in less than 15 minutes after you start cooking.
As an added treat, we also heated some peanuts in oven and added them over the stir fry which gave a great crunch to the whole dish.
I’m sure there will be some people fretting at our use of typically English ingredients in what should be a slightly authentic Chinese dish but I don’t have the money to stock my cupboards with one off ingredients.
Instead, I would much prefer to adapt a recipe and use an everyday essential items and get loads of use out of it. That way, I’d be sure that I can eat this again, and again as we’ll have all the ingredients in the house – and wouldn’t need to go to a specialist supplier to pick up the ingredients.
Ricky Willis is the original Skint Dad. A money-making enthusiast, father, and husband to Naomi. He is always looking for unique ways to earn a little extra.
