This quick Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans packs a big flavour punch! It’s a fast take on the classic Szechuan dish, Stir Fried Green Beans with Minced Pork. Made with ground pork, this recipe comes together in just over 10 minutes. Don’t skip charring 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 pork mince 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, RecipeTin Japan. Similar flavour, but made using Japanese sauces.
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
Pork Stir Fry with Green Beans
Ingredients
- 300g / 10oz green beans (Note 1)
- 220g / 7 oz pork mince (Note 2)
- 1/2 small onion , finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
- 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped (Note 3)
- 2 tsp ginger , finely chopped (Note 3)
- 2 1/2 tbsp peanut oil (or vegetable or canola)
Sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce (Note 4)
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (shaoxing wine) (Note 5 for subs)
- 1 tsp white sugar (sub any sugar or faux sugar)
- 1 1/2 tsp + Chilli Garlic Sauce (Note 6)
For serving
- Rice of choice
- Sliced red chilli
Instructions
- Sauce – Mix Sauce ingredients in a bowl.
- Trim the stem end of the beans, then chop into 2 – 2.5cm / 4/5 – 1" pieces.
- Char 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.
- Sauté aromatics – 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.
- Cook pork – 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:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published June 2014, long overdue for an update with fresh new photos and a recipe video!
More quick pork mince recipes (ground pork)
Also, try the popular Quick Asian Beef Ramen Noodles or Asian Beef Bowls using ground pork / mince instead of beef!
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…
Gee, I wish they let dogs into our Canadian coffee shops! They have to be ‘official’ therapy dogs to be there. 🙁
He’s outdoors!!! Definitely not allowed dogs INSIDE coffee shops! N xx
I agree, it is regrettable that dogs aren’t allowed in eating/drinking establishments in the US, too. It is banned for health and hygiene purposes, supposedly, but probably has more to do with a very high percentage of untrained dogs here in the US and how difficult it would be for establishment owners to refuse admittance to patrons having misbehaving or unsocialized dogs, while still permitting entry to friendly, and decently-behaved dogs with other patrons–litigators might derive fortunes from such opportunities as that, in fact. In the US it might also largely be due to the sharply declining common sense of an enormous population, since we’ve had things here like idiots attempting to board planes with uncontained peacocks and very large snakes as therapy pets, and one nanny-state-on-steroids banning all sorts of largely harmless things, while also slapping ridiculous warnings on many other basically beneficial things too, like coffee. 🙂
Oh my this looks delicious….you make it look so easy to make and I will !!!! May try it with chicken or beef…..thanks so much for all your great suggestions!!! Dozier has perfected that “look” for sure….what a sweetie!!!!
You know what he does? He just sits there, silently, staring at his target until they cave. Oh – there’s plenty of drool too – it’s disgusting!
Hi Nagi,
Is the nutrition info correct? Carbs seem high while the protein seems low.
Oops! Forgot to update it 🙂 Excludes the rice! PS Protein is low in this one, it’s low on meat relative to the beans, pretty standard meat to veg ratio for Chinese stir fries. N xx
Thanks for the update, MUCH BETTER
Saw this and sent hubby out immediately for some pork mince to change previous supper plans. Luckily living near Chinatown in London have most everything else in the cupboard but all our supermarkets getting so good at stocking all these fab ingredients for yours and Mums recipes. Need something wholesome to keep energy levels up for late night/early morning viewing of Commonwealth Games so living on your timezone!!!!
For ONCE a major sporting event is in our time zone!!! 🙌🏻
Hi Nagi. In reading your tips on the frozen rice, I’m assuming you meant to type the word bowl and not bow. I keep rereading it and wondering what a bow was. I know crazy me. Also, did you add red Thai chilis to this recipe, because they’re not included in the list of ingredients? The chilis are visible in the photos, but not in your video.
You mean – you don’t have a bow in YOUR kitchen?? 🏹 😂 Thanks for picking that up! I did garnish with a few slices of large red chilli, just for a pop of extra mild heat. I will add it in the recipe, it’s entirely optional! N xx
LOL, you guessed it, I don’t have bow in my kitchen. I actually thought I was losing my mind rereading this early too early this morning. Turned out to be a good laugh!
“Sticks and ants”, that’s what my Chinese colleague used to call them. Without a doubt, one my my favorite Szechuan dishes.
Now I’m hungry or “Sticks and ants”. Soon the warmth will come and after that the fresh green beans. Then, I cook!
Does Dozer like fresh green beans? Our Chloe dog loves them.
Roaring with laughter! Have made this forever like you, but . . . am also laughing at us being old-fashioned (no, never !!!) – most of the world spells it ‘Sichuan”; by now . . . my fave Chinese cuisine and I still go for that spelling . . . and you are ever-so diplomatically half-way!!
Whaat??? 😂 I didn’t know that!!!!
Sticks and Ants! I’ve never heard that but now it’s stuck in my mind!! 😂
I love your website but rarely prepare Asian food. I have to change that and try this delicious looking recipe. Thank you !
I hope you do Gerlinde!! This one is SO GOOD and QUICK! N xx
I bet Dozer practices that move in front of the mirror or on a certain female he lives with. 😄 The stir fry looks delicious. I like the way you made the pork in small pieces versus chunks. I really like that touch of red you added to the final dish instead of having just dark green and brown. Sending 🤗🤗
BA HA HA! He practices it multiple times a day as a matter of usual routine… 🙄
Looking forward to trying this recipe. Disappointed in the low protein value for this dish. Am guessing I could ask a butcher to mince a less fatty piece of meat or use chicken or turkey? Any suggestions to accommodate and boost the protein level a bit?
Hi Elizabeth! I’ve updated the nutrition, I forgot to do that after I republished this recipe with a few clean ups 🙂 As for protein level, Asian cooking as a general rule has less meat per serve compared to Western dishes. If you would like to up the protein, feel free to scale up the meat in the recipe – you can even use the recipe scaler (slide the Servings). N x
Hi Nagi, would this recipe work with minced turkey instead of pork?
Hi Fiona! This is fab with turkey, chicken and even beef mince! 🙂
This recipe was so easy and delicious! I look forward to making more of your recipes. Your photography is beautiful and your recipes are elegant yet simple, and all your ingredients can be easily found here in the US. Thank you for sharing! ~
Wow, thank you Anita! I am SO GLAD you enjoyed it! (My mother will be too because this is her recipe!)
I found your web site a few weeks ago, and love it! I have tried several recipes so far.
This recipe has good flavor and easy to make, the kids really like it, “this is a keeper, Mom”.
Oooh, I’m so glad Andrea! I’m especially glad you tried this recipe – it’s one from the depths of the archives and yet it is such a family favorited! I grew up eating this, it’s my mother’s recipe. I must repost it with fresh photos!! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and let me know you enjoyed it!!