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
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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…
Another great recipe from you Nagi. So simple to prepare & make but so so tasty. It is hard to believe the sauce is only 4 ingredients.
Nice recipe! I used minced turkey instead of pork and followed this recipe steps. My lunch turned out amazing.
This is a hit in our house. Funny thing is though, they added yoghurt. I couldn’t fathom the thought
So simple – yet so delicious!
I’ve been making this for years, but my husband was recently told not to eat beef and pork. I tried the recipe tonight with ground chicken and it was still delicious. I added an extra tablespoon of oil to the browning pan and doubled the sauce. He couldn’t tell the difference!
I love it. It made me excited because it sounded like a dish I used to get at my local Thai restaurant except with pork mince instead of pork belly. I doubled the chilli garlic and for my personal spice I think I’d want more (I even topped with chilli flakes) but still super delicious and so easy
Would this be okay with pork sausage mince?
Hi Ruth, it’s a different texture and really depends on the flavours that are in the sausages to be honest! N x
Delicious! I substituted garlic chilli with oyster sauce and served with a lot of cucumber to balance the salty dish.
How much would I use. I love the idea of oyster sauce
I made this last night for dinner as I had most of the ingredients and just subbed the couple that I didn’t have. I served with cauliflower rice and it was delicious. Filling but still light enough to leave room for dessert 😉
Delicious!
This is on the cards for dinner tonight however wanting to up the veggies for the little ones. Can I add other veg and Should I char all the veg if I do?
Needed a quick and easy recepi last Saturday and found this one, both of us had seconds and later on I will be marinating Indian butter chicken for tomorrow´s dinner, (your recepi ofcourse) Thanks Nagi x
Hi Nagi!
Thanks for such a delicious recipe. It’s so easy to cook, healthy with just the right amount of kick!
This will definitely be added to my quick and easy rotation for dinner!
Yes it’s a great midweek meal! N x
Excellent balanced flavor, I used Thai mushroom soy sauce, doubled the onion, garlic and all sauce ingredients also added 2 TBS Thai chili sauce in addition to chili sauce
As good as restaurants! I love making this and I can control the heat level
Made this last night. Thanks for the tips for using frozen green beans, that was helpful. I used very thinly sliced chicken in place of the pork. I didn’t have any of the cooking wines that you recommended, I used gin as a substitute and that worked out well for me. I already love your blog, but now I’m going to do a search for more Chinese Szechuan recipes! Thanks so much!
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!