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…
I’ve made this a dozen times – on me of my go to’s when I have an abu dance of green beans, and the singular reason I always have ground pork in my freezer! One addition I can’t make it without is a can of water chestnuts, sliced into fat slivers! Add a crunchy texture that is different than the tender-crisp green beans, but without altering the flavor. Try it – you won’t go back! Thank you for this great recipe! Your Spam Musubi is also a house favorite!
So good, and the sauce was unique! As long as the fresh green beans keep growing on the vine, I’ll keep making this!
This was a winner! Quick, easy and devoured by everyone in the family. I used frozen beans, I’m sure fresh would’ve been better but frozen ones were all I had. They were still great and charred nicely with a bit of extra time in the pan
Absolutely quick to prepare and delicious! Doubled the recipe and topped with fresh coriander and chillies to serve.
Can I use mirin in place of the Shoaxing wine? Voting 5 stars because I’ve made this before it’s just been years.
Delicious just as it is. Chili bean sauce is one of my favourite Asian sauces. I served with crispy noodles on top to use them up. So good!
This was delicious and came together so quickly. Love that!
I had ground pork but had to make 3 suggested substitutions. I’m sure it’s even better with the original ingredients so I’m going to search them out! Thank you Nagi for such a great recipe.
I know you need your rest Nagi. You deserve it after the year you’ve had but I just wanted to say that we miss you. I miss waking up and finding a new recipe in my inbox. Just saying lol. Hugs for Dozer.
I planned to make this last night for dinner and my farmer hubby contacted me at 5 to ask if I could bring down dinner to the farm for 3 people at 6:15 because they would be working at midnight. I speed defrosted an extra package of pork mince and made this (didn’t have the chili garlic sauce but had something similar) and was there on time! Rave reviews from all who ate it and I loved it too. Have enough leftovers for lunch today 🙂 Another winning recipe, Nagi. You are a wonder!
Would this taste good with lean turkey mince? Im trying to avoid the fat found in pork mince.
Did it taste good with turkey mince? 🙂
Planning on making it this week with turkey mince too.
Another Nagi winner. So easy, so quick and so tasty. I had bought pork mince to make Nagis suasge rolls, but found I didn’t have any pastry, so a quick search came up with this for dinner. Now I hate fiddling too much with recipes but I didn’t have the chilli garlic sauce so I added extra chopped garlic to the mince, and added a bit of buderim ginger sauce to some sweet chilli sauce instead. I had a red capsicum that needed using and if I am charring beans I may as well char some capsicum cos thats how I love it.
Absolutely fabulous…..Nagi is always a winner!!
Am currently shoveling this in my face on the couch (as per instructions). Used turkey minced for health and cost reasons. Only had powdered ginger, and couldn’t find the right chili sauce so used sambal because it was in front. It’s so good. Now if you’ll excuse me….
Absolutely delicious. Had it with chow mein noodles. Total keeper👌
Thanks Nagi
This has been one of our favourites for a long time. So, so easy and so, so tasty!!
Freezing rice is actually healthier as the starches change once frozen and causes a lower blood sugar spike (As mentioned by glucose goddess). 🙂
Better than restaurant quality!
Charred beans are everything, added green (floral) Szechuan peppercorns in the oil before the onions/ginger/garlic & finished with a sunnyside egg on top.
Wonderful, comforting dish.
Excellent! I sub black bean garlic sauce. This will work with tofu and many other variations. It’s a keeper.
I didn’t have green beans so I used kale, and we ate over rice noodles. Delicious thanks 😊
This was great. The whole family liked it. Plus, I used fresh green beans from my garden.