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 made with snap peas instead of green beans. Absolutely delicious. As usual.
Sounds great Tracey!!!
Da Bomb! I substitute some sweet soy sauce for the sugar…husband loves it! Will continue to make while fresh green beans are in season. I also like the idea of the asparagus suggested by another reviewer!
Sounds great! Always looking for new recipes for chinese food. Local place don’t make anything i am use to.
I hope you give this one a try Joan!
Awesome recipe!!! My family loves your meals. Thank you!
You’re so welcome Pamela!
Wow this was so fantastic and easy. I basically doubled everything because I used one pound of ground pork. I also didn’t have green beans, so I used asparagus. The flavor is outstanding and there were no leftovers. The crispy bits of pork were the best. Thank you
Great idea, I love it!
I live in China and I don’t know what Chinese cooking alcohol is. Is it just baijiu? Or is there a specific thing?
HI Rebecca, It’s Shaoxing wine! – N x
This looks delicious! I thought I read somewhere how many WW freestyle points per serving but I can’t find it now. Can you help?
Hi Genia, all the nutrition info is at the bottom of the recipe – N x
I did NOT expect this to be as good as it was. Oh my goodness, so delicious!!
I’m so glad you loved it Carla!
I made this tonight and loved it. I added red pepper and mushrooms with the green beans and doubled the sauce. I can’t wait to make it again. Only regret is there were no leftovers.
Made this for dinner tonight, so quick and easy and packed with flavor. Both my husband and I give it 👍👍!
Aweomse Julie, I’m so glad you loved it!
How do you come up with your nutrition stats? I’ve been trying to find a good website to calculate nutrition info for recipes, but haven’t been able to find one. Do you find a software program or have you found a good online source to calc nutrition? FYI your recipes are great…the Katsu Curry was a big hit and I’ll be making the pork/green bean stir fry next. And I love love love Dozer!
Hi C – It’s a feature of the software I use to create the recipe card inside WordPress. Unfortunately you can’t really use it unless you’re publishing recipes online with WordPress. Check out my mum’s site RecipeTin Japan for more of those Japanese recipes! — Nx
Thank you for your wonderful recipe(s). We have cooked many and never been disappointed
This was delicious- I added crushed red pepper for a bit of heat. Perfect
We look forward to trying many more of your recipes
Thanks so much Susan!
This dish was so yummy, easy and very quick to prepare. A big hit with the family, will definitely be a regular mid week dinner in our household. I cant believe the depth of flavour in this dish, thank you Nagi so much xx
I’m so glad you loved it Jane!!
My family loved this dish! I will say that from start to finish it took me 1 hour that was including cooking the rice and chopping onions, garlic and ginger. Also I think my cast iron skillet was maybe too small for doubling this recipe. It is delicious! I like things spicy so I added crushed thai chili. Perfect!
Sounds great Krista!
I made this when it was posted previously and want everyone to know that it is a real winner – one of my very favorite Nagi recipes. My husband and I both LOVE it. You must try ! ! !
That’s awesome Penny! Thanks so much for the great feedback!
This recipe has it all. Great taste, easy to find ingredients, not much prep, and it cooks really fast.Love it!
I made it today with beef and it was great 🙂 I love your recipes!
Btw. I bought exactly the same chilli-garlic sauce and I am looking for ideas/other recipes on how to use it etc. Please help! 🙂
Wahoo! That sauce is very versatile, I use it in this recipe too which is absolutely divine! https://discountspot.info/poached-salmon-in-coconut-lime-sauce/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Thankyou for posting this wonderful recipe! I love eating this dish in restaurants and had wanted to try making a simplified version at home for a long time.
The substitution notes were so so helpful too!
You’re so welcome Sam!
Made this tonight and it was a absolutely delicious, my 5 year old loved it too. Thanks for the recipe!
This is fantastic! Hubby loved it and kids really liked it too. It’s nice to hear “Mom, this is really good. The beans taste good too”, as they gobble it all up. Thank you, Nagi!!!