This recipe started out as a craving for lettuce wraps and ended up as Hoisin Stir Fry Bowls with Spicy Peanut Sauce because, IMHO, it’s just a whole lot easier to eat things out of bowls instead of lettuce leaves. …Or is that just me? Plus, the nice soft-but-sturdy lettuce that are perfect for lettuce wraps happens to be a little on the expensive side and I’m all about bowl meals. So, I made a lettuce wrap filling and just spooned it over rice. But hey, you could totally do this in lettuce leaves if that’s your jam.
Use Ground Pork, Turkey, or Chicken
This recipe is quite flexible and you can use just about any ground light meat, like pork, chicken, or turkey. I also halved the meat and added a ton of vegetables (like minced mushrooms) to bulk out the recipe and keep the costs low. If you prefer you can use a full pound of ground meat in place of the meat and mushroom mix.
What is Hoisin Sauce?
Hoisin is a really versatile sauce to have in your fridge. It’s thick, sweet, and tangy, and is great for glazing meat, using as a dipping sauce, or combining with other ingredients to make other dressings, sauces, or marinades. I also like to use it as a quick stir fry sauce, like in this recipe!
Love quick stir fry recipes? Check out my Ground Turkey Stir Fry , Sweet Chili Chicken Stir Fry Bowls, or Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry.
Hoisin Stir Fry Bowls with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Servings 4Ingredients
SPICY PEANUT SAUCE*
- 1/4 cup natural-style peanut butter ($0.36)
- 1 Tbsp sriracha ($0.09)
- 1 tsp soy sauce ($0.02)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.10)
- 1 tsp brown sugar ($0.01)
- 3 Tbsp hot water ($0.00)
PORK AND VEGETABLE MIXTURE
- 1/2 Tbsp neutral cooking oil** ($0.02)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.10)
- 1/2 lb. ground pork, chicken or turkey ($3.00)
- 8 oz. button mushrooms ($1.89)
- 1 large carrot ($0.12)
- 1 red bell pepper ($1.50)
- 1/3 cup hoisin sauce ($0.84)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.05)
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil ($0.11)
BOWL INGREDIENTS
- 4 cups cooked rice $0.88 ($0.88)
- 1/4 cup peanuts, chopped ($0.19)
- 3 green onions, sliced ($0.25)
Instructions
- Mix the spicy peanut sauce first to allow the flavors time to blend. In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, sriracha, soy sauce, brown sugar, and grated fresh ginger (use a small holed-cheese grater to grate about 1 tsp). Stir in one tablespoon of hot water at a time until the sauce is thin enough to drizzle. Set the sauce aside.
- Mince the garlic and grate another teaspoon of fresh ginger. Heat the cooking oil in a large skillet over medium flame. Add the garlic and ginger to the hot skillet and sauté for about one minute, or just until the garlic is softened. Add the pork and continue to sauté until the pork is cooked through and crumbled (about five minutes).
- While the pork is cooking, rinse the mushrooms then chop them into small pieces. Once the pork is cooked through, add the chopped mushrooms and continue to sauté until the mushrooms have wilted and released all their moisture (about five minutes).
- While the mushrooms are cooking, peel the carrot then shred it using a large-holed cheese grater. Finely dice the red bell pepper. Once the mushrooms have cooked down, add the shredded carrot, diced bell pepper, hoisin sauce, toasted sesame oil, and soy sauce to the skillet. Stir and cook until everything is coated in sauce and heated through. (The amount of soy sauce needed may vary depending on the brand of hoisin sauce used. Start with 1/2 Tbsp and add more to taste).
- To build the bowls, start with one cup cooked rice, then add 3/4-1 cup of the meat and vegetable mixture. Sprinkle a few sliced green onions on top, then drizzle 1-2 Tbsp of the spicy peanut sauce over everything. Finish with about 1 Tbsp of the chopped peanuts.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Hoisin Stir Fry – Step by Step Photos
Start with the spicy peanut sauce so that the ginger time to infuse into the sauce. In a small bowl stir together 1/4 cup natural style peanut butter, 1 Tbsp sriracha, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp brown sugar, and about 1 tsp freshly grated ginger (use a small-holed cheese grater). Then add one tablespoon of hot water at a time until it’s thin enough to drizzle. I used 3 Tbsp water total. Set the sauce aside.
Mince two cloves of garlic and grate another tsp of fresh ginger. Add 1/2 Tbsp of any neutral cooking oil to a large skillet and heat over a medium flame. Add the garlic and ginger, sauté for about a minute, then add 1/2 lb. ground pork, chicken, or turkey. Cook the meat until it’s fully browned and crumbled (about 5 minutes).
While the meat is cooking, rinse 8oz. of button mushrooms and chop them into tiny pieces. No need to pay attention to the size or shape of the pieces, just chop away until they’re small and only slightly bigger than the meat crumbles. The goal is to make them blend in seamlessly with the meat and they will shrink a bit when cooked.
Once the meat is cooked through, add the chopped mushrooms and continue to sauté until the mushrooms have wilted and let out all their water (about another 5 minutes). See, they blend right in with the meat!
While the mushrooms are cooking, peel and shred one large carrot using a large-holed cheese grater (or in my case, two small carrots). Cut the bell pepper into a very small dice. Again, you want the pieces to be a similar size to the meat and mushrooms.
Add the carrots and bell pepper to the skillet. I wanted them to stay fairly crisp, so I didn’t really cook them before adding the sauce. I just added the sauce and heated through…
What sauce, you say? Hoisin sauce! Hoisin is a great all-purpose sweet and tangy sauce that can be used on its own or as a base of more complex sauces. For this dish, I added 1/3 cup hoisin, plus 1 Tbsp soy sauce and 1 tsp toasted sesame oil. The amount of soy sauce that you add will depend on the saltiness of your hoisin, so start with a little less and add more if needed.
So now you have a lovely hoisin pork and vegetable mixture that can be spooned into lettuce leaves for wraps, or turned into a great bowl meal…
To build my Hoisin Stir Fry Bowls, start with 1 cup cooked rice, then add 3/4 to 1 cup of the meat and vegetable mixture.
Add a small handful of sliced green onion. You could also use cilantro here, or BOTH.
Then drizzle on some of that amazingly rich and spicy peanut sauce… You have about 1/2 cup of the sauce so you can use up to 2 Tbsp per bowl.
Finally, add a tablespoon or so of chopped peanuts. I love the chopped peanuts here because they add a final layer of super crunchy texture that takes the bowl over the top!
And there you have it–Hoisin Stir Fry Bowls with Spicy Peanut Sauce for about $2.50 per serving. It’s a little pricier than most of my meals, but considering the fact that I used super high end pork and a few organic ingredients, it’s really not bad!
And once I was a few bites in I wasn’t even thinking about the price. I was just thinking, “Mmmmmmmmmmmmm…”
I just mde this, and it is AMAZING! Another winner.
This looks WONDERFUL, and personally I am ALL for Mushrooms; however I have a friend who I KNOW would love this except for one small detail (well, actually from her standpoint a LARGE issue); she is allergic to Mushrooms. Any suggestions? I gather it is a meatier texture kind of thing. Perhaps I could could do another 1/2 pound of the the meat, or do you have a recommendation for a good soy crumble substitute?
For me this is a FIVE STAR; my friend who is allergic to mushrooms would probably rate at a three; if only because of the mushrooms (had to take her to the ER when we first met, she hadn’t told me about her allergy, and I made my “Meat Sauce” for pasta … which needless to say had mushrooms, for much the same reason they are here, to cut down on the cost of the meat.
Yep, you can absolutely do another half pound of meat (that would be closer to a traditional lettuce wrap filling). I’m sure soy crumbles would work, but I haven’t cooked with any so unfortunately I don’t have any brand recommendations. :)
Oh my goodness — I just finished this for dinner and it is crazy-good!
This looks so good! Any suggestions on what I could use besides mushrooms? Or should I just leave them out?
You can just leave them out or try adding some other vegetables. Maybe a diced green pepper or some yellow onion. :)
This looks really good and I’m a big fan of hoisin sauce!
I’m thinking of either adding lentils to the stir-fry or making some crispy tofu cubes to add to the bowl for a meatless version.
OMG, I love hoisin too! I’m gonna just crumble some firm tofu in there and add celery. (I love celery in Chinese food!)
Fantastic and flavorful. Worth cooking again and again. So easy and full of mouth watering flavor. I replaced the pork with a chopped chicken breast (as that is what I had in the freezer) and worked very well. Thank you for this great recipe.
That is a yummy colorful bowl of goodness,Beth!
Made this for lunch today. It tastes great with stir-fried cabbage :)
Could this work with ground turkey or something other than pork?
Yep, chicken pork or turkey. :)
Is there something special about natural style peanut butter that is critical, or will my basic jar of Skippy work okay here?
Yes, natural style peanut butter has a much strong peanut flavor and it doesn’t have sugar, which might throw off the balance in the sauce. :)
I used Skippy and it turned out great!
I love the step by step pictures and instructions! The prices of all the ingredients really add to making things on a budget!!!
This looks really intriguing, but recipes with actual peanut butter in them (as opposed to just peanuts) have really not been to my taste in the past. Is there something else I could substitute there, or is it pretty fundamental to the dish?
You could always just use straight sriracha instead of making a sauce, then add the crushed peanuts. :)
This may be dinner tonight! I think I have all the ingredients on hand except for the peanuts. I learned to love spicy peanut sauce on my trip to Malaysian many years ago. I would have been perfectly happy to keep flying around forever if the lovely air hostesses just kept bringing me satay chicken skewers with spicy peanut sauce.
Made this the other night, Beth – it was as yummy as I thought it would be. I increased the Sriracha in the sauce ’cause I like it spicy and I used a green bell pepper and ground turkey as that is what I had on hand. Can’t wait to make this again with the ground pork.
I make a lettuce wrap filling similar to this, and I add in chopped water chestnuts to add additional crunch. They’re awesome, and an 8-oz can is usually less than a buck. Can’t wait to give your version a spin!! Yum!
My mouth is watering right now!!