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 used 500g (1lb) mince turkey and about 300g (10oz) chopped mushrooms, I over poured on the hoisin, tamari and sesame to make up for the extra meat and mushrooms. I used chilli oil in the peanut sauce (Lee Kum brand) instead of Sriracha as that is what I had on hand. The peanut sauce definitely brings the meal together, just beautiful! I love these simple mince meat recipes, definitely a great one to keep for weeknight dinners.
substituted with tofu and noodles instead – still amazing!
You are a genius! I made this tonight for dinner for my partner and myself, and it was freaking fantastic! It was time consuming for a weeknight, but fun to cook and worth the effort. One of our favorite dinners ever, this recipe is great!
This was amazing! The peanut sauce as an extra topping was the perfect way to top it off.
I made this dish yesterday for the first time for a friend who came over to my place.
I didn’t use ground beef, but instead used some leftover turkey which I cut into really small strips, and used Sambal Oelek to spice up the sauce instead of Sriracha.
My friend said that it was the best Asian food he had ever had. And I agree. It was off the charts. Especially the green onions on top, they really add a dimension of freshness to the dish. Perfect!
Thanks a lot!
Made this on Sunday with regular peanut butter and ground chicken. Hubby LOVED it. Thanks for another great (easy) recipe. Any chances of another cookbook?
I might do some ebook collections, but it’s just so much easier for me and more accessible for everyone else to publish everything as a blog post. :)
I really liked this dish! Since I don’t eat meat, the only change I made was to use Gardein Ground “Beef”, in place of the pork. It turned out excellent!
Wow looks so delicious!! Great recipe. Thanks for sharing Beth
Lots of delicious variations, and I also prefer a veggie loaded version–added a couple of dried shitake mushrooms to the 8 oz of diced crimini I already had and a little diced onion. I chose ground pork–a local supermarket grinds it in store and it’s both relatively low fat and cheap (varies from $3-4 per lb). If I didn’t have that source, I would mince or grind some lean pork myself rather than use the prepackaged stuff that is pretty high fat. My husband will eat anything with hoisin sauce, and I prefer a Chinese style chili sauce with garlic (such as Lee Kum Kee brand–sorry to name a specific one, but it’s the only brand currently available to me) to sriracha. One of the things I love most about Beth’s recipes is that they are not only perfect as written, but often offer a springboard to personalize the dishes making sure they suit my families preferences
My husband made this last night to go with the Thai cucumber salad – i love all the crunchy peanuts in these dishes. He used tofu with a little bit of soy sauce instead of pork. I’d never had hoisin sauce before but with the peanut butter and other slices it was perfect. Really good and came together quickly. So great that we already had most of the ingredients on hand.
Hi Beth!
Thank you so much for your amazing recipes.
I have some red onion I’m hoping to use up. Do you think I could dice it and throw it into the skillet towards the end of the cooking time? Or would the flavor be too off?
Also, what do you think about tossing some red cabbage in, either during cooking, or right after?
Thanks!!!
I tend to prefer red onion raw. I think it would be really nice on this if you sliced it super thin and then added it on top after cooking. Red cabbage would be good, but make sure to cook it very briefly, so it still has a slight crunch. The color may run a bit and turn everything slightly grey.
This can easily be made vegetarian – my partner made this with crumbled tofu instead of meat this week, and it was delicious!
This looks delicious! I’ll definitely be trying this… once I have a kitchen again. I also noticed it’s “One Pot” recipe, (not counting the peanut sauce and rice cooker!). Is there any particular reason you don’t tag your dishes as “One pot”? I know they’re not all “One Pot” but a lot are (like your recent Chana Aloo Masala).
Love your site and love your recipes!
I just haven’t gotten around to going back through the recipes to find all the one-pot dishes. :P
We got so tired of our lettuce leaves ripping and letting the sauce drip down our arms whenever we ate lettuce wraps. Now I just serve the filling over a bed of shredded lettuce with all the toppings piled on top and the dipping sauce as a dressing. So much easier to eat! Raw cabbage leaves work good too, if you want a more traditional presentation, and it’s usually much cheaper than butter lettuce.
I made this for dinner last night and it was so freaking good and it was so easy to make !!!
Thank you!!!
xo
Jessica