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…”
WOW, made this for dinner tonight and my husband informed me that I have now “cooked myself out of going out for dinner any more, home cooking has out done anything we could find at a restaurant”. That is a great compliment to me. Thank you!
Just made this! Subbed the ginger for allspice because I was out, and swapped the sriracha for paprika because my wife is sensitive to spicy foods. It came out awesome!
HaHa! Just made this recipe and I am absolutely blown away. Wonderful colors, texture and flavors. I used ground turkey, substituted the ginger with a pinch of nutmeg (ginger allergy D: ) and used zucchini in place of the mushrooms (wife HATES mushrooms). Even with my monkeying about, the dish turned out superbly. Thank you so much for sharing this.
I’m not sure if I like Sriracha, what would be a good substitute?
You can leave it out, although you may want to add a small splash of rice vinegar in its place.
Loved this! We veganized it with Tofurky Thai Basil Chik’n instead of pork. Have made it a few times now and it’s been a huge hit every time. Thanks for another great recipe :)
Had to come back and comment on this. This was tonight’s dinner. I used ground turkey and my only substitute was zucchini for mushrooms, since it’s what I had on hand.
OMG! This was seriously so delicious! I will definitely make it again! So different from my usual meals, but I felt it was restaurant worthy! A bit time consuming since I had to make my own hoisin sauce, but worth the time. This and your tofu in sweet chili sauce are among my favorite meals! Thanks for another winner!
As a penniless college kid, your blog has been an absolute life-saver! My roommates and I love it, and this recipe was one of our favorites!
daaaaang! that was the bomb, we made it two nights ago and husband requested it again this week. so good
Well Beth,
You’ve done it again! Delicious, and pretty healthy (used Turkey for this tonight).
Definitely will be making this again!
Made this last night for dinner. Received 100% thumbs up from entire family and they were looking for more! This recipe is the bomb! I’m going to try it again using ground turkey. Thanks for the awesome website … I love it here!
This was a fantastic recipe! My husband has already declared it a new favorite. I used some diced up pork loin chop meat that I had on hand, and it worked just as well.
I could also slurp the peanut sauce like soup.
I made this for dinner tonight and had to comment because it was SO good. I pride myself on keeping a tight grocery budget by meal planning and cooking at home, and while most of the recipes I find and try are pretty tasty, you have upped my game already (just found your site a few weeks ago and this is only the second one I’ve tried). :) You have a knack for combining flavors and creating dishes that taste amazing and somehow don’t require lots of specialty ingredients, hours of time, or contain tons of calories. Thank you so much for sharing; I am having fun browsing your archives to decide which recipes I’ll be trying next!
This was so delicious! Loved it. I used ground chicken instead of pork (because that was what the store had) and it worked perfectly. So great!! One of my favorites from you!
Delicious! I had ground chicken marinating in the fridge. I added some grated zucchini to my mix and used honey hoisin- I didn’t have sesame oil but coconut oil worked just fine. That peanut sauce is the business!
Made this over the weekend… I liked it a lot but somehow the addition of the peanut sauce (as tasty as it was) kind of threw off the taste of the hoisin mixture, which was quite tasty. This dish tastes exactly like mushu except without the wrappers. Will make next time without the peanut sauce, though I think the sauce might taste good on chicken?
Yes, definitely. :)