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…”
Absolutely delicious!! The combination of flavours is spot on. Thanks so much for sharing. 😊
I made this the other night ! My SO and I loved it !
I used pork stir fry strips and it worked well!
I made double the peanut sauce and still have some left. I put heaps of the peanut sauce on mine but SO only put a little on his.
Served with brown rice!
Will be making again!
This is our go to recipe and my husband’s favorite. We use lettuce wraps when we don’t feel like cooking jasmine rice. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
I made this tonight, exactly by the recipe, and it was fantastic!!
Thank you so much for providing these recipes, they really help us eat good food (healthy and tasty).
LOVE this recipe! I think it might be my favorite of all the Budget Bytes recipes. And it’s super customizable, too. Snap peas were on sale when I made this so they made a great addition. The peanut sauce is incredible!
Calories????
Hi Beth. Made this for dinner tonight. The whole family loved it. Those who don’t like rice had it with low mein noodles. Definitely a keeper (this is what I call recipes that I will make again. Most of yours are keepers).
I made this with imitation ground beef to make it vegetarian and it turned out great. Better than most Chinese takeout I’ve had.
Rishee — what imitation ground beef product did you use? Thanks!
Again, another hit recipe! Absolutely love the flavor of the spicy peanut sauce.
I did make a few changes though, I omitted the red bell pepper (too pricey) and mushrooms (not one of my fave ingredients). I used 3 carrots instead of 1 and added a bag of frozen broccoli & cauliflower mix (at the mushroom stage of the recipe). I also omitted the sesame oil, it would have added some flavor, but the recipe wasn’t lost without it. Instead of putting chopped peanuts on top, I used crunchy peanut butter in the sauce.
This recipe was super easy to make and I cannot wait to make it again!
I’m so confused. Your pic shows just sesame oil and recipe calls for toasted sesame oil. Are they different ingredients? I bought sesame oil, but not toasted. Do you toast it yourself?? This recipe looks great, but I need to know if I need to run out and get a different oil now.
The brand of toasted sesame oil that I had just didn’t label it as “toasted”. You can tell it’s toasted by the dark brown color and extremely nutty aroma, though. Untoasted sesame oil has a light straw color, similar to canola oil.
This is one of my go to recipes now. I generally make it when I have friends and family coming over and I usually have to triple the recipe because everyone wants seconds! All I have to say is I’m making the deconstructed lettuce wraps and everyone rushed over to grab a bowl! Thanks Beth!
This recipe is SO delicious!!! I used ground chicken and added in a bunch of broccoli….yum!
This was fantastic! There’s something about that hoisin sauce and peanut sauce combo that I’m really enjoying. I kept the veggies a little chunkier to save time (and for personal preference), and I also used 1/2 ground pork and 1/2 leftover shredded chicken because that’s what I had on hand. Seems like a flexible dish, I’d definitely like to throw it in the meal rotation =)
Made this last night, and it was delicious! Took about 40 minutes because I couldn’t find the grater, so hand-chopped the ginger, garlic, carrots and bell peppers. But my goodness, that peanut sauce is amazing.
This recipe is a keeper for my BF and me! It’s very forgiving – I’ve doubled the meat if I need to use the whole thing, and added different/extra veggies like broccoli or snow peas. We also really like to just stir the peanut sauce into the hoisin mixture rather than drizzling on top. One of my go-to recipes!