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…”
Delicious. Make it NOW. I’m not usually proud of what I cook, but I would even make this dish for my boyfriend and he is a GREAT cook. Granted, it somehow took me almost an hour and a half to make (my own prep ineptitude and kitchen size shortcomings), but it is completely worth it and I will be making it again!
(Changes: chili garlic sauce instead of Sriracha, matchstick carrots instead of shredded, low sodium soy sauce, and it looked just like the picture!)
I love your site, Beth :)
Thank you, Kim! I’m glad you enjoyed it. :)
This recipe was so good! My boyfriend who is a picky eater admitted he even liked it (after questioning every ingredient I was cooking with). It had the right amount of spice. Not too spicy for me, but you could easily make it a bit more spicy by adding a bit more of the sriracha sauce. The peanuts made a nice texture on top too. I will be making this again soon!
I subbed a block of tofu for the pork and it worked perfectly. The tofu crumbles so easily and ended up looking like the pork in the pictures. The hoisin is so savory and the tofu absorbs the sauce so well that it ended up tasting like there was meat in the dish. I was out of sriracha (I have no idea that happened – I blame it on our recent move) and had to use sambal in the peanut sauce. I was worried it would be too much but it was great. Thanks for another great recipe!
Sooo I searched the internets for a sesame oil-free peanut sauce because I’m currently out but otherwise have all the ingredients for an ammmmazing rice noodle/cabbage/carrot peanut sauce drenched meal. Of course I found nothing. So I hail mary searched budget bytes for a peanut sauce recipe and landed on this! Whipped it up and dinner was saved.
I’ve been following your site since 2012. I should’ve known to check budget bytes first! ;)
This recipe is absolutely PHENOMENAL! If you like Thai or Vietnamese food, then run, don’t walk, to the store to get the ingredients to make this tonight!! My husband and I gave it 10 out of 10 stars. :)
Keep up the amazing work, Beth! We appreciate you!!
This looks sooo good but my husband has a peanut allergy. Have you ever tried this with almond butter or cashew butter? Would it be as good?
I haven’t tried it with a peanut butter substitute, but from my experience almond butter and cashew butter have a much more mild flavor and won’t really stand out in the sauce the same way as peanut butter does. But hey, you can certainly try it and see if it works for you. :)
Um, wow. This spicy peanut sauce is EVERYTHING.
I have tried several peanut sauces using regular peanut butter. I did NOT like the taste. I noticed you are using a natural peanut butter. Is this what I am doing wrong? I love noodles in peanut sauce but have not been able to make at home. Once again is the peanut butter I used the problem? Thanks for viewing. Could use input, B Karr
It very well could be the cause of the problem. Natural peanut butter is just peanuts and sometimes salt, so it has a VERY nutty flavor and is not sweet. With other more processed types of peanut butter there is a lot of sugar and the oils they add dampen the peanut flavor. Definitely try making peanut sauce with natural PB. :)
As always your recipes are very good and clear with the directions. This one was amazing. Going to do some weekly meal prep the next time so it’s ready to gesture and go. Thank you.
I made this using pre-cooked pork and it was awesome! I halved the sriracha in the peanut sauce for taste preferences and am now using just the sauce as a salad dressing. Loving it :)
My husband is recovering from 6 months of chemotherapy and has ongoing mouth issues. He’s a meat guy and doesn’t like soup. :-(. I’m getting a handle on soft foods and this recipe looks not only delicious but soft enough it won’t hurt his gums. Thanks.
Ps
I follow lots of cooking blogs, facebook sites, newsletters and the like. Your Budget Bytes is unique to me because it offers quality, variety, very affordable, creative, accurate recipes that I can count on. Thank you for your interest in sharing
Thank you!
One of my go-to’s while undergoing chemo was pesto with pasta. I used store bought and you could also add some chopped meat if needed. I didn’t have a problem with my gums, though.
Patricia, try the pork and peanut dragon noodles. You could leave out the peanuts if even them being chopped up would bother him. The dish has good flavor and is very inexpensive to make. I used the milder chili sauce even though it has a little kick, I could always add some sriracha if I wanted more kick. My home has you in their prayers.
I’ve commented on this one before, but this has become a favorite in our home. It is so freaking delicious! All I have to say is honey, what if I make those hoisin bowls again? The answer is always a resounding yes. It’s one of our very favorites.
OMG, I would make this every week if I could – I love it! .
Have you used peanut butter powder for this ever?
I haven’t, no.
just found your website and this was the first recipe I’ve tried from it, all I can say is wow this was great only change I made was to add some frozen peas to it as well. thank you for a great meal.