Don’t you just love how I post a pasta recipe immediately after the blog post where I say I’m trying to break my addiction to pasta? 😂 We’re all human. Anyway, This week I threw a spin on my classic Dragon Noodle recipe by adding ground pork and chopped peanuts, using a chunky chili garlic sauce in place of the sriracha, and using some good ramen noodles that I got at the international market. This recipe is ridiculously easy and soooo rich and delicious. Sweet, salty, sticky, crunchy, and all the noooooodles! These Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodles are like comfort food x 100. You’ll never go back to take out. Ever.
What Kind of Noodles Can I Use?
You can use just about any type of noodle for this recipe, but I suggest something kind of light like a ramen or egg noodle as opposed to a traditional spaghetti. The noodles I used came in a huge package, but I used about the equivalent to two standard 3oz. ramen packages. My noodles were quite a bit more expensive than grocery store ramen, so you can probably make this for even less! Woo!
What to Serve with Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodles
And because this dish is so sweet, rich, and indulgent, I highly suggest serving it with something green. I grabbed a bag of baby bok choy while I was at the international market and just sautéed them up briefly until wilted. You could even add some vegetables to the noodles, if you want. Broccoli florets or even some fresh spinach would be awesome. Shredded napa cabbage would be amazing, too. Or serve some Sesame Kale on the side!
Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodles
Servings 3Ingredients
Dragon Sauce
- 1/4 cup chili garlic sauce ($0.53)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.24)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ($0.16)
Pork and Noodles
- 1/2 lb. ground pork* ($1.50)
- 2 3oz. packages ramen noodles (seasoning packets discarded) ($1.00)
- 3 green onions, sliced ($0.20)
- 1/4 cup unsalted peanuts, chopped ($0.12)
Instructions
- Combine the chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar in a bowl.
- Add the ground pork to a skillet and cook over medium heat until it is fully browned*. Once browned, add the prepared dragon sauce and chopped peanuts. Allow the pork and peanuts to simmer in the sauce for another 5 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced by half.
- While the pork is browning, begin boiling water for your noodles. Once boiling, add your noodles and cook according to the package directions. Drain the noodles in a colander.
- Once the sauce has reduced and the noodles have drained, add the noodles to the skillet and toss until everything is combined and coated in sauce. Top with sliced green onions and serve!
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Notes
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Pork and Peanut Dragon Noodles – Step by Step Photos
Prepare the dragon sauce by combining 1/4 cup chili garlic sauce, 1/4 cup soy sauce, and 1/4 cup brown sugar.
This is the chili garlic sauce I’m talking about. You can find it in most stores right next to the sriracha. It’s kind of like a chunkier version of sriracha. It’s a mix of red chiles, garlic, vinegar, and salt. Super simple, but easier than adding all of those ingredients to your sauce individually. :)
Add 1/2 lb. ground pork to a skillet and cook over medium heat until it’s browned and cooked through. The ground pork I used was about 25% fat. It had enough fat so that I didn’t have to add any extra oil, but not so much that I had to drain off any excess fat after browning. You want about 1 Tbsp fat in the skillet to combine with the sauce, so if your pork is really greasy, drain some off before the next step.
Add the dragon sauce to the browned pork, along with 1/4 cup unsalted peanuts that have been chopped.
Let the pork and peanuts simmer in the sauce for about five minutes, or until the sauce has reduced by half. The sauce should be just thick enough that you can leave a trail in the skillet when you drag your spatula across, and the trail slowly fills in. While the pork and peanuts are simmering, boil the water for your noodles. Cook 6 oz. noodles according to the package directions. Drain the cooked noodles in a colander.
The pork is almost candied at this point and is SO GOOD that I had a hard time not just eating it out of the skillet. The peanuts kind of absorb the sauce as well. It’s just too good to be true.
Add the drained noodles to the pork and peanut mixture. Toss until everything is combined and coated in sauce.
Once everything is combined, sprinkle a few sliced green onions over top and serve!
So freaking good, guys. So good.
And like I said in the intro, these noods are really rich, so I suggest serving them with something green. Because the noodles are super flavorful you don’t even have to add anything to your greens. Just leave them fresh to contrast the super rich pork and noodles. 👌
This is my go-to week night dinner. It is so inexpensive to make, once you have the chili garlic sauce you can make it several times and ramen noodles are so cheap. Sometimes I use turkey or beef if the pork is too much. The sauce is literally 3 ingredients. I love this meal with some veggies on the side.
Tried this but halved the amount of chili garlic stuff, made up the difference with peanut butter, added bok choy and snow peas and it was still too spicy for me to be able to really taste anything but the chili garlic stuff. I would make it again with even less of the spice and add some ginger as well because it was definitely still good, just burned my mouth way too much! What can I say … I’m a spice wimp!
This might be my favorite BudgetBytes recipe of all time! So addictive. I added bok choy and kimchi and I just can’t get enough! Thank you!!
Yum! I had a hankering for something spciy, and this fit the bill! I had half a head of cabbage I needed to use up and sadly no noodles, so this was noodle-less but full of veggies! I also used a partial bag of frozen green beans, and diced and added a glove of garlic. I did find the sauce quite spicy, but enjoyably so! Looking forward to my leftovers and to making this again when I’ve got noodles!
So good! So simple! Thank you for continuing to inspire and delight. I love that when I shop my pantry, I can make a recipe from your site without having to go to the grocery store. Thank you for everything you do!
Thank you Annette! We love pantry shopping too :)
Another amazing recipe from you. Keep up the good work!
I make this one several times in Germany. I buy the “flying goose brand” sriracha chili sauce with extra garlic. It’s on the very spicy side for most of my European friends, but it’s not offensively spicy.
Oh good to know! Thank you so much for sharing Nicolas!
Long time Budget Bytes devotee here. I’ve always found your recipes to be so balanced and reliable… but. This recipe is almost perfect, but like others have said: the level of spice is way, way, way too high.
My husband and I love/have a pretty high spice tolerance. Even halved, it’s WAY too spicy. I’ve checked the brand and we used the same chili garlic sauce.
For those who like heat, but also like being able to eat their food without facial sweating (seriously!), I’d recommend using more like 1.5 Tbsp of the sauce the first time you make it, then increasing a half Tbsp each subsequent time. The 1/4 cup (3 Tbsp) is just way too much heat to enjoy all the flavors.
Again, I so respect and enjoy your recipes, but remain surprised that so many people have commented on the heat (this recipe’s default heat setting is unexpectedly higher than other “spicy” dishes on your site) without you considering a disclaimer or update to it. Just hoping to help improve it, because it’s a terrific dish otherwise!
Hi Caitlin! Thanks for letting us know. We’ll look into this further and see what we can do to improve the recipe.
What noodles do you use?
Just basic ramen noodles. I like to use lotus foods rice ramen noodles.
love the brown rice noodles from Costco — healthier than traditional white rice noodles.
Thanks to the other commenters mentioning it was spicy! I halved the chili paste and it still was a bit much. That said, still very tasty. I might just add a little more sugar next time. Also, I added a squeeze of lime and some chopped cilantro (in addition to the green onion) to top off the plate, which complemented the flavors perfectly. For those wondering about the noodles, I used some wheat ones labeled “Filipino style” and they worked fine. My ground pork had only 5% fat and it was a little dry. Definitely going to make it again though. Very versatile recipe! Thanks!
Thanks for sharing Grace. Good to know about the noodles too.
We made this and it was so spicy we added peanut butter and served with lots of milk. That being said, we loved it! I used a high quality ground beef and cheap ramen noodles and it tasted great. If you are serving to kids maybe decrease the chili sauce- my kids enjoyed the flavor but could have done with less burn. We doubled the recipe so we would have enough for lunch the next day for the adults.
Oh no! But happy to hear it worked for you!
Hello- Love this recipe! I’ve made it several times but I have a question. Can I sub white sugar for brown sugar? All I currently have is white sugar. Thanks!
You can. The flavor won’t be quite the same, but it will still be pretty tasty.
Can chicken or beef be substituted for the pork?
Yes you could swap though we haven’t tried it that way!
Can you make this meal without the spicy sauce? My 7 year old really doesn’t even like a hint of spice.
Without the chili garlic sauce you may not get the depth of flavor. You can give it a try but we haven’t made it that way. Let us know!
This is so good!! It’s delicious as written, but has so much room for improvising too. I pulled back on the chili sauce, added a spoonful of peanut butter to the sauce to make it thicker and threw in a bag of frozen stir fry veggies to get something green, and it’s suddenly my go-to low-effort weeknight meal. And my boyfriend says it tastes like really good takeout, which is a huge endorsement.
That’s fantastic to hear Cass! Happy you added veggies too. Can’t go wrong!
This meal is downright addicting. I halve the chili garlic sauce because I just can’t handle spice anymore, but it definitely still has a kick to it. Everyone I make this for immediately falls under its spell too. This is a routine meal in our home. Thanks Beth!
Thanks Jessica!