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. 👌
Anybody trying to cut carbs? I leave out the brown sugar and use Hearts of Palm spaghetti and it’s great.
I used ground turkey and shredded carrots some broccoli. It was awesome. I had to cut the garlic chilli sauce in half.
This is so delicious, it’s become a biweekly staple in my house.
I use slightly more soy sauce/Brown sugar to temper the spice. And I also use Ground Elk in place of pork.
Too hot to eat. I followed the recipe exactly as written, and while the blend of flavors was great, it was much too hot and spicy to even eat. I made the rookie mistake of not starting out with less than 1/4 C of garlic chili sauce. I’ll have to try much, much less next time . Again blend of flavors was great, just much too hot and spicy. We could not even eat it, threw it away. Such a tragedy.
I’m breast feeding right now so I have to be careful with spicy things is there anything I can swap out The sweet chili\garlic for?
Thanks!
Unfortunately, the chili garlic sauce is a critical part of this sauce, but you could try making a different sauce for the noodles like the sauce used in my Soy Glazed Eggplant.
Made this tonight got the first time. My family and I all loved it! We doubled the recipe (for yummy leftovers!) but didn’t quite double the amount of chili garlic sauce. Deliciously (and bearably) spicy.
Great flavor! This has become one of our staples. We do about a table spoon of the garlic chili paste and I add lime, my husband is more of a purist and does not. It’s is delicious and able to be tweaked to your liking.
Could gojuchang work in place of the chili garlic sauce, or ought I go buy some chili garlic sauce? Any excuse to go to the Asian grocery here in Kalamazoo!
Gojuchang is saltier, sweeter, and more concentrated. I’d stick to chili garlic sauce for this one. :)
Not related to the recipe but hello from a former resident of Kalamazoo! What a small world!
Don’t rely on the nutritional information for this recipe. I entered all the info with USDA nutritional information and standard grocery store ingredients and the fat was 10+ grams more, the protein and carbs were significantly less. Swapping out 80/20 Ground beef instead of pork brought it closer, but I still get 22.6g P, 55.7g C, and 30.7g F. Calories are 596 Cal. We’ll see how it comes out, but being on a Macro diet I have to plan out every meal meticulously and these kinds of things bug me. I’ve never yet seen an online recipe be accurate with nutritional info.
I agree, calculated nutrition info is absolutely never going to be accurate because there are far too many variables, which is why I resisted including nutrition information on my recipes for years. The only way to achieve accurate nutrition info is to test the food in a lab, and even then everyone will have different results based on their individual ingredients. Even with our nutrition disclaimer explaining this, the unfortunate truth is that most people see nutrition data and take it as fact. :(
Made this on a whim tonight because I had thawed ground pork.
Didn’t have the chili-garlic sauce or peanuts so I subbed 2 Tbsp Sriracha, 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar, and 1-2 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter (I just scooped some on a cereal spoon so not sure about measurement)
Then squeezed some lime on top.
So good, but I’m definitely gonna get my hands on some of that chili-garlic sauce and make this again soon.
I used beef and it was amazing, definitely spicy but I loved it.
I spiced this up with the recommended Broccoli and some bell peppers. Really good stuff. I also used some thicker soy sauce, but I can’t say how that affected anything in particular. This is a repeat dish in our household.
This recipe was excellent but I modified it because I didn’t have the chilli garlic sauce. I used 1/4 sweet chilli sauce, 1/4 sambal oelek. The kids loved it.
I know this will be a family favourite.
I made the recipe again. Scrap my modification. Don’t ever use it! It’s fine and delicious, but do what you can to use the chilli garlic sauce because it is fantastic and there is an added kick!
yummy!
This is the BEST! Cheap, easy, and a ridiculous amount of flavor. I cut back some on the chili garlic sauce to keep the heat down and more kid-friendly, but that’s just a personal preference. The peanuts are an excellent addition to give it texture. After one bite everyone agreed that this should be in the regular dinner rotation. Thanks again for another good recipe!
I made this last night for dinner. My husband and I ate the whole pan. If you like it quick & spicy, this is a great recipe. Really delicious.