With simple ingredients, easy steps, and a short cooking time, this pork fried rice recipe is homemade food at its finest.
Each spoonful brings a colorful and flavorful bite of mildly savory pork, sweet veggies, and crispy rice. Everything is stir-fried in a sauce made from classic Asian condiments such as hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and Sriracha. The sauce creates a melody of sweet, spicy, and savory notes that harmonize flawlessly with the remaining ingredients, creating a dish with tantalizing flavors that dance on your taste buds.
Why We Love This Pork Fried Rice
- It’s a quick throw-together: With familiar ingredients and short, simple cooking steps, this pork fried rice makes a great last-minute dinner for busy days. Moreover, it’s also a fantastic choice whenever you crave something wholesome that requires little effort.
- Its ingredients are simple and customizable: You can put this dish together using almost anything readily available in the fridge. Got something that’s been sitting for a while and don't want to let it go to waste? Toss it in!
- The flavors are immaculate: With rich Asian condiments and a versatile mixture of ingredients, this dish is packed with gorgeous flavors and diverse textures. It offers a little bit of everything—sweet, savory, spicy, and hearty goodness, along with mildly crispy and soft bites that delight the taste buds like no other.
- It’s an all-in-one nutrition package: This dish has it all—whole grains, vegetables, and meat. One serving will provide you with protein, fiber, and other nutrients that keep the body healthy and energized.
How Healthy Is This Pork Fried Rice?
Yes, it is.
As the name suggests, its main ingredient is pork—a high-quality source of protein. Pork also provides selenium, zinc, vitamins B12, B3, and B6, phosphorus, and heme iron. With the addition of carrots, corn, and green peas, this dish also comes with various other essential nutrients, most notably fiber and vitamin A.
Moreover, with the ingredients mindfully portioned, each serving offers 468 calories, 3 g saturated fat, and 587 mg sodium. These amounts are kept within acceptable limits set by our nutrition guidelines.
Ingredients You Will Need
- Pork: We used ground pork, which is most common for fried rice. You can also chop tenderloin into bite-sized pieces if you prefer something thicker.
- Vegetables and legumes: We went with typical fried rice toppings—carrots and green peas, plus some corn for pops of sweetness, but you can use pretty much anything at your disposal.
- Rice: Almost any type of rice would work for this dish. If you have leftover rice, it's all the better since it’ll be hardened to a crisp and less likely to end up soggy.
- Aromatics: We went with three foolproof choices—garlic, ginger, and onion—that would give the dish a fragrant undertone.
- Spices: We wanted the dish to have a mildly spicy kick, so we opted for some red pepper flakes, ground black pepper, and chili powder.
- Brown sugar: This is to melt a caramelized sweetness into the dish and deepen the sauce.
- Condiments: To give the dish that signature Asian savoriness, we made a sauce from a mixture of sesame oil, Sriracha, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce.
- Egg: Scrambled egg is undoubtedly an essential part of fried rice, adding to the dish its bright and mildly savory flavor and crumbly, soft texture.
- Other ingredients: We fried the rice with canola oil and garnished it with some chopped scallions as a finishing touch.
Variations of This Pork Fried Rice
Want to switch things up every once in a while? These might do the trick:
- Proteins
Over the years, we’ve made fried rice with a wide variety of proteins and thoroughly enjoyed them all. If you want a bit of savory depth, give this Beef Fried Rice Recipe a try. Can’t get enough of seafood? Our Salmon Fried Rice, Shrimp Fried Rice, and Sea Bass Fried Rice are just the stuff to make. And hey, a plate of Chicken Fried Rice for dinner is not a bad idea either!
- Vegetables
As we said, this recipe would work with almost any veggies that you have on hand. A few often used in Asian stir-fries are broccoli, cabbage, bell peppers, mushrooms, green beans, tomatoes, and bean sprouts.
- Rice
White rice is most commonly used for frying, but you can always use brown rice or quinoa to switch things up. They’ll bring a more pronounced earthy taste and a slightly chewier texture to the dish.
- Other Ingredients
Beyond the common choices above, you can add other ingredients, such as kimchi, pineapple, tofu, toasted sesame seeds, bacon, sausages, etc., to the dish. The possibilities are endless, so don’t be afraid to get experimental.
How to Store and Reheat
This pork fried rice can be stored in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat the leftovers on the stovetop over medium-low heat, or simply put them in the microwave until thoroughly heated.
What to Serve With Pork Fried Rice
This pork fried rice is a pretty popular main dish in Asian meals, and it’s often served with a hearty soup. If you're not sure where to start, take a look at our Miso Soup Recipe, Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe, and Egg Drop Soup Recipe for inspiration.
How to make Pork Fried Rice
With simple ingredients, easy steps, and a short cooking time, this pork fried rice recipe is homemade food at its finest. Originally a takeout staple, this dish is full of indulgent flavors, made healthier with a mindful proportioning and selection of ingredients.
- by Luna Regina, Daisy Huynh, 2023-10-06
- cook TIME 15 mins
- prep TIME 5 mins
- total TIME 20 mins
- COURSE Main dish
- CUISINE Chinese
- SERVINGS servings
- CALORIES 468 kcal
INGREDIENTS
- 8 oz 96% lean ground pork
- 2 1/2 cups cooked medium-grain rice (from 1 1/4 cups uncooked)
- 2 oz corn
- 4 oz carrot (diced)
- 4 oz green peas
- 1/2 cup scallion (chopped)
- 2 oz onion (diced)
- 2 tbsp garlic (minced)
- 1 tsp ginger (minced)
- 2 medium eggs
- 4 tbsp canola oil
- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 1/2 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp Sriracha
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
INSTRUCTIONS
Prep
Cook the rice: Rinse the rice, then cook according to the package instructions. It should typically take around 15-20 minutes to cook.
Dice the carrots: Peel the outer skin and cut the carrot crosswise into thirds. Slice each third lengthwise into thick sticks, then lay them horizontally and cut crosswise into medium-sized cubes.
Dice the onion: Cut the onion in half lengthwise. Turn the half vertically and make thin slices but leave the root intact. Then turn the onion horizontally and push the knife crosswise into the cuts. Then, thinly slice to make small, diced pieces.
Mince the garlic: Cut off the root, remove the peel, and thinly slice each clove. Rock the knife over the sliced pile a few times until the pieces are finely minced.
Mince the ginger: Scrape the skin off, then thinly slice the ginger crosswise. Cut the pieces into matchsticks, gather the sticks, and thinly slice them into tiny pieces.
Chop the scallions: Cut off the white roots and the 1-2 inches at the top. Bunch the stalks together in one hand and chop the bundle into small rounds.
Cook
Mix the oil into the rice: In a bowl of 2 1/2 cups cooked medium-grain rice, add 2 medium eggs and 2 tbsp canola oil, and mix until evenly coated.
Sweat the aromatics: In a pan over medium heat, heat up 2 tbsp canola oil then stir in 2 tbsp garlic and 1 tsp ginger for around 30 seconds or until fragrant.
Add the pork: Add 8 oz 96% lean ground pork to the pan, use a spatula to break it up, and stir-fry for 5 - 7 minutes until the meat turns light brown.
Add the veggies and peas: Continue adding 2 oz corn, 2 oz onion, 4 oz carrot, and 4 oz green peas and stir-fry for around 3 minutes.
Add the seasonings: Add 2 1/2 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce, 1 1/2 tsp Sriracha, 1/2 tbsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, and 1/2 tsp chili powder and stir-fry for around 3 minutes until everything is well-mixed.
Add the rice: Add the seasoned rice to the pan and stir-fry it for a few minutes.
Garnish and serve: Take the rice off the heat and transfer it onto serving plates. Garnish with 1/2 cup scallion and serve hot.
NUTRITION
Luna Regina
Writer, Author
Daisy Huynh
Writer, Recipe Developer