This easy pork stir fry recipe is healthy and low carb. It comes together so fast dinner will be on the table in 15 minutes.
Before embarking on my low carb keto journey, ordering takeout from our favorite Chinese restaurant was a weekly occurrence. Pork dishes were some of my favorites, especially a great spicy pork stir fry!
We’re lucky to have a great Chinese restaurant in our community. It serves really “clean” Chinese food. Many of the dishes served at the restaurant we recognize from our two China adoption trips. These authentic Chinese dishes are delicious and quite different from the usual Americanized Chinese takeout of overly thickened and sweetened sauces.
At home, we typically make a stir fry to use up leftover vegetables and meat at week’s end – like this great ginger chicken asparagus stir fry. But for this recipe, I deliberately planned the ingredients. This easy pork stir fry to captures the taste of healthy Chinese food with a minimum of ingredients.
Most Chinese stir frys in the U.S are served with/or over rice, however, my family prefers to eat this dish as is – straight from the wok to our plates. You can certainly serve this pork stir fry over cauliflower rice or regular rice if you want, but just know that it has a modest amount of sauce.
I’ve found over the years that many stir fry recipes have very similar stir-fry sauce ingredients: cornstarch, soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry), sugar, and sometimes broth. Desiring to keep the amount of thickener (and carbs) to a minimum, I did not add any extra liquids in this pork stir fry recipe. The result is a slightly thickened sauce concentrated in flavor. As I said above, the recipe produces a modest amount of flavorful sauce.
On the subject of cooking a stir fry, I absolutely love my carbon steel wok. It heats quickly and is virtually non-stick. It also has very faint ridges along the surface that grab onto food so that it doesn’t all slide down to the middle while cooking. It’s a nice feature. The down-side? It requires seasoning before use and must be maintained with a thin layer of oil to prevent rusting.
If you aren’t into the maintenance of a carbon steel wok, there are many non-stick varieties available. If you’ve wondered where to buy a wok, I’ve found that Amazon has a nice selection for sale. I used this non stick Joyce Chen wok for many years before I purchased my carbon steel wok. There are also cast iron woks available as well as an electric wok one can use on the counter. My mom had one of those when I was growing up.
With a prep time of about 10 minutes and a cook time of 5, This easy pork stir-fry is the perfect weeknight meal.
Each Serving of this Chinese Pork Stir Fry is net carbs.
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Easy Pork Stir Fry Recipe (low carb)
Ingredients
- 3/4 pound pork loin, cut into thin strips
- 2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil (divided)
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 12 ounces broccoli florets
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
- 1 bunch green onioins (scallions), cut into 2 inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons Tamari soy sauce (or coconut aminos)
- 1 tablespoon extra dry sherry
- 1 1/2 tablespoons low carb sugar (or sugar or coconut sugar)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch (or arrowroot)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Optional Ingredients
- red pepper flakes
- sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preparation: Mince a clove of garlic. Cut a 1 inch piece of ginger and peel the thin skin with a spoon. Mince the ginger and add it to the garlic. Cut the pork loin into thin strips and mix with 1 tbsp. oil and the ginger and garlic.
- Cut the red bell pepper into strips and place into the bottom of a medium bowl. Cut the green onions (scallions) into 2 inch pieces, including some of the green stems and add them to the bowl. Cut the broccoli florets into large bite sized pieces, layering them on top.
- Add the sweetener and cornstarch (arrowroot) to a small bowl and mix together. Stir in the Tamari soy sauce, dry sherry and sesame oil.
- Method: Place the wok over high heat. It’s ready when a drop of water skips across the surface. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and quickly tilt the wok to coat all surfaces. Pour out the remaining oil. Place the wok back onto the heat and begin adding the pork to the sides and bottom of the pan. Leave the pork undisturbed until it has cooked half way through; the bottom half will turn white. Stir the pork and cook until it is almost cooked through. Remove from the pan to the serving bow.
- Dump the bowl of vegetables into the wok with the broccoli in the bottom. Cover with a lid and cook for 1 minute. Stir the vegetables and add the pork and any juices back to the pan. Stir the pork and vegetables together. Stir the stir fry sauce and pour it over the pork and vegetables. Push the pork stir fry to the sides and let the sauce boil at the bottom of the wok, stirring occasionally for several seconds until the sauce thickens.
- If you would like the sauce a little thicker, remove the stir fried pork and vegetables to the serving bowl and let the sauce cook a little longer. Pour the sauce over the stir fry when it reaches your desired level of thickness. Serve.
We used an underdone pork tenderloin for this recipe. We enjoyed the flavors. Will use this again this winter as we always have broccolli and sweet peppers on hand.
Best stir-fry I ever made! Daughter is a vegetarian & I’m low carb so at least a couple nights try to lean into her diet more (or split the proteins). I substituted thinly sliced (drained/extra firm) tofu (salt/peppered) for the pork, so I before adding veggies I added a bit more avocado oil; used kale leaves since we had them (first in bowl, then red pepper, scallions, about 8 oz of broccoli florets). Didn’t have corn starch so used equivalent flour. Doubled the sauce due to your comment about this being a moderate sauce (I love me some delicious sauce) and added a fair amount of red pepper flakes and sprinkled on toasted sesame seeds. I didn’t have any extra sauce but it coated everything really well (also used reg sugar as I didn’t have a low carb one). I cannot believe it turned out well because I was mad my teenager used all the corn starch in the house for some project and didn’t at least tell me she did. Your recipes can even overcome family squabbles! :) Thanks, Kim!
Just bought a carbon steel wok and this was the first recipe I made. Delicious, fast, and easy. Will make again soon!
So yummy!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Hey Kim, Thanks for sharing a delicious recipe. My husband is very health conscious and always demands something new for a meal. I am definitely going to prepare it for this evening. Presently I didn’t have Tamari soy sauce or coconut aminos. Can I use Miso Paste as their substitute. Will it affect the taste?
Hi Jenna. Admittedly, I have only used miso for soup, salad dressing or to smear on salmon or chicken. I don’t know if it would work in a stir fry. If you have regular soy sauce, use that. -Kim
I made this tonight for the first time; used frozen vegetables of what I had on hand (green bean, wax bean & carrot mixture), added a half a can of sliced water chestnuts and topped with slivered almonds. I also double the sauce because we are saucy kind of people. Used chinese red pepper sauce to make it a little spicier… because we’re also spicy kind of people.
Thanks for a great recipe. Will definitely make again.
I checked your site looking for something to use some leftover pork chops and this did not disappoint!
The sauce was delicious and I was able to use up some beans and zucchini in the stir fry as well.
This was amazing! Definitely a keeper!!! Sauce is really good and I will try with other meat also!!! Thanks for sharing!
Made this tonight and it’s a keeper! I especially loved the sauce. It’s slightly sweet and tangy. I did add celery, mushrooms and radishes to the veggie mix. We also used leftover pork steak cut into little bites. I will be making this again with other meats in the near future! Thanks so much!
Thanks for your comment! It answered my ?’s about recycling last nights pork loin chops. I was also thinking of adding shredded cabbage in as well!
Definitely one for the regular school night. Super easy and everyone loved it! This is going to be a common one for us now.
Enjoyed reading this
So good and so easy! After one bite, husband said to add it to the “list.” Better stir fry than some of my regular carb recipes. Thanks!
Guar gum would be better than the corn starch.arrowroot
Just made this for lunch today and it was delicious. By far the best stir fry sauce I’ve made. Even my picky 18 month old daughter likes it. Will become part of regular meals in this house.
So glad you and your daughter liked it, Jenn. I love a quick stir fry! Have a nice week. -Kim
this looks soo good! Thank You!
I onky have frozen vegetable and a skillet. Any advice?
This looks delicious, I can’t wait to try it.
Thanks, Matt. Enjoy. -kim
Stir fry is one of my favorite quick dinner fixes, but I’ve never tried a pork version before! This looks beyond delish!
Karly, it’s so easy to cut up boneless pork chops for this recipe, but you could totally use chicken, too. I don’t know about at your house, but in mine, a quick stir fry saves those leftover veggies lurking in the vegetable crisper from certain doom! Have a great week. -Kim