Crispy coated pork smothered in a tangy sweet and sour sauce and served up with pineapple, crunchy onions and peppers.
Sweet and sour pork is a takeaway classic you can easily make at home!
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You guys seem to be loving the Chinese inspired dishes we’ve been doing lately, so I’m trying to make it a priority to share as many recipes with you as I can!
This sweet and sour pork stir fry is very similar to my sweet and sour chicken (why change something that works!), it’s really only that we’re using pork instead.
We’re of course going Hong Kong style – which means the pork is chopped into bite-sized pieces, dredged in a flavourful coating then fried to crisp perfection, before being coated in that sweet and sour sauce.
Pork is a little bit tougher than chicken, so if you still want that juicy, tender texture, it’s worth considering if you want to tenderize the pork beforehand.
To tenderize or not to tenderize?
Pork is tougher than chicken – fact.
I don’t mind the slightly chewier texture of pork, but if you want it more tender, you can tenderize the pork beforehand.
To do this you can:
- Use a meat tenderizer (looks like a mallet with sharp points). Place pork steaks on a board and whack them a few times. This helps to break down the muscle fibres, making for more tender meat. Once tenderized, slice or chop the meat ready for coating.
- Sprinkle 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda evenly over 500g (1.1lb) of sliced/chopped pork. Rub it in with your hands and leave for 15 minutes.Rinse the pork in a colander and pat dry thoroughly with kitchen paper. Now it’s ready for coating.
📋 What do we need?
- Pork – Pork has a tendency to be more chewy than chicken when it’s fried quickly, so it’s best to go for a good quality cut that is quite tender and not too fatty. If you dislike any chewiness, then you can tenderize the pork beforehand (see notes above).
- I like to use pork shoulder steaks from the butchers.
- Pork loin or fillet are also fine, but they have less fat and so they can be a little bit drier.
- Ketchup – yes we’re using ketchup and a fair amount of it. It’s not usually an ingredient I would use a lot of, but it works really well for the seasoned tangy-sweet flavour.
- Tinned pineapple IN JUICE – yes you can use fresh if you prefer – however I like using the tinned pineapple as it’s ready chopped, and it comes in juice (the juice is also added to the sauce). If you use fresh pineapple, you’ll want to get some pineapple juice too, to add in to the sauce.
🔪 How to make this sweet and sour pork recipe
***Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post***
- Dredge the pork in cornflour, then coat in lightly whisked egg, then dredge in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, garlic salt and paprika.
- Fry the pork until crisp and cooked through, then put to one side.
- Fry the onions, peppers, garlic and ginger, then add in the sauce ingredients (ketchup, vinegar, sugar and tinned pineapple – including juice).
- Bring to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes, until thickened. Add the pork back in and toss together, then serve.
👩🍳PRO TIP Don’t let the crispy pork sit in the sauce for too long before serving – otherwise it will lose its crispness.
Serve with Boiled rice or Egg Fried Rice and top with a few spring onions (scallions) if you like!
So what do you prefer? – Sweet and sour chicken, this pork version, or that easy sweet and sour turkey made from Xmas leftovers?
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🍽️ Love pork?
I’ve got lots of porky recipes! Here are some of my favourites:
Sweet and Sour Pork Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 90 g (3/4 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp garlic salt
- 2 tsp paprika
- 500 g (1.1 lbs) pork shoulder steak chopped into bite-size chunks
Sauce:
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 large onion peeled and chopped into large chunks
- 1 red bell pepper chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 1 green bell pepper chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 150 ml (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) tomato ketchup
- 2 tbsp malt vinegar
- 6 tbsp soft brown muscovado sugar (you can use light or dark brown sugar)
- 435 g (15 oz) tinned pineapple chunks in juice
To Serve:
- boiled or fried rice
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan until very hot.5 tbsp vegetable oil
- Whilst the oil is heating, add the cornflour (cornstarch) into a shallow bowl. Add the eggs to a second bowl and lightly whisk them.3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch), 2 eggs
- To a third bowl, add the flour, salt, pepper, garlic salt, and paprika and mix together.90 g (3/4 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, ½ tsp garlic salt, 2 tsp paprika
- Dredge the pork in the cornflour, then dip it in the egg (make sure all of the pork is covered in egg wash), and finally dredge it in the seasoned flour.500 g (1.1 lbs) pork shoulder steak
- Working in one or two batches (depending on the size of your pan – there needs to be space in between each piece of pork), add the pork to the pan/wok and cook on a high heat for 6-7 minutes, turning two or three times during cooking, until well browned and cooked through. Remove from the pan and place in a bowl lined with kitchen towels.
- Now start on your sauce.
- Add the oil to the pan (you can use the same pan you fried the pork in) and heat it up on a medium-to-high heat.1 tbsp vegetable oil
- Add in the chopped onion and cook for 3 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the onions start to go translucent.1 large onion
- Add the chopped red and green peppers and cook for a further minute.1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper
- Add in the minced garlic and minced ginger, and cook for another minute.2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp minced ginger
- Add the tomato ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, and the tinned pineapple (including the juice) and stir.150 ml (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) tomato ketchup, 2 tbsp malt vinegar, 6 tbsp soft brown muscovado sugar, 435 g (15 oz) tinned pineapple chunks in juice
- Bring to the boil, and then turn down the heat and let it bubble (stirring every so often until slightly thickened.
- Transfer the cooked crispy pork to the pan with the sauce and toss to coat.
- Serve with boiled or fried rice.boiled or fried rice
Video
Notes
- Prepare the 3 bowls for the pork coating (cover them all, and refrigerate the one with the eggs in).
- Chop the pork (cover and refrigerate)
- Chop the vegetables (cover)
- Mix together the ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar and pineapple in a jug, – ready for the sauce (you can’t add the garlic and ginger at this point, as it needs to be fried for a minute before the rest of the sauce ingredients are added). Cover the sauce.
- I like to use pork shoulder steaks from the butchers.
- Pork loin or fillet are also fine, but they have less fat and so they can be a little bit drier.
- Use a meat tenderizer (looks like a mallet with sharp points). Place pork steaks on a board and whack them a few times. This helps to break down the muscle fibres, making for more tender meat. Once tenderized, slice or chop the meat ready for coating.
- Sprinkle 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda evenly over 500g (1.1lb) of sliced/chopped pork. Rub it in with your hands and leave for 15 minutes.
Rinse the pork in a colander and pat dry thoroughly with kitchen paper. Now it’s ready for coating.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I made this (and another dish) for a group of 10 friends and everyone loved it. My term is that the recipe “travels well”, meaning that I can cook the meat and prep the other ingredients at home, then travel across town to my friends’ home and do the final assembly in 5-6 minutes.
I don’t recall much emphasis on economy but it’s worth mentioning that this dish filled my 14 inch wok to the top at a cost of about 7 dollars. There are not many good meal options that are also this economical.
Works well with sugar substitutes.
Made it with Stevia granules which are used at 1:2 stevia/sugar ratio
Amazing my boys had seconds
Love the look and sound of this, since the pork is not deep fried first, though the amount if tomato ketchup is abit iffy. Will probably make my own ketchup.
Flippin lush…..
If you have fresh pineapple juice on hand, it makes a great marinating tenderizer for the pork. I still prefer canned pineapple chunks for the recipe, with red, orange, and yellow bell pepper chunks, some green scallion, and brown sugar in place of white sugar.
Also, rice vinegar has a great Asian flavor instead of regular white vinegar, if you have it on hand. Double-fry your pork for extra crispiness if you don’t care for batter coatings.
I made this for dinner tonight. I made it just like the recipe but left out the vinegar. I didn’t think it needed it. It was soooo good. My Husband loved it. I served it over white rice. We will have leftovers tomorrow. This recipe is a keeper. Thank You for sharing this recipe.
Really yummy. Made half the recipe for the pork as only 2 of us but made extra sauce as it was delicious!
Better than the takeaway
We love your sweet and sour chicken, so I know we are going to love this. Ordered some pork shoulder ready to make this on Friday, so looking forward to this😋