Name: Crack Pork Noodles
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients: 1 lb Ground pork; 1 tsp Neutral Oil; Salt, to taste; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 1 tbsp Soy Sauce; 1 tbsp Chili oil; 1 tbsp Hoisin sauce; 1 tsp Brown sugar; 1/2 tsp Sesame oil; 3/4 cup Chicken stock; 8 oz Wide Rice Noodles, dried; Scallions, thinly sliced; Toasted sesame seeds; Chili oil, extra, for drizzle

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Spicy Pork Noodles Recipe — Easy 15-Minute Pork Noodles | Chef Fatty

Cook: 15 minTotal: 15 min

The story

Hoisin sauce gets underused in home cooking because most people only know it as the dipping sauce for Peking duck. That's a waste. Hoisin is a powerful tool for building bold, sticky, restaurant-dark noodle sauces, and it shines especially hard with ground pork. Sweet, salty, funky, with a touch of five-spice depth, it does half the flavor work of a long-simmered sauce in a single tablespoon.

The "crack" framing is warranted. Hoisin plus chili oil on caramelized pork hits three of the big flavor buttons at once: sweet, salty, and spicy. The fermented soybean backbone in hoisin adds a savory depth that straight soy sauce can't match. Combined with rendered pork fat and crispy caramelized pork edges, the sauce becomes irresistible in a way that's hard to describe until you've eaten it.

Render the pork hard first. Dry pan, single layer, two or three minutes undisturbed until the bottom caramelizes and darkens. Break into chunks and cook another three or four minutes for more crispy edges. Drain off excess fat if needed, leaving about a tablespoon behind. Pull the pork.

The sauce builds in the residual fat. Garlic for thirty seconds. Then hoisin, soy sauce, chili oil, brown sugar, sesame oil, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and reduce by about half, until the sauce is thickened and glossy.

Wide rice noodles go in, along with the pork. Toss everything continuously as the noodles drink the sauce. The sauce should cling and coat every strand in a deep mahogany gloss. Scallions, sesame seeds, extra chili oil on top. It's a twenty-minute dinner that eats like a restaurant dish.

Method

Noodles

01
Soak your rice noodles in tap-hot water for 10 minutes. Start this while you render the pork and build the sauce and it will be ready by the time you need to add your noodles.

Pork

02
Add oil to a wide pan over medium-high heat. Add pork mince in a single layer. Let it sit undisturbed 2–3 minutes until the bottom caramelizes and darkens. Now break it apart. Continue cooking until most of the pork has crispy, caramelized edges, 3–4 more minutes. Drain excess fat if needed, leaving about 1 tbsp in the pan. Remove pork from the pan.

Sauce

03
Add garlic, hoisin, soy sauce, chili oil, brown sugar, sesame oil, and stock to the pan. Stir well. Bring to a simmer and let reduce 1–2 minutes until slightly thickened and glossy.

Noodles

04
Add noodles directly to the pan. Toss continuously until noodles absorb the sauce and everything is coated, 2–3 minutes. The sauce should cling and look dark and lacquered. Return pork to the noodles, add scallions, and toss.