Ground Pork Fried Rice Recipe

Ground pork fried rice is made with ground pork, white rice and lots of vegetables! This flavorful one-pot dish is the perfect comfort food meal that you can make for dinner tonight!

Making my own fried rice recipe at home is totally necessary for me, because I live in a rural area without a good Chinese restaurant near by.

Thankfully, this is a great recipe with only a few simple steps. I love the addition of ground pork, because we buy our pork in bulk so I'm always looking for new ways to use it up.

In addition to the ground pork, I include snow peas, carrots, ginger, garlic, fresh green onions and lots of typical Chinese food sauces and seasonings.

When I make a stir-fried rice recipe, I like to go heavy on the vegetables, moderate on the meat and light on the rice. I feel this gives me a well portioned meal with adequate amounts of protein and fiber. The ground pork adds extra fat that helps to increase satiety.

If you like ground pork fried rice, then you might also like my Teriyaki Turkey, Vegetable and Rice recipe or my Teriyaki Shrimp and Sushi Bowl!

Jump to:

• Reasons why you'll love this recipe
• Ingredients needed
• Equipment needed
• What is stir-frying?
• Step-by-step instructions
• Ingredient swaps
• Variations
• Expert tips
• 📖 Recipe
• Follow me!
• 💬 Comments

Reasons why you'll love this recipe

• Many of the ingredients can be prepped in advance! This makes the dinner hour so much easier when most of our meal is already cooked.
• The swaps and substitutions are endless in this recipe.
• This recipe is dairy free. It can also be gluten free if you use a gluten free tamari sauce in place of the soy sauce, and all of your other sauces and seasonings are also free of added gluten.

Ingredients needed

• Ground pork - Often times pork fried rice is made with pork belly, pork loin, pork tenderloin or leftover pork chops. I use ground pork in this recipe. Ground pork can contain a lot of fat so make sure you drain the fat out of your wok before stir frying your veggies.
• Cooked white rice - Cook your white rice in advance and let it fully cook down and chill before using it for this recipe.
• Onion - White or yellow onion will work well.
• Frozen peas - You do not need to thaw or cook your frozen peas ahead of time.
• Carrots - You can slice your carrots into thin slices like I did, match sticks or dice them into small squares.
• Snow peas - Snow peas don't need any additional prep!
• Green onion - You can use both the green and white part of the green onion when chopping it up.
• Fresh ginger - Peel your ginger root and then either mince it or finely grate it.
• Fresh garlic - Fresh minced garlic will work well.
• Soy sauce - I usually prefer to use low-sodium soy sauce. Also keep in mind that most soy sauces are not gluten free. If you need a gluten free soy sauce then you need to look for soy sauces labeled as Gluten Free Tamari.
• Hot sauce
• Garlic powder
• Sesame oil
• Cashews
• Cooking oil

Equipment needed

• Large frying pan or a wok - I've used both my large Lodge Cast Iron frying pan and also a large wok. Both work well!
• Cutting board and chopping knife
• Measuring cups and spoons

What is stir-frying?

Stir-frying is an Asian cooking method that generally uses a wok. A wok is a large, round bottomed cooking pot made of out carbon steel, stainless steel or cast iron. If you do not have a wok, a large frying pan that can withstand high cooking temperatures will work.

Stir-fried food is usually bite-sized food cooked in high heat, using a small amount of oil, and constantly turned over (stirred- hence the name) in the pan.

It is recommended that you have all of your ingredients chopped, measured and ready to go at time of cooking. Once food is added to the hot pan, everything cooks quickly and requires constant attention.

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1 - Add the ground pork to your wok and cook the pork over medium heat in a small amount of cooking oil. Remove the pork from the wok (or frying pan) and set it aside.

Step 2 - Add the frozen peas, carrots, onions and snow peas to the hot wok. Cook the vegetables over medium heat to high heat for about 4 minutes. Consistently toss the vegetables around the pan to avoid burning. Add the minced fresh garlic, minced ginger and green onion to the frying pan. Cook for an additional minute.

Step 3 - Push the vegetables to one side of the pan and add the cooked cold rice to the frying pan. Stir-fry the rice for about 3-4 minutes over medium to high heat. Let the rice brown and crisp up to your liking.

Step 4 - Add the cooked ground pork back to the large skillet and stir the pork into the rice and vegetables. Continue stir-frying your ground pork, rice and vegetables, until they are fully combined.

Step 5 - After combining the main ingredients together, you can add your sauces and seasonings. Add the garlic powder, sesame oil, soy sauce and hot sauce. Give the ground pork stir fry a good mixing together again and then remove it from the heat.

Step 6 - I like to top my fried rice with crunchy cashews. Toasting the cashews is optional. If you want to keep this a one-pan recipe, then don't bother toasting the cashews.

If you don't mind dirtying another dish, then toasting the cashews is totally worth it! In a small frying pan, lightly toast your chopped cashews in sesame oil using low heat. Sprinkle with salt. The cashews will toast quickly so keep an eye on the pan!

Remove the cashews from the pan and sprinkle them on top of your stir-fried rice, veggies and ground pork. Serve the fried rice with extra soy sauce on the side and enjoy!

Ingredient swaps

• Meat - If you don't want to use ground pork, then use ground turkey instead! You could also use pork belly or leftover roast pork chopped into small pieces. Chicken and shrimp are also commonly used in stir fry.
• Vegetables - In place of, or in addition to the vegetables in this recipe, you could also add in green beans, red pepper, bean sprouts, mushrooms or sugar snap peas.
• Rice - Stir fries are regularly made with different types of white rice, like jasmine rice, sushi rice or basmati rice and also with different types of long grain brown rice.

Variations

Stir fries also commonly include oyster sauce, hoisin sauce and fish sauce. Many Chinese stir fries also add in small pieces of scrambled eggs.

Expert tips

• Cook your rice ahead of time and allow it to completely chill in the refrigerator. It is best to do this the day/night before you plan on using it. This recipe is an excellent way to use up leftover rice!
• If you forget to cook your rice a day in advance then you can give it a quick chill in the freezer. After it is cooked, spread it out on a sheet pan and put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. You want to use chilled cooked rice because it will crisp up when it hits the hot frying pan. Warm, freshly cooked rice will not not crisp up. Instead, it will get soggy and clump together.
• One of the easiest, no-fail ways to cook rice is using a rice cooker!
• Be careful when adding in your aromatics, aka your fresh garlic and fresh ginger. You don't want them to burn in the high heat. Since you will immediately be tossing them into your vegetables, they should be fine. Just be careful when they make direct contact with the hot wok.
• Use high-heat cooking oil like peanut, canola, grape seed or avocado oil when oiling your wok.
• Do not cook your stir-fry in sesame oil! Sesame oil is a low heat cooking oil and should only be used as a finishing oil at the end of cooking.
• Don't start cooking until all of your ingredients are chopped and measured out! Stir-fries are cooked quickly using high heat so you do not have time to stop cooking (stirring) and measure or chop your ingredients after you start.

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