Spicy Pork and Peanut Noodles

These spicy pork and peanut noodles are made in 20 minutes and are the perfect easy weeknight dinner. Made with pork mince and a 4 ingredient sweet, sticky flavourful sauce, this meal comes together quicker than you can order takeaway – and tastes so much better!

A couple of weeks ago I asked the question on my Instagram Stories, what kind of recipes did you want to see more of? And the overwhelming answer was easy and savoury. So it seems that you want to see more weeknight dinners that are low fuss but still taste delicious – does that sound right? Well, if that is the case today’s recipe is going to make you very happy.

Noodles are one of life’s greatest foods. I could eat some variation of noodles everyday. In fact, I often have to hold myself back and force myself to make different meals for dinner for the simple fact that noodles are so easy to make taste delicious in a very short period of time, so they become my go to when I am not sure what to make.

These noodles in particular come together really quickly with little effort, but the payoff is a deliciously saucy noodle that is a little sweet, a little spicy and a whole lot of comfort in a bowl.

This meal comes together quicker than it takes the UberEats person to arrive and personally I enjoy these noodles more than any I can buy because I can adjust the flavours and the level of spiciness to suit me perfectly.

The quality of this meal centres around the quality of the noodles. I find the Chang’s brand dried long life egg noodles to be the best and they cook in just 3 minutes. Those soft ‘fresh’ style egg noodles you can buy at the supermarket seem to always have a weird taste and texture that is just a little off. If you look below them in the supermarket, you will find the dried variety and they are so much better, it’s not even a competition anymore. They are also a lot cheaper, coming in at under $2 for enough noodles to serve 4 people.

Also sometimes when I am at my local Asian grocer I will pick up some good looking ramen noodles and they work awesomely in this dish. But more often than not I am making this because I didn’t really plan ahead, so it’s supermarket convenience to the rescue!

Onto the sauce. We are mixing up just 4 ingredients to make the best sticky, sweet, spicy sauce of your life. Soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic and chilli sauce, and sesame oil are what is making these noodles amazing.

The garlic and chilli sauce I use is the same brand that you would recognise from the bottles of Sriracha sauce and it is probably my favourite chilli sauce – and I have a lot. I think I got my jar at the Asian grocer but I have seen it at the supermarket before, I think it just depends on the range your local store carries. There are a couple of different brands that do a similar jarred sauce, just see what you can find. It is a perfect pantry staple and I use it in so many dishes when I want to not only add some heat, but also that delicious chilli flavour.

If you can’t find it or don’t want to buy a different ingredient, you can just use some Sriracha and a small clove of garlic instead.

As for the sesame oil, I have only recently discovered how wonderful this stuff is. I have always had it in my pantry but only used it sparingly when cooking, afraid of its strong flavour. But the more I started eating at good quality Asian restaurants, I realised that one of the secrets to the robust flavour profiles of many of the dishes, is the liberal use of sesame oil. Since then I have been adding it to sauces by the tablespoon and my meals have never been the same. I cannot explain just how much flavour the addition of the sesame oil adds.

It also gives the noodles that slurpy texture which we definitely all want.

To compliment the noodles we have some pork mince, broccoli and crunchy peanuts making this a well balanced weeknight dinner. All of these additional ingredients are technically optional – I have definitely just eaten plain noodles with this sauce before, but this is what makes it a meal.

If you are vegetarian or vegan for example, just leave out the pork, add in some other veggies if you want or throw some crispy tofu on top. The rules here are loose – make it as you wish with what you have on hand and let the sauce bring everything together.

This is a cheap weeknight dinner that reheats to be just as good the next day making it perfect for leftovers. It comes together in about 20 minutes and tastes better than anything you could order in because you made it yourself!

These spicy pork and peanut noodles are perfect for these cooler nights with dinner on the couch and our favourite show on TV. It is comfort food that is actually pretty healthy so add this to your menu next week because I guarantee these will end up being a staple in your house when you need something delicious but don’t feel like spending all night in the kitchen.

If you do make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and rating below! And tag any of your creations on Instagram with #eightforestlane as I would love to see.

5 from 6 votes

Spicy Pork and Peanut Noodles

These spicy pork and peanut noodles are made in 20 minutes and are the perfect easy weeknight dinner. Made with pork mince and a 4 ingredient sweet, sticky flavourful sauce, this meal comes together quicker than you can order takeaway - and tastes so much better!

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian

Servings: 4 serves

Author: Sally

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Ingredients

Sauce

• ½ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon chilli and garlic sauce

Noodles

• 450 grams dried noodles
• 500 grams pork mince
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• ¼ cup peanuts
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds optional

Instructions

• In a small bowl or jar mix together all sauce ingredients and set aside.
• Place a large saucepan of water on to boil and cook the noodles according to the packet directions. Chop broccoli into small bite sized pieces and add to the pot of noodles just as they are finishing cooking for another minute until tender. Drain both noodles and broccoli and set aside.
• In a frying pan, heat the peanut oil. Cook the pork mince until brown, breaking it up with a wooden spoon.
• Add peanuts, broccoli and noodles to the browned mince and mix through sauce. Cook for 5 minutes stirring until the sauce thickens and coats the noodles. Sprinkle over sesame seeds and serve.

Notes

I like to use Chang’s long life noodles. 

Vegan/Vegetarian Option: Replace pork with more veggies or some crispy tofu. 

Recipe adapted from Budget Bytes.

Not from Australia? Check out my US Conversion Guide.

More quick dinner recipes:

Turmeric Fried Rice
Chicken Satay Noodles
Crispy Tofu and Zoodles with Peanut Sauce
Charlie Chan Pasta: A Filipino Spaghetti

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