Easy and homestyle pork and shiitake mushroom stir fry (香菇炒肉片).
This is one of the easy meat series. In Chinese cuisine, we love to stir fry all types of meat (pork, beef, chicken) with seasonal vegetables. You can find we have fresh peppers, wood ear mushrooms, onion, snow peas. This mushroom pork stir frying is also a national dish loved by many children. Although no extra spices and herbs are added, the dish is rich in flavor. The tender an juice meat with a faint aroma of shiitake mushroom is so appealing. If you are a mushroom lover, do not miss it.
Although it is quite simple, I highly recommend you reading the whole post and pay attention to the parts with colors. All the tips has been highlighted with different colors.
Ingredients you will need
- 200g pork butt or tenderloin, thinly sliced
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tbsp. cooking wine
- 1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 4 tbsp. water or chicken stock
- 1/4 tsp. white pepper
- 3 tsp. cornstarch
- 2 tsp. sesame oil
- cooking oil as needed
- 10 fresh shiitake mushrooms, remove the roots and sliced
- 1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1/2 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 4 scallions, cut into small sections white part and green part separated
- 1 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1/2 thumb ginger, skin removed and sliced
Instructions
1. Thinly slice the pork. Add salt, cooking wine, oyster sauce and water (or chicken stock) and white pepper. Grasp the pork slice for 2-3 minutes until all the juice is well absorbed. Then add cornstarch in. Set aside for 10 minutes. Add sesame oil just before frying.
Cooks Note about marinating
The most difficult part for meat stir frying is to marinating process. If the marinating is not well done, you will end up with dry, chewy and plaint pork slices after stir frying. To make the pork tender, we have two important steps.
- Add enough liquid to make the pork slices juicy themselves. So grasping is the key step. We need to make sure the liquid completely absorbed.
- Use cornstarch to form a protecting shell to prevent pork slices from loosing the liquid. And adding a small batch of cold oil can help them from sticky to the bottom of the wok.
2.Heat your wok or pan firstly. Add cooking oil to form a 2-3 cm high layer (do not be scared by the oil amount, we do not eat them all). Spread the pork sliced in when the oil begins to warm but not hot. Let them stay for around 5-8 seconds and then quickly fry them until turns pale. Transfer out immediately.
It is 100% ok to find there are some faint pink color inside the slices based on the following two reasons. Firstly the heat of the pork slices will continue cooking them (后热效应) and secondly they will be recooked in wok later. So do not overcook your pork slices. Transfer out as long as they turns pale.
3.Remove the extra oil and save them for vegetable stir fries. Keep around 1 tablespoon of oil and fry garlic, ginger and scallion until aromatic. Place shiitake mushroom in, add oyster sauce and light soy sauce. Fry for around 30 seconds until the shiitake mushrooms are just cooked.
4.Return scallion sections and pork slices in. Mix well and serve hot!
- 200 g pork butt or tenderloin , thinly sliced
- 1/4 tsp. salt , optional (you can skip this for a less salted dish)
- 1/2 tbsp. cooking wine
- 1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 4 tbsp. water or chicken stock
- 1/4 tsp. white pepper
- 3 tsp. cornstarch
- 2 tsp. sesame oil
- cooking oil as needed
- 10 fresh shiitake mushrooms ,remove the roots and sliced
- 1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1/2 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 4 scallions ,cut into small sections white part and green part separated
- 1 garlic cloves ,sliced
- 1/2 thumb ginger ,skin removed and sliced
-
Thinly slice the pork. Add salt (or skip salt if you want a less salted dish), cooking wine, oyster sauce and water (or chicken stock) and white pepper. Grasp the pork slice for 2-3 minutes until all the juice is well absorbed, then add cornstarch. Set aside for 10 minutes. Mix in sesame oil just before frying.
-
Heat your wok or pan firstly. Add cooking oil to form a 2-3 cm high layer (do not be scared by the oil amount, we do not eat them all). Spread the pork sliced in when the oil begins to warm but not hot. Let them stay for around 5-8 seconds and then quickly fry them until turns pale. Transfer out immediately.
-
Remove the extra oil and save them for vegetable stir fries. Keep around 1 tablespoon of oil and fry garlic, ginger and scallion until aromatic. Place shiitake mushroom in, add oyster sauce and light soy sauce. Fry for around 30 seconds until the shiitake mushrooms are just cooked.
-
Return scallion sections and pork slices in. Mix well and serve hot!
You can use either pork tenderloin or pork butt for this recipe. For a better texture, I recommend pork butt which is the best part for stir-frying in my mind. If you prefer a better shape of the dish, pork tenderloin is a better choice.
Hi Elaine,
I’m sorry, but don’t quite understand “f you prefer a better shape of the dish, pork tenderloin is a better choice”.
Does that mean that it looks nicer?
Yes, Andreas.
You can cut beautiful and tidy slices with tenderloin. But with butt, the slices are atypical.
Thank you for your answer Elaine. I tried this yesterday using pork butt and it turned out great!
Haha, you get it, Andreas. Opened the door of tenderest stir-fry dishes only with the help of marinating. Happy cooking!
Hi Elaine,
Thanks for the recipe. I made it for dinner tonight and it was a big hit! my picky eater 5 yr old liked it even!!
I’ve been visiting your website, but leaving comments for the first time here. I followed the recipe to the T and it all worked out!.
Thanks again and looking forward to trying out many more.
Thanks Ria. My 5 years old daughter loves this very much too as it is savory, delicious and most importantly not spicy. Happy cooking and I hope you love other recipes on the site too.
I don’t understand what you mean by grasp. Could you please explain?
Hi Peter,
see the Comment section on “Pork Stir Fry with Black Bean Sauce” where this was discussed. But as they say “a picture is worth more than a thousand words” maybe Elaine at some point could find the time to provide a video showing how it’s done. It’s probably just a question of how nice we ask her 🙂
Thanks for replying but I’m none the wiser. If by grasp Elaine means seize and hold firmly (the dictionary definition) then I wonder how the juices will be absorbed as this will surely squeeze them out.
I do note that Elaine has answered questions posted after mine, so I wonder why she has missed my one. I’m sure like many of her other recipes it will be excellent but I would like to get over what has to be done when she says grasp the meat!
Apologies, I’ve just seen the discussion at the end. I’ll try the methods based on Andreas’s reply soon.
This method will also explain why much less marinade is made for many Chinese recipes.
Thanks for your help.
DonI also dont know what is meant by grasping AS NOT A WORD USUALLY ASSOCIATED WITH FOOD PREPERATION t understand what you mean by grasping
What difference will it make if I used re-constituted dried shiitakes?
Ann,
I do not recommend using dried shiitake mushrooms for stir frying dishes. On one hand, they do not taste so fresh and good with stir-frying. They are prefect ingredients for stews and soups. Secondly, too much dried shiitake will change the flavors too.
The word “grasping” would be the wrong term to use. I believe it would be better to say “massage” the pork. That would make more sense, in my opinion. When you grasp something you are holding very tightly to it in an almost desperate measure. What you are doing to the pork in the recipe is massaging it to incorporate the marinade. I’m half Asian and do this in a lot of recipes when you use a less tender cut of meat.
Liz,
Thanks for your suggestion. But I believe message is not the right word too, since the direction of the motion is not the same. I will try to post a gif, showing this process and avoid using descriptive words. Thank you!
The Pork and Mushroom stir fry is a very flavorefull recipe. I used Pork tenderloin for the tenderness of the cut. I thought it was a bit salty flavored. Easy and fast for a quick delicious dinner.
Thanks Kasha.
Both light soy sauce and oyster sauce have a level of saltness. I have already updated your information in notes. Thanks!
I was passed the link to this recipe by a friend, and WOW! It’s a taste sensation! Thank you for sharing. Even my kids willingly ate mushrooms 🙂
I am so happy that you find the hidden star, Caraway! It is so humble and delicious.
This Pork and Mushroom Stir Fry looks SO deliciously good. I wish I could eat that right now!
Thanks Maggie!
This dish was amazing. Very important to follow exact instructions on the pork. I used an assortment of mushrooms including shitake. I also added broccolini after blanching in boiling water.
I will definitely add this to my all time best dishes.
Thanks Dave for the feedback. As long as you master how to tenderize the pork, most of vegetables can work fine with this.
Even after reading the comments I do not get the ‘grasp’ technique.
Would you mind clarifying what ‘grasping’ is in relation to this dish and the effect it imparts on the marinade process?
Thanks!
It will make the sauce well attached to the pork slices, which is quite important for tender meat in the stir-frying process. I will make a short gif or video soon.