Ants climbing a tree (Sichuan pork noodles)
Slippery rice noodles soak up a spicy, savory broth studded with crispy bits of pork, a cheap and fast Sichuan favorite.
- 25 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $1.60 a serving
- 420 calories
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 8 oz rice noodles
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 4 stalks green onions
- 8 oz ground pork
- 1½ tbsp chili garlic sauce
- 1½ cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp sesame oil
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
Each serving has about 420 calories, 15 g protein, 50 g carbs and 17 g fat, and costs about $1.60 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No green onions? Chives work.
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Soak the noodles in a big bowl of very hot tap water 10 minutes, until soft and bendy, then and snip them a few times with scissors.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Timer: 10 min
Dolly’s tip: Cutting them shorter stops them from tangling into one big clump in the pan.the green onions, keeping the white and green parts separate.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Heat the oil in a large over medium-high. Add the pork and break it into tiny , cooking 4 to 5 minutes, until with no pink left.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: The smaller the crumbles, the better. They’re the ants clinging to the noodle branches.Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Add the garlic, ginger, green onion whites and chili garlic sauce and stir 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium-high heat
Pour in the broth, soy sauce and sugar and .
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium-high heat
Add the noodles and with tongs 3 to 4 minutes, until they soak up nearly all the liquid.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min 30 sec
in the sesame oil and green onion tops, and serve right away.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
