Sticky, sweet and soo quick to rustle up, this is one of our favourite stir fry’s. Ready in just 25 minutes, it‘s a weeknight winner. It’s also budget friendly, coming in at about £1.03 per serving (minus the optional cashews nuts). We like this Sticky Pork Stir Fry best with rice, but you can serve it with noodles for an even easier meal.
You can leave out the cashew nuts, especially if you are eating with little ones (who can’t have whole nuts). If you don’t want to leave them off entirely, they can instead be added on to just the adult servings at the end instead as a topping. The sweet sauce is enough to entice fussy eaters, and this stir fry is also suitable for baby weaning, with just a few tweaks. See how to adapt this recipe for your family here.
Sticky Pork Stir Fry Ingredients Tips
I always buy pre-sliced pork strips for this which cuts out all that pork prepping time, plus it’s cheaper than buying a loin or chops and slicing them up yourself. Look for Pork Stir Fry Strips in the meat section of your local supermarket.
We will be coating the pork strips quickly with cornflour in a resealable bag, which when we fry is going to give the pork an absorbent coating to suck in all that sticky sauce. You can use plain white flour instead if you don’t have cornflour and don’t want to buy any.
This recipe will also work well with peppers (bell), baby corn or sugar snap peas.
Preparing my Sticky Pork Stir Fry in Advance
You can prep the onions and carrots earlier in the day, or the day before and store them in the fridge in an airtight container or resealable food bag. You can also make up the sauce and store that in the fridge too, covered.
Pro Prep Tip
If you have a mandoline, you can use it to thinly slice the carrots.
Kids Cook Too
Younger children can get involved by helping to make the sauce, and helping to coat the pork in the cornflour. Just make sure they wash their hands very well after.
My Sticky Pork Stir Fry Pairs Perfectly With…
- My Perfect White Rice, get the recipe here >
- My Egg Fried Rice with Peas, grab the recipe >
- Noodles
Feed a Crowd
If you want to double this recipe, you will need to fry the pork in two batches. Plus, you will need to use a medium-large saucepan, and add allow a little extra time to stir fry the vegetables.
Storing My Sticky Pork Stir Fry
You can store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days (2 + cook). You can also freeze them, just defrost for 24 hours in the fridge and reheat until steaming hot all the way through.
For more on safe food storage and reheating read here >
Diet Details
My Sticky Pork Stir Fry is gluten free as long as you use Tamari soy sauce. You can make it nut free if you leave out the cashews. It is also diary and egg-free.
Eating together is beneficial for families of all ages and stages, for a multitude of reasons; nutritional, behavioural, psychological and for healthy family functioning. This section will show you how to tweak this Sticky Pork Stir-Fry recipe for sharing with a weaning baby, toddler or a fussy eater, to help make it easier for you to eat together as a family.
Keeping Picky Eaters Happy
The stir fry sauce is sweet, which is usually liked by fussy eaters. I have made this with carrot and onion, but if you have a picky eater who hates carrots, you can sub them for a vegetable they prefer, like pepper (bell), sugar snap peas or baby corn.
If your fussy eater has never tried cashew nuts before, encourage them to have a taste. If they are toddler age, be sure to crush them up first.
See more from me on fussy eaters here >
Add On’s for Adults
The cashews are optional in this meal, and if you have young children you might want to leave these out. But if you’d like to have the cashews still yourself, no problem, just sprinkle them onto your serving. Alternatively, remove little one’s portion and then stir through some cashews for everyone else.
Making my Sticky Pork Stir Fry Baby & Toddler Friendly
If your little one is under 12 months, you’ll need to use agave instead of honey. You can find agave nectar in most supermarkets, it should be in the same section as honey. Sometimes you’ll find two types, a rich and dark one or a light and mild one and you’ll want to go for the light and mild one. It looks similar to honey and works the same in recipes. If you have a weaning baby, it’s definitely worth buying some so any recipe containing honey you can simply substitute with agave and share the meal with baby.
Use a no added sugar and salt ketchup, switch to low-salt soy and don’t add any salt to the pork. Instead, remove baby’s serving and then stir through some salt or just salt the adult servings.
There is a little sweet chilli sauce in this recipe, but don’t worry it’s not at all spicy, and you don’t need to adjust the amount you use if eating with a little one.
If you are happy for little one to have cashews, you’ll need to add them to a resealable food bag and crush them into small pieces with a rolling pin or meat mallet.
How to Serve to Babies & Toddlers
BABY-LED WEANING
You will be slicing the carrot very thinly anyway but if you prefer, you can thinly slice the carrot into batons instead of rounds. The pork will be in finger size strips already.
SPOON FEEDING
6 months
You can purée this stir fry, including a little rice or noodles, in your stick blender pot or food chopper (if you have that one that purées). You’ll need to add some warm, previously boiled water to loosen.
7-9 months
Add some of the stir-fry and a little rice or noodles to your food chopper. Using short sharp pulses, to finely chop, checking and adding a little warm low-salt pork/chicken/vegetable stock to loosen as you go.
10-12 months
Add the stir fry to your food chopper pot. If serving with noodles add a little of those too. Gradually pulse, just a few times then check the consistency. It should lumpy with small pieces (no big lumps). Once the consistency is right, empty it into their bowl and if serving with rice, add a little and stir it through. If it needs loosening, add a little warm low-salt pork/chicken/veg stock.
12 month + Transitioning Period
Shred the pork pieces using forks and roughly slice through the carrot and onion several times with a sharp knife. Serve alongside rice or noodles (slice through these several times too).
Toddlers
Chop the pork into bite-size pieces, slice larger carrot slices in half and serve alongside or mixed in with some rice or noodles.
I’ve also added these notes to the bottom of the recipe so you have them to hand when you come to cook.
For more info on how I keep my family meals baby & toddler friendly, read here >
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STICKY PORK STIR FRY
Equipment
- Teaspoon
- Zip-lock bag
- Wok or saucepan
Ingredients
- 500 g pork stir fry strips or pork loin steaks trimmed and thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons cornflour
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons oil flavourless - not olive oil
- 2 large carrots peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 onion diced
- 100 g roasted, salted cashews optional
FOR THE SAUCE
- 50 g / 4 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
- 65 g honey or agave
- 1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce not hot
- 55 g ketchup
See notes for baby & toddler tweaks
Instructions
- To make the sauce, combine the elements in a bowl and mix well.
- Then add the pork, cornflour, salt and pepper to a resealable food bag and close it up. Lay the bag on the counter and turn over, repeatedly and jiggle it about until all the pork gets coated in the cornflour mix.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or large non-stick frying pan over a high heat. Add in the pork pieces and fry for 5-6 minutes turning and stirring regularly until light golden brown all over. Remove using a slotted spoon or turner and set aside on a plate with paper towel.
- Add in the onion and carrots. Stir fry for 4 minutes. Then, add back in the pork followed by the sauce and cashews (if everyone will eat them, otherwise add on to servings) and stir until everything is coated in the sauce. Turn heat down to medium and allow to bubble for 1 minute. Stir everything back through the thickened sauce and serve.
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